“Those who lived long ago in your holy land,
You hated for their detestable practices.
They had their works of sorcery.
They had their unholy rites.
They had their merciless slaughter of children.
They had their sacrificial feasting of human flesh.
They had their sacrificial feasting of human blood.
These were initiates from the midst of a heathen cult.
These were parents who murdered helpless lives.
You willed to destroy them
By the hands of our ancestors.
Thus the land is the most precious of all to you.
Thus you might receive a worthy colony
Of the children of God.”
Now this author turns to God’s holy land (τῆς ἁγίας σου γῆς) of Canaan and its former inhabitants who lived there long ago. They had detestable practices of sorcery. They had rites of sacrificial children with feasting on human flesh and blood. These heathen cults had parents kill their helpless children. God wanted to destroy all of them because the land was so precious. Thus there he created a colony for the children of God (Θεοῦ παίδων).
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 