Josh. xi. 19. 20.  That is, if they had not come out against Israel in battle, they would have had “favor” shown them, and would not have been “destroyed utterly.”  The great design was to transfer the territory of the Canaanites to the Israelites, and along with it, absolute sovereignty in every respect; to annihilate their political organizations, civil polity, and jurisprudence, and their system of religion, with all its rights and appendages; and to substitute therefor, a pure theocracy, administered by Jehovah, with the Israelites as His representatives and agents.  In a word the people were to be denationalized, their political existence annihilated, their idol temples, altars, groves, images, pictures, and heathen rites destroyed, and themselves put under tribute.  Those who resisted the execution of Jehovah’s purpose were to be killed, while those who quietly submitted to it were to be spared.  All had the choice of these alternatives, either free egress out of the land;[E] or acquiescence in the decree, with life and residence as tributaries, under the protection of the government; or resistance to the execution of the decree, with death. “And it shall come to pass, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, the Lord liveth, as they taught my people to swear by Baal; THEN SHALL THEY BE BUILT IN THE MIDST OF MY PEOPLE.”

[Footnote A:  In the prophecy, Gen. ix. 25, the subjection of the Canaanites as a conquered people rendering tribute to other nations, is foretold by inspiration.  The fulfilment of this prediction, seems to have commenced in the subjection of the Canaanites to the Israelites as tributaries.  If the Israelites had exterminated them, as the objector asserts they were commanded to do; the prediction would have been falsified.]

[Footnote B:  These two verses are so explicit we quote them entire—­“And it shall be if thou do at all forget the Lord they God and walk after other Gods and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish, as the nations which the Lord destroyed before your face, so shall ye perish.”  The following passages are, if possible still more explicit—­“The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly.”  “The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee until he have consumed thee.”  “They (the ‘sword,’ ‘blasting,’ &c.) shall pursue thee until thou perish.”  “From heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.”  “All these curses shall come upon thee till thou be destroyed.”  “He shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he have destroyed thee.”  “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee, a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young, * * until