Israelite and the Stranger, not only enjoyed _equal, natural and
religious rights_, but _all the civil and political privileges_ enjoyed
by those of their own people who were _not_ servants. They also shared
in common with them the political disabilities which appertained to all
Strangers, whether servants of Jewish masters, or masters of Jewish
servants. Further, the disabilities of the servants from the Strangers
were exclusively _political_ and _national_. 1. They, in common with all
Strangers, could not own the soil. 2. They were ineligible to civil
offices. 3. They were assigned to employments less honorable than those
in which Israelitish servants engaged; agriculture being regarded as
fundamental to the existence of the state, other employments were in
less repute, and deemed _unjewish_.
Finally, the Strangers, whether servants or masters, were all protected
equally with the descendants of Abraham. In respect to political
privileges, their condition was much like that of unnaturalized
foreigners in the United States; whatever their wealth or intelligence,
or moral principle, or love for our institutions, they can neither go to
the ballot-box, nor own the soil, nor be eligible to office. Let a
native American, be suddenly bereft of these privileges, and loaded with
the disabilities of an alien, and what to the foreigner would be a light
matter, to _him_, would be the severity of _rigor_. The recent condition
of the Jews and Catholics in England, is another illustration.
Rothschild, the late banker, though the richest private citizen in the
world, and perhaps master of scores of English servants, who sued for
the smallest crumbs of his favor, was, as a subject of the government,
inferior to the lowest among them. Suppose an Englishman of the
Established Church, were by law deprived of power to own the soil, of
eligibility to office and of the electoral franchise, would Englishmen
think it a misapplication of language, if it were said, the government
"rules over him with rigor?" And yet his person, property, reputation,
conscience, all his social relations, the disposal of his time, the
right of locomotion at pleasure, and of natural liberty in all respects,
are just as much protected by law as the Lord Chancellor's.
FINALLY.--As the Mosaic system was a great compound type, rife with
meaning in doctrine and duty; the practical power of the whole, depended
upon the exact observance of those distinctions and relations which
constituted its significancy. Hence, the care to preserve inviolate the
distinction between a _descendant of Abraham_ and a _Stranger_, even
when the Stranger was a proselyte, had gone through the initiatory
ordinances, entered the congregation, and become incorporated with the
Israelites by family alliance. The regulation laid down in Ex. xxi. 2-6,
is an illustration. In this case, the Israelitish servant, whose term
expired in six years, married one of his master's _permanent female
domestics_; but her marriage did not release her master from _his_ part
of the contract for her whole term of service, nor from his legal
obligation to support and educate her children. Neither did it do away
that distinction, which marked her national descent by a specific
_grade_ and _term_ of service, nor impair her obligation to fulfil _her_
part of the contract. Her relations as a permanent domestic grew out of
a distinction guarded with great care throughout the Mosaic system. To
render it void, would have been to divide the system against itself.
This God would not tolerate. Nor, on the other hand, would he permit the
master to throw off the responsibility of instructing her children, nor
the care and expense of their helpless infancy and rearing. He was bound
to support and educate them, and all her children born afterwards during
her term of service. The whole arrangement beautifully illustrates that
wise and tender regard for the interests of all the parties concerned,
which arrays the Mosaic system in robes of glory, and causes it to shine
as the sun in the kingdom of our Father.[B] By this law, the children
had secured to them a mother's tender care. If the husband loved his
wife and children, he could compel his master to keep him, whether he
had any occasion for his services or not. If he did not love them, to be
rid of him was a blessing; and in that case, the regulation would prove
an act for the relief of an afflicted family. It is not by any means to
be inferred, that the release of the servant in the seventh year, either
absolved him from the obligations of marriage, or shut him out from the
society of his family. He could doubtless procure a service at no great
distance from them, and might often do it, to get higher wages, or a
kind of employment better suited to his taste and skill. The great
number of days on which the law released servants from regular labor,
would enable him to spend much more time with his family, than can be
spent by most of the agents of our benevolent societies with _their_
families, or by many merchants, editors, artists, &c., whose daily
business is in New York, while their families reside from ten to one
hundred miles in the country.
[Footnote B: Whoever profoundly studies the Mosaic Institutes with a
teachable and reverential spirit, will feel the truth and power of that
solemn appeal and interrogatory of God to his people Israel, when he had
made an end of setting before them all his statutes and ordinances.
