Re: What’s the difference? From the report of the spies in Numbers 13:33, I thought the people in the Land were Nephilim and that’s why the Lord told the Israelites to wipe them out.
Deut. 18:9-12 makes it clear that the Lord’s justification for destroying the people living in the Promised Land was just as I described it.
When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you.
However, the Israelites failed to cleanse the land of the people living there and were rebuked by the Angel of the Lord for their failure (Judges 2:1-5). To punish them He withdrew His supernatural strength from them and swore the people they failed to destroy would be thorns in their flesh and their pagan gods would be a snare to the Israelites. And so they were.