extermination, and the command to drive out,
unconditional expulsion from the country, rather than
their expulsion from the possession or ownership
of it, as the lords of the soil? True, multitudes
of the Canaanites were slain, but not a case can be
found in which one was either killed or expelled who
acquiesced in the transfer of the territory,
and its sovereignty, from the inhabitants of the land
to the Israelites. Witness the case of Rahab and
her kindred, and the Gibeonites[A]. The Canaanites
knew of the miracles wrought for the Israelites; and
that their land had been transferred to them as a
judgment for their sins. Josh. ii. 9-11; ix. 9,
10, 24. Many of them were awed by these wonders,
and made no resistance. Others defied God and
came out to battle. These occupied the fortified
cities, were the most inveterate heathen—the
aristocracy of idolatry, the kings, the nobility and
gentry, the priests, with their crowds of satellite,
and retainers that aided in idolatrous rites, and
the military forces, with the chief profligates of
both sexes. Many facts corroborate the general
position. Such as the multitude of tributaries
in the midst of Israel, and that too, after they had
“waxed strong,” and the uttermost nations
quaked at the terror of their name—the Canaanites,
Philistines, and others, who became proselytes—as
the Nethenims, Uriah the Hittite—Rahab,
who married one of the princes of Judah—Ittai—the
six hundred Gitites—David’s body
guard. 2 Sam. xv. 18, 21. Obededom the Gittite,
adopted into the tribe of Levi. Comp. 2 Sam. vi.
10, 11, with 1 Chron. xv. 18, and 1 Chron. xxvi. 45—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]. Besides, the
greatest miracle on record, was wrought to save a
portion of those very Canaanites, and for the destruction
of those who would exterminate them. Josh. x.
12-14. Further—the terms employed in
the directions regulating the 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, we refer to the
history of the Amelekites. “I will utterly
put out the remembrance of Amelek from under heaven.”
Ex. xxvii. 14. “Thou shalt blot out the
remembrance of Amelek from under heaven; thou shalt
not forget it.” Deut. xxv. 19. “Smite
Amelek and utterly destroy all that they have,
and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant
and suckling, ox and sheep.” 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3.
“Saul smote the Amelekites, and took Agag the
king of the Amelekites, alive and UTTERLY DESTROYED
ALL THE PEOPLE with the edge of the sword.”