Joshua 11:19

Not a city. This verse intimates that other cities might have made terms of peace for themselves as had the Gibeonites, if they had so desired. Although in the commands of Moses for the extermination of the Canaanites there seems to be no intimation that in case any of them surrendered to Jehovah they were to be spared, yet judging by the case of Rahab and the Gibeonites, and especially by the words of the text, this was apparently possible. If these nations, doomed to destruction, had renounced their idolatry and had come to cooperate sincerely with Israel, there would have been no danger to Israel. Thus the reason prompting the decree to destroy them would have disappeared, and consequently, we may suppose, the obligation to do so (see Jer. 18:7, 8). But apparently these heathen nations were not disposed to recognize the true God.