“The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them.”
The Horites also dwelt in Seir in former times; but the sons of Esau dispossessed them and dwelt in their stead, as Israel is to do to the Canaanites, destroying them and dwelling in their place -- the analogy is explicit: just as Esau's descendants dispossessed the Horites, so Israel will displace the Canaanites. The phrase 'as Israel is to do' makes the pattern universal: conquest is the instrument through which new peoples take territories. Yet the comparison also relativizes Israel's conquest: it is part of a broader historical pattern, not a unique moral mandate.
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