ibing 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 woman
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 the 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. Whatever be
the import of the commands respecting the disposition to be made of the
Canaanites, all admit the fact that the Israelites did _not_ utterly
exterminate them. Now, if entire and unconditional extermination was the
command of God, it was _never_ obeyed by the Israelites, consequently
the truth of God stood pledged to consign _them_ to the same doom which
he had pronounced upon the Canaanites, but which they had refused to
visit upon them. "If ye will not drive out all the inhabitants of the
land from before you, then it shall come to pass that * * _I shall do
unto you as I thought to do unto them_." Num. xxxiii. 55, 56. As the
Israelites were not exterminated, we infer that God did not pronounce
_that_ doom upon them; and as he _did_ pronounce upon them the _same_
doom, whatever it was, which they should _refuse_ to visit upon the
Canaanites, it follows that the doom of unconditional _extermination_
was _not_ pronounced against the Canaanites. But let us settle this
question by the "law and the testimony." "There was not a city that made
peace with the children of Israel save the Hivites, the inhabitants of
Gibeon; all others they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden
their hearts, that they should COME OUT AGAINST ISRAEL IN BATTLE, that
he might dest