"What nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments SO
RIGHTEOUS, as _all_ this law which I set before you this day." Deut. iv.
8.]
We conclude this inquiry by touching upon an objection, which, though
not formally stated, has been already set aside by the tenor of the
foregoing argument. It is this,--"The slavery of the Canaanites by the
Israelites, was appointed by God as a commutation of the punishment of
death denounced against them for their sins."[A] If the absurdity of a
sentence consigning persons to death, and at the same time to perpetual
slavery, did not sufficiently laugh at itself; it would be small
self-denial, in a case so tempting, to make up the deficiency by a
general contribution. Only _one_ statute was ever given respecting the
disposition to be made of the inhabitants of Canaan. If the sentence of
death was pronounced against them, and afterwards _commuted_, when?
where? by whom? and in what terms was the commutation, and where is it
recorded? Grant, for argument's sake, that all the Canaanites were
sentenced to unconditional extermination; how can a right to _enslave_
them, be drawn from such premises? The punishment of death is one of the
highest recognitions of man's moral nature possible. It proclaims him
rational, accountable, guilty, deserving death for having done his
utmost to cheapen human life, when the proof of its priceless worth
lived in his own nature. But to make him a _slave_, cheapens to nothing
_universal human nature_, and instead of healing a wound, gives a
death-stab. What! repair an injury to rational being in the robbery of
one of its rights, not only by robbing it of all, but by annihilating
their _foundation_, the everlasting distinction between persons and
things? To make a man a chattel, is not the _punishment_, but the
_annihilation_ of a _human_ being, and, so far as it goes, of _all_
human beings. This commutation of the punishment of death, into
perpetual slavery, what a fortunate discovery! Alas! for the honor of
Deity, if commentators had not manned the forlorn hope, and by a timely
movement rescued the Divine character, at the very crisis of its fate,
from the perilous position in which inspiration had carelessly left it!
Here a question arises of sufficient importance for a separate
dissertation; but must for the present be disposed of in a few
paragraphs. WERE THE CANAANITES SENTENCED BY GOD TO INDIVIDUAL AND
UNCONDITIONAL EXTERMINATION? As the limits of this inquiry forbid our
giving all the grounds of dissent from commonly received opinions, the
suggestions made, will be thrown out merely as QUERIES, rather than laid
down as _doctrines_. The directions as to the disposal of the
Canaanites, are mainly in the following passages, Ex. xxiii. 23-33;
xxxiv. 11; Deut. vii. 16-24; ix. 3; xxxi. 3-5. In these verses, the
Israelites are commanded to "destroy the Canaanites," to "drive out,"
"consume," "utterly overthrow," "put out," "dispossess them," &c. Did
these commands enjoin the unconditional and universal destruction of the
_individuals_, or merely of the _body politic_? The word _haram_, to
destroy, signifies _national_, as well as individual destruction; the
destruction of _political_ existence, equally with _personal_; of
governmental organization, equally with the lives of the subjects.
Besides, if we interpret the words destroy, consume, overthrow, &c., to
mean _personal_ destruction, what meaning shall we give to the
expressions, "drive out before thee," "cast out before thee," "expel,"
"put out," "dispossess," &c., which are used in the same and in parallel
passages? In addition to those quoted above, see Josh. iii. 10; xvii.
18; xxiii. 5; xxiv. 18; Judg. i. 20, 29-35; vi. 9. "I will _destroy_ all
the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies
_turn their backs unto thee_." Ex. xxiii. 27. Here "_all their enemies_"
were to _turn their backs_, and "_all the people_" to be "_destroyed_."
Does this mean that God would let all their _enemies_ escape, but kill
their _friends_, or that he would _first_ kill "all the people" and THEN
make them "turn their backs," an army of runaway corpses? In Josh. xxiv.
8, God says, speaking of the Amorites, "I _destroyed_ them from before
you." In the 18th verse of the same chapter, it is said, "The Lord
_drave out_ from before us all the people, even the Amorites which dwelt
in the land." In Num. xxxii. 39, we are told that "the children of
Machir the son of Manasseh, went to Gilead, and took it, and
_dispossessed_ the Amorite which was in it." If these commands required
the destruction of all the _individuals,_ the Mosaic law was at war with
itself, for directions as to the treatment of native residents form a
large part of it. See Lev. xix. 34; xxv. 35, 36; xxiv. 22.; Ex. xxiii.
