There is little evidence the Canaanites actually practiced child sacrifice. Archeology shows the Canaanite culture was almost indistinguishable from that of the Israelites. Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (ca. 1200–1000 BC). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture. "
If you want to talk about the killing of children and other genocide though, look no further than:
Deuteronomy (2:34) "So we captured all his cities at that time and utterly destroyed the men, women and children of every city. We left no survivor."
Deuteronomy (7:2) "and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy."
Joshua (6:21) "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and donkey, with the edge of the sword."
The Canaanites were descendants of Canaan, Noah's grandson, who possibly performed some form of sexual abuse on his grandfather while he was intoxicated.(Gen 9:20-24) In 1919 B.C.E., 450 years after the ending of the Noachian Flood in 2369 B.C.E, when two angels visited Sodom, the inhabitants revealed their perverted nature. The men of Sodom surrounded Lot’s house, “from boy to old man, all the people in one mob. And they kept calling out to Lot and saying to him: ‘Where are the men who came in to you tonight ? Bring them out to us that we may have intercourse with them.’” (Genesis 19:4, 5) This was ‘going after flesh for unnatural use.’(Jude 7)
God promised Abraham that his seed would eventually occupy the land of Canaan.(Gen 12:7) Note, though, that no execution was to take place in Abraham’s day. Why not ? “Because the error of the Amorites [the dominant Canaanite tribe] has
not yet come to completion,” said God. (Genesis 15:16) God could see the immoral traits of the Canaanites would grow to such an extent to be deserving of death and allowed sufficient time to pass to clearly show this. Some 460 years would pass before the wickedness of that nation had reached such proportions that Moses could say in 1473 B.C.E.: “It is for the wickedness of these nations [of Canaan] that Jehovah your God is driving them away from before you.”(Deuteronomy 9:5) Moses identified some of the "wickedness" of the Canaanites, saying that "even their sons and their daughters they regularly burn in the fire to their gods."(Deut 12:31)
The Canaanites were indeed a people that had child sacrifice. According to Merrill F. Unger: “Excavations in Palestine have uncovered piles of ashes and remains of infant skeletons in cemeteries around heathen altars, pointing to the widespread practice of this cruel abomination.” (
Archaeology and the Old Testament, 1964, p. 279)
Halley’s Bible Handbook (1964, p. 161) says: “Canaanites worshipped, by immoral indulgence, as a religious rite, in the presence of their gods; and then, by murdering their first-born children, as a sacrifice to these same gods. It seems that, in large measure, the land of Canaan had become a sort of Sodom and Gomorrah on a national scale. . . . Did a civilization of such abominable filth and brutality have any right longer to exist? . . . Archaeologists who dig in the ruins of Canaanite cities
wonder that God did not destroy them sooner than he did.”
The Canaanites had their immoral gods, such as Anath, being one of their principal goddesses. The references to Anath in the Ras Shamra (ancient Ugarit) texts give some indication of the degraded conception of the deities that the Canaanites undoubtedly shared with the Syrians. Anath is described as the fairest among Baal’s sisters, but as having an extremely violent temper. She is depicted as threatening to smash the skull of her father, El, and cause his gray hair to flow with blood and his gray beard with gore if he did not comply with her wishes. On another occasion Anath is shown going on a killing spree. She attached heads to her back, and hands to her girdle, and she plunged knee-deep in the blood and hip-deep in the gore of valiant ones. Her delight in such bloodshed is reflected in the words: “Her liver swells with laughter, her heart fills up with joy.”—
Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by J. Pritchard, 1974, pp. 136, 137, 142, 152.
Merrill F. Unger in his book
Archaeology and the Old Testament (1964, p. 175) again comments: “The Ugaritic epic literature has helped to reveal the depth of depravity which characterized Canaanite religion. Being a polytheism of an extremely debased type, Canaanite cultic practice was barbarous and thoroughly licentious.”
Who would want to live near this kind of people, if one has any sense of justice ? What parent would not feel revolted to hear news reports of such wicked acts and take the necessary measures to protect their children from such an atmosphere. When we hear of someone being murdered, it is disturbing, to say the least. But the moral conditions that existed in the land of Canaan when the Israelites were to take possession of the land in 1473 B.C.E, were "debased" and "barbarous and thoroughly licentious", having "sacred" prostitutes.
Therefore, God decreed that such a people as this would have to be destroyed to protect his people at that time, the nation of Israel. God gave the nation of Israel this command concerning the Canaanites: "The graven images of their gods you should burn in the fire. You must not desire the silver and the gold upon them, nor indeed take it for yourself, for fear you may be ensnared by it; for it is a thing detestable to Jehovah your God. And you must not bring a detestable thing into your house and actually become a thing devoted to destruction (“A thing devoted to destruction.” Hebrew,
che´rem; Greek and Latin,
a·na´the·ma, “an accursed thing.”
like it. You should thoroughly loathe it and absolutely detest it, because it is something devoted to destruction."(Deut 7:25, 26)
