LECTURE XII.

CANAAN.

ITS CONQUEST.

ALTHOUGH the Land of Canaan was promised to Abraham as the inheritance of his posterity, yet they were to take possession of it by conquest. The conquest of Canaan was not the achievement of a single battle, nor of a series of battles; but it was the work of many generations. In this lecture we shall trace its gradual conquest, from the period in which Moses entered upon the territories beyond Jordan, to the accomplishment of the promise :— "Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt, unto the great river Euphrates."

Before, however, we proceed to trace the conquest of this country, it is important that we show who possessed it previously to the conquest.

In the days of Abraham, Canaan was occupied by ten nations. The Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites dwelt on the east of Jordan; and the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites, on the west. (Gen. xv. 18-21.) These latter were, in the days of Moses, called the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites: (Deut. vii. 1; Josh. iii.

10; xxiv. 11) the Hivites being substituted for the Rephaim.

The Hittites, or sons of Heth, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwelt in the mountains, or hill-country of Judea, southward; the Canaanites dwelt in the midland by the sea, westward, and by the coast of Jordan, eastward; and the Girgashites, or Girgesenes, along the eastern side of the sea of Galilee; and the Hivites, in Mount Lebanon, under Hermon, in the land of Mizpeh or Gilead, northward. (Num. xiii. 29; Josh. xi. 3; Judges iii. 3; Matt. viii. 28.) Of all these nations, the Amorites became the most powerful, so as to extend their conquests beyond the river Jordan over the Kadmonites; whence they are sometimes put for the whole seven nations. (Gen. xv. 16; Josh. xxiv. 15; 2 Sam. xxi. 2.)

Besides these nations, which were found in Canaan when Abraham sojourned there, there were, at the arrival of the Israelites, others, settled either in the land, or in its immediate environs, with whom the latter had to maintain many severe conflicts.-They were the following:

First, The Philistines, descendants of Mizraim, the second son of Ham; who, migrating from Caphtor, or the north-eastern part of Egypt, very early settled in a small strip of territory along the sea-shore, in the southwest of Canaan, having expelled the Avites, who had before possessed it. (Deut. ii. 23; Amos ix. 7; Jer. xlvii. 4.)

Secondly, The Midianites, descendants of Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah. (Gen. xxv. 2.) Two different places are assigned in Scripture as the territory of the Midianites :-the one almost the northeast point of the Red Sea; the other, the east of the Dead Sea. (Gen xxv. 6; Exod. ii. 15.)

Thirdly and Fourthly, The Moabites and Ammonites, descendants of the incestuous offspring of Lot.

The Moabites dwelt on the east of the Jordan, in a tract whence they had expelled the Emim, a gigantic aboriginal race. The Ammonites had their residence north-east of the Moabites, which territory they had wrested from the Zamzummim, another gigantic tribe.

Fifthly, The Amalekites, descendants of Amalek the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah. They were settled on the south coast westward of Jordan, and first opposed the Israelites after their departure from Egypt, but were defeated, and doomed to destruction. (Exod. xvii. 8—16; Deut. xxv. 17—19.)

Sixthly, The Edomites, descendants of Edom, or Esau. These possessed themselves of the country southward of Judea, which was originally occupied by the Horites, who are supposed to have been finally blended with their conquerors.

It was from these nations that the Land of Canaan was to be rescued by the Israelites, especially from the seven nations; and the gradual rescuing of it from them we now proceed to trace.

Here a question arises and must be answered, before we proceed any farther; it relates to the rectitude of the forcible possession of Canaan by the Israelites. "What right," it may be asked, "had the Israelites to go into Canaan, exterminate its inhabitants, and take possession of the soil, any more than a foreign nation would have to invade our country, exterminate us, and seize our possessions ?"

For the exterminating wars of Canaan, the Israelites themselves were not responsible, as they acted in them merely in obedience to the Divine command. Besides other commands of a similar character, recorded elsewhere, the following is recorded in Num. xxxiii. 51— 53, "Speak ye unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan, then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their

pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high-places: and ye shall dispossess all the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein for I have given you the land to possess it." This command was as binding on them as any other Divine command; they had no option but implicitly to obey it; for it is added, "If ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell," (ver. 55.) They did, to a considerable extent, disobey this command, in not driving out the inhabitants of the land from before them; and they paid the penalty of their disobedience to the full extent: for the nations they suffered to remain among them were at all times pricks in their eyes, and thorns in their sides, and vexed them in the land wherein they dwelt."

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Thus, what is to be advanced in justification of this subject, relates to the Divine Being himself.

First. We observe then, in the first place, that the abominable wickedness of the Canaanites merited extermination. They had totally apostatized from God, and abandoned themselves to idols; and, with the worship of idols, they practised every other detestable vice. Indeed, their idol-worship and vices were inseparably connected-the latter sprang from, nay, constituted the principal part of, the former. As thus connected, Moses holds them up to abhorrence :Enquire not thou after the gods of these nations, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination unto the Lord which he hateth have they done unto their gods: for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire unto their gods,” (Deut. xii. 30, 31.) Besides the most ferocious and unnatural cruelty, their idolatry

included the basest pollutions. Having enumerated the crime against nature, bestiality, incest, adultery, and other detestable crimes, Moses adds, "Defile not yourselves in any of those things; for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you, and the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Therefore shall ye keep mine ordinances, that ye commit not any of those abominable customs which were committed before you, and that ye defile not yourselves therein: I am the Lord your God." (Lev. xviii. 24, 25, 30.)

They were also incorrigible. God had employed means to reclaim them, but without effect. He had sent among them judgments, but they made no impression on them. The catastrophe of the deluge had long ceased to be remembered. Their neighbours, the cities of the plain, had been consumed before their eyes, but the conflagration removed from the country only the sin of the men that it destroyed. They had lately heard of the plagues of Egypt, the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea, the miraculous passage over the Jordan, and the overthrow of Jericho ; and the tribes, on whose account all these miraculous terrors were exhibited, they perceived to be rapidly approaching them but so far from being aroused thereby to repentance, and an acknowledgment of the true God, when a single nation, the Gibeonites, were thus aroused, and sought the protection of the Israelites, the rest of the nations were enraged against them, and formed a confederacy to destroy them. (Josh. x. 3, 4.) He had also sent mercies, but they were equally unavailing. In the person of Melchizedek, he had raised up a priest of the most high God; but the sacerdotal offices of this man they utterly disregarded. He had caused the patriarchs, Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, to sojourn among them; but the influence