Hebrews—­as the Nethenims, Uriah the Hittite, one of David’s memorable “thirty seven”—­Rahab, who married one of the princes of Judah—­Ittai—­The six hundred Gitites—­David’s bodyguard, “faithful among the faithless.”—­2 Sam. xv. 18, 21.  Obededom the Gittite, who was adopted into the tribe of Levi.—­Compare 2 Sam. vi. 10, 11, with 1 Chron. xv. 18, and 1 Chron xxvi. 45.  The cases of Jaziz, and Obil,—­1 Chron. xxvi. 30, 31, 33.  Jephunneh, the father of Caleb—­the Kenite, registered in the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, and the one hundred and fifty thousand Canaanites, employed by Solomon in the building of the Temple[B].  Add to these, the fact that the most memorable miracle on record, was wrought for the salvation of a portion of those very Canaanites, and for the destruction of those who would exterminate them.—­Joshua x. 12-14.  Further—­the terms used in the directions of God to the Israelites, regulating their disposal of the Canaanites, such as, “drive out,” “put out,” “cast out,” “expel,” “dispossess,” &c. seem used interchangeably with “consume,” “destroy,” “overthrow,” &c., and thus indicate the sense in which the latter words are used.  As an illustration of the meaning generally attached to these and similar terms, when applied to the Canaanites in Scripture, we refer the reader to the history of the Amalekites.  In Ex. xxvii. 14, God says, “I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven,”—­In Deut. xxv. 19, “Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.”—­In 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3.  “Smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep.”  In the seventh and eighth verses of the same chapter, we are told, “Saul smote the Amalekites, and took Agag the king of the Amalekites, alive, and UTTERLY DESTROYED ALL THE PEOPLE with the edge of the sword.”  In verse 20, Saul says, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.”

[Footnote A:  Perhaps it will be objected, that the preservation of the Gibeonites, and of Rahab and her kindred, was a violation of the command of God.  We answer, if it had been, we might expect some such intimation.  If God had straitly commanded them to exterminate all the Canaanites, their pledge to save them alive, was neither a repeal of the statute, nor absolution for the breach of it.  If unconditional destruction was the import of the command, would God have permitted such an act to pass without severe rebuke?  Would he have established such a precedent when Israel had hardly passed the threshhold of Canaan, and was then striking the first blow of a half century war?  What if they had passed their word to Rahab and the Gibeonites?  Was that more binding upon them than God’s command?  So Saul seems to have passed his word to Agag; yet Samuel