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Leviticus 18 · a question people ask

Was Israel given the land because they were better than the nations?

In the text

Leviticus 18 doesn't say so. The nations were cast out because they were defiled (18:24-25), and the same thing could happen to Israel: "that the land not vomit you out also, when you defile it, as it vomited out the nation that was before you" (18:28). Moses says it outright later: "Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob" (Deuteronomy 9:5). Long before, the LORD had told Abraham that his descendants would come back in the fourth generation, "for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full" (Genesis 15:16).

The verses

“Don’t say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out from before you, “For my righteousness the LORD has brought me in to possess this land;” because the LORD drives them out before you because of the wickedness of these nations. Not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart do you go in to possess their land; but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God does drive them out from before you, and that he may establish the word which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
Deuteronomy 9:4-5 · World English Bible
“In the fourth generation they will come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet full.””
Genesis 15:16 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Leviticus 18

Leviticus 18: He shall live in them

Leviticus 18 sets Israel apart from Egypt, where they had lived, and Canaan, where they were going. At its heart is 18:5, "which if a man does, he shall live in them", words Paul quotes twice (Galatians 3:12; Romans 10:5), and in Galatians he goes on, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law" (Galatians 3:13). And the land that vomited out the nations could vomit out Israel too (18:28).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions