LEV264 In the biblical rationalization of Israel's conquest of Canaan there are a number of ethical implications. (a) It rejects the self-glorification of the conqueror, the spirit of "My power and the might of mine own hand has given me all this" (Deuteronomy 8:17). (b) It sets up an objective standard equally applicable to all. Israel was ultimately rationally compelled to apply to itself what it believed to be a divinely ordained principle. God, who permitted and even commanded Israel to dispossess the Canaanites, could summon others to exile Israel if it sank to the spiritual level of the inhabitants it replaced (this and previous verses). Israel applied the same measuring rod to itself when it was expelled from the land first by the Babylonians and later by the Romans. On every Sabbath and Festival the synagogue liturgy reminds Jews that it was not the power of the Babylonian or Roman armies which deprived them of their homeland, but their own sins. Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book, pp. 140, 150. They failed in their responsibility to do their share as God's partners in maintaining the integrity of the foundations of His throne, and he acted through His appointed messengers to compensate for their failure.