Why did God tell the Israelites to kill the Canaanites?

[Bendito]

In the movie 'The Last Samurai' a sword was just a sword. However, in the Bible there is no surface text which you can assume as being free from potential parable interpretation. Sure, the surface story of Joshua is a simple story of one group taking a sword to another group. But notice the scripture does not refer to many swords but to the edge of just one sword: "And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword (Joshua 6:21)." We could say that this is just a way of talking about many swords, but it really doesn't say that. How literal is the Bible when it talks about a sword? Consider: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered". Here is the Bible talking about a sword. Is this to be understood that Jesus was killed with a physical metal sword? No, he was pierced with a spear only: "But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side". So what sword awoke against Jesus? It was the word of God, the sword of the spirit.
What sword is sticking out of Jesus' mouth in Revelation? A metal sword? No, the word of God, the sword of the spirit. What sword is spoken of in Zephaniah: "Ye Ethiopians also, ye shall be slain by my sword."? This is described as my sword. That, again, is the sword of the spirit, the word of God, the Lord's sword. The word of God is more than surface text. It has parable meaning, though not all can receive this.

Actually Pajaro, you can read anything you want into the Word, just as I can read anything I want into your post here. What did the bible say? It does not need translating, its in English.
Jesus is the only one to use parables in the bible. The other people were describing things that they had no knowledge of. Like Ezekiel 1 where Ezekiel saw the portal open in the heavens and saw a wheel within a wheel. Jesus used parables to illustrate a point, to teach. In the Old Covenant all (or almost all) of the stories are accurately portrayed. Joshua holding back the sun was not a parable. It was an actual event accurately described. The term kill them by the sword is no different that the presidents saying in 1945 ''Destroy Dresden by the bomb" It took many bombs but Dresden was totally destroyed. 'The sword' is simply saying 'This is the tool by which they will be destroyed. The sword at the time was the preferred weapon of combat next to the bow.
It's my opinion that God wanted the Israelite up close and personal with the Canaanite Raphaim so they could see close up what God could and would do for them.