Verses 7, 8.  In verse 20, Saul says, “I have brought Agag, the king of Amelek, and have utterly destroyed the Amelekites.”  In 1 Sam. xxx. we find the Amelekites marching an army into Israel, and sweeping everything before them—­and this in about eighteen years after they had all been “UTTERLY DESTROYED!” Deut. xx. 16, 17, will probably be quoted against the preceding view.  We argue that the command in these verses, did not include all the individuals of the Canaanitish nations, but only the inhabitants of the cities, (and even those conditionally,) because, only the inhabitants of the cities are specified,—­“of the cities of these people thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth.”  Cities then, as now, were pest-houses of vice—­they reeked with abominations little practiced in the country.  On this account their influence would be far more perilous to the Israelites than that of the country.  Besides, they were the centres of idolatry—­there were the temples and altars, and idols, and priests, without number.  Even their buildings, streets, and public walks were so many visibilities of idolatry.  The reason assigned in the 18th verse for exterminating them, strengthens the idea,—­“that they teach you not to do after all the abominations which they have done unto their gods.”  This would be a reason for exterminating all the nations and individuals around them, as all were idolaters; but God commanded them, in certain cases, to spare the inhabitants.  Contact with any of them would be perilous—­with the inhabitants of the cities peculiarly, and of the Canaanitish cities pre-eminently so.  The 10th and 11th verses contain the general rule prescribing the method in which cities were to be summoned to surrender.  They were first to receive the offer of peace—­if it was accepted, the inhabitants became tributaries—­but if they came out against Israel in battle, the men were to be killed, and the women and little ones saved alive.  The 15th verse restricts this lenient treatment to the inhabitants of the cities afar off.  The 16th directs as to the disposal of the inhabitants of Canaanitish cities.  They were to save alive “nothing that breathed.”  The common mistake has been, in supposing that the command in the 15th verse refers to the whole system of directions preceding, commencing with the 10th, whereas it manifestly refers only to the inflictions specified in the 12th, 13th, and 14th, making a distinction between those Canaanitish cities that fought, and the cities afar off that fought—­in one case destroying the males and females, and in the other, the males only.  The offer of peace, and the conditional preservation, were as really guarantied to Canaanitish cities as to others.  Their inhabitants were not to be exterminated unless they came out against Israel in battle.  But let us settle this question by the “law and the