Deuteronomy 9:3

Were the Canaanites destroyed quickly or slowly?

PROBLEM: This verse claims the Canaanites were destroyed “quickly” (maher), but an earlier passages (Deuteronomy 7:22) said it would not be quickly, but “little by little.”

SOLUTION: There are two different ways to understand this. First, it may be an example where the same term is applied to the same thing in different senses. It was quick, relative to the magnitude of the work, but slow with regard to the rate of their occupation.