G‑d then renewed the covenant He forged with the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, which had been rendered null and void by the sin of the Golden Calf. Part of this covenant was G‑d’s promise to give the Jews the Land of Israel, which was then occupied by the seven Canaanite nations.
Purifying Thought, Speech, and Action
הִנְנִי גֹרֵשׁ מִפָּנֶיךָ אֶת הָאֱמֹרִי וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַחִתִּי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי: (שמות לד:יא)
[G‑d instructed Moses to tell the Jewish people,] “I am going to drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.” Exodus 34:11

Only six of the seven Canaanite nations are mentioned here; the Girgashites are missing from the list. This is because the first six Canaanite nations personified the six unrectified emotions of the animal soul, while the Girgashites personified the animal soul’s drive to express these unrectified emotions in thought, speech, and action. When we rectify the six emotions of our animal soul, we will not have to worry about combating any drive to express them.

But until this process is complete, we must control our faculties of thought, speech, and action in order to ensure that they serve only holy purposes and not those of the six unrectified emotions of our animal soul. The next verse therefore enjoins us to “beware, lest you make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land that you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.”1