Misinterpretations often depict this as senseless genocide or divine endorsement of ethnic cleansing, ignoring the theological context of God's patient judgment on Canaanite wickedness prophesied long before (Genesis 15:16), the ancient Near Eastern convention of hyperbolic total-destruction language not always meaning literal annihilation of every individual, and the protective purpose against Israel's assimilation into pagan practices that could lead to spiritual corruption.
Joshua 11:14
King James Version (1769)
14 And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.
Joshua 11:14 recounts the Israelites' obedience in conquering Canaanite cities, utterly destroying the human inhabitants as commanded by God in holy war (herem) to execute divine judgment on nations steeped in idolatry and moral depravity after centuries of forbearance, while taking livestock and goods as spoils to sustain themselves, underscoring faithful adherence to Yahweh's directives for possessing the Promised Land and maintaining covenant purity.