He destroyed seven nations must be expressed as a causative since God himself did not actually kill the people. Therefore one may translate as “he caused seven nations to be destroyed.” In many languages, however, the term “nation” is more or less equivalent to “tribe” or, more technically, “an ethnic group.”

The relation between land and Canaan is one of identity. In other words, the land was called Canaan; it did not belong to Canaan.

Made … owners of translates a verb which originally meant “to give or leave (something) as an inheritance.” In New Testament times the word had developed the meaning given by the Good News Translation. Moreover, the idea in the Old Testament of “inheritance,” when used of the divine-human relationship, always has the meaning of “(something) which God gives his people”; never does it imply that God died and left something—the primary meaning of “inheritance” in present-day English usage. It may be difficult to translate made his people the owners and one may therefore readily employ “gave the land to his people.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .