e surrender of the fugitive servant to his master, but required the
Israelites to receive him with kindness, permit him to dwell where he
pleased, and to protect and cherish him. Whenever any servant, even a
Canaanite, fled from his master to the Israelites, Jehovah, so far from
commanding them to _kill_ him, straitly charged them, "He shall dwell
with thee, even among you, in that place which _he_ shall choose--in one
of thy gates where it liketh _him_ best--thou shalt not oppress him."
Deut. xxiii. 16. The Canaanitish servant by thus fleeing to the
Israelites, submitted himself as a dutiful subject to their national
government, and pledged his allegiance. Suppose _all_ the Canaanites had
thus submitted themselves to the Jewish theocracy, and conformed to the
requirements of the Mosaic institutes, would not _all_ have been spared
upon the same principle that _one_ was? Again, look at 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--Jether, an Ishmaelite, who married Abigail the sister of David
and was the father of Amasa, the captain of the host of Israel. Comp. 1
Chron. ii. 17, with 2 Sam. xvii. 25.--Ittai--the six hundred Gittites,
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 xxvi. 4, 5--Jaziz, and Obil. 1 Chron, xxvii. 30, 31. Jephunneh the
Kenezite, Josh. xiv. 6, and father of Caleb a ruler of the tribe of
Judah. Numb. xiii. 2, 6--the Kenites registered in the genealogies of
the tribe of Judah, Judg. i. 16; 1 Chron. ii. 55, and the one hundred
and fifty thousand Canaanites, employed by Solomon in the building of
the Temple.[D] 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
ter