9; xxii. 21; Deut. i. 16, 17; x. 17, 19; xxvii. 19. We find, also, that
provision was made for them in the cities of refuge, Num. xxxv. 15,--the
gleanings of the harvest and vintage were theirs, Lev. xix. 9, 10;
xxiii. 22;--the blessings of the Sabbath, Ex. xx. 10;--the privilege of
offering sacrifices secured, Lev. xxii. 18; and stated religious
instruction provided for them. Deut. xxxi. 9, 12. Now does this same law
require the _individual extermination_ of those whose lives and
interests it thus protects? These laws were given to the Israelites,
long _before_ they entered Canaan; and they must have inferred from
them, that a multitude of the inhabitants of the land were to _continue
in it_, under their government. Again Joshua was selected as the leader
of Israel to execute God's threatenings upon Canaan. He had no
discretionary power. God's commands were his official instructions.
Going beyond them would have been usurpation; refusing to carry them
out, rebellion and treason. Saul was rejected from being king for
disobeying God's commands in a single instance. Now if God commanded the
individual destruction of all the Canaanites Joshua disobeyed him in
every instance. For at his death, the Israelites still "_dwelt among
them_," and each nation is mentioned by name. Judg. i. 27-36, and yet we
are told that Joshua "left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded
Moses;" and that he "took all that land." Josh. xi. 15-22. Also, that
"there _stood not a man_ of _all_ their enemies before them." Josh. xxi.
44. How can this be if the command to destroy, destroy utterly, &c.,
enjoined _individual_ extermination, and the command to drive out,
unconditional expulsion from the country, rather than their expulsion
from the _possession_ or _ownership_ of it, as the lords of the soil?
That the latter is the true sense to be attached to those terms, we
argue, further from the fact that the same terms are employed by God to
describe the punishment which he would inflict upon the Israelites if
they served other Gods. "Ye shall utterly perish," "be utterly
destroyed," "consumed," &c., are some of them.--See Deut. iv. 20; viii.
19, 20.[B] Josh. xxiii. 12, 13-16; 1. Sam. xii. 25. The Israelites _did_
serve other Gods, and Jehovah _did_ execute upon them his
threatenings--and thus himself _interpreted_ these threatenings. He
subverted their _government_, dispossessed them of their land, divested
them of national power, and made them _tributaries_, but did not
_exterminate_ them. He "destroyed them utterly" as an independent body
politic, but not as individuals. Multitudes of the Canaanites were
slain, but not a case can be found in which one was either killed or
expelled who _acquiesced_ in the transfer of the territory, and its
sovereignty, from the inhabitants of the land to the Israelites. Witness
the case of Rahab and her kindred, and that of the Gibeonites.[C] The
Canaanites knew of the miracles wrought for the Israelites; and that
their land had been transferred to them as a judgment for their sins.
Josh. ii. 9-11; ix. 9, 10, 24. Many of them were awed by these wonders,
and made no resistance. Others defied God and came out to battle. These
last occupied the fortified cities, were the most inveterate
heathen--the aristocracy of idolatry, the kings, the nobility and
gentry, the priests, with their crowds of satellites, and retainers that
aided in idolatrous rites, and the military forces, with the chief
profligates of both sexes. Many facts corroborate the general position.
Witness that command (Deut. xxiii. 15, 16,) which, not only prohibited
the 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
terms, we refer to the history of the Amalekites. "I will utterly put
out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." Ex. xvii. 14. "Thou
shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt
not forget it." Deut. xxv. 19. "Smite Amalek and _utterly destroy_ all
that they have, and spare them not, but slay both man and woman, infant
and suckling, ox and sheep." 1 Sam. xv. 2, 3. "Saul smote the
Amalekites, and he took Agag the king of the Amalekites, alive and
UTTERLY DESTROYED ALL THE PEOPLE with the edge of the sword." Verses 7,
8. In verse 20, Saul says, "I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and
have _utterly destroyed_ the Amalekites." In 1 Sam. xxx. 1, 2, we find
the Amalekites marching an army into Israel, and sweeping everything
before them--and this in about eighteen years after they had all been
"UTTERLY DESTROYED!" In 1 Kings ii. 15-17, is another illustration. We
are informed that Joab remained in Edom six months with all Israel,
"until he had _cut off every male_" in Edom. In the next verse we learn
that Hadad and "certain Edomites" were not slain. 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 _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 practised 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 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 destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but
that he might destroy them, as the Lord commanded Moses." 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_.]