God was destroying a culture and its carriers--not necessarily all the individuals in it. Roughly, it was the 'nations' that were destroyed, and it was the 'individuals' who were driven out.
What this would strongly suggest is that the punishment on the Amorites/Canaanites is NOT extermination but rather total expulsion from the Land!
oThis is an altogether DIFFERENT issue now--from 'genocide' to 'expulsion from the Land'. And THIS UNDERSTANDING makes perfect sense of a couple of other verses now: (Lev 18.24-29; also Lev 20.22)
Notice in verses 28-29, God holds Israel to the same standard--both as a nation (vs.28) and as individuals (vs.29)! He didn't intend to annihilate them (when they later 'went pagan'), but he warned them of 'expulsion from the Land' in the SAME WAY He did the Canaanites! For this comparison to work in the verse, the punishment ("vomit") MUST mean expulsion.
But WAS it the same way?
Absolutely! To read about Israel/ Judahs expulsion: Deut 28.30-33, Is 57:5; 2 Kgs 17.17, Jer 13.27, I Kgs 15.12; 22.46; 2 Kgs 23.7, Ezek 45.9; Is 59.6-10: God judged them to be expelled from the Land. He sent the Babylonians to 'drive them out'. They were SUPPOSED to obey God and go into exile--the prophets told the people to surrender to 'dispossession' to AVOID BEING KILLED!
This is basically the same motif--'migrate or be executed'. The number of people actually killed in the attacks of Babylonia would have been small, but the number transplanted out of the Land would have been considerable. It is interesting to note that the Assyrians 'drove out' Israel and USED the deportation/transplantation strategy to basically 'annihilate' a culture, without killing the mass of people--they knew that a dispossessed people would be assimilated into larger social groups, as basically happened with some of the northern ten tribes. The Assyrians did this routinely.
Summary: The Israelites had been promised a specific area of land, since the time of Abraham. Most of the local indigenous peoples were either descendants of Abraham or very familiar with the traditions of those people. When the "time had come," God judged the Canaanites and decreed for them to be expelled from the Land. Their tenure was up--they were evicted. New tenants were moving in. The Canaanites were given decades and decades of notice--in many ways and at different times.
With the 'eviction notice' published, the Canaanites could decide to either vacate the premises peacefully or deal with military force. If they vacated peacefully, they could choose their locations, mode of travel, and not have to deal with unpleasant military overseers.
God did not desire to annihilate the people. His expressed intentions were to move them away from His people. He gave them ample opportunity to leave peacefully before Israel arrived.
Israel was severely restricted in the Conquest. They were not allowed to be simple 'land grabbers' or 'wealth seekers' or 'self-righteous' or 'land scorchers' or 'international empire builders' or 'captive-abusive'.
And God allowed no double standards. When Israel began to look like 'Canaanites', God judged them IN THE SAME WAY...and 'vomited' them from the Land as well. This expulsion was also accompanied by the harsh measures of warfare faced by the Canaanites.
The punishment of the Amorites/Canaanites was thus one of 'deportation'--NOT one of genocide.
Sources:
The History of Ancient Palestine by G.W. Ahlstrom. Fortress: 1993, 990pp
Glen Miller: http://www.christian-thinktank.com/
James Patrick Holding: http://www.tektonics.org/
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"Genocide" and the Bible Part 13 The Canaanitesby mdean1215320 views
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