So the children went in and possessed the land, and thou subduedst before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gavest them into their hands, with their kings, and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they would.
Ver. 24. So the children went in] After that they had been held a long while under the Egyptian servitude. God knows how to commend his favours to us, which cito data cito vilescunt, lightly come by, are lightly set by.
And thou subdduest before them … the Canaanites] There is an elegance in the original, Thou bowedst or pressedst down those crooked or depressed ones, the Canaanites, who had their very name (portending their condition) from bowing down, as born to be servants of servants, according to Noah's curse, Gen 9:25 Romans 11:16 .
And gavest them into their hands] If any were unsubdued, it was through their own sloth, for which they are reproved, and by which they afterwards smarted. It is the observation of a good divine, that as seven tribes are justly taxed by Joshua for their negligence and sloth in not seeking speedily to possess the land God had offered them, Joshua 18:2, so may the most of us be justly rebuked for grievous security about the heavenly Canaan. Various of the better sort have but a title; and therefore it justly falleth out that these are buffeted by Christ, as those were disgraced by Joshua.
That they might do with them as they would] Save or slay whom they pleased; yet not forget the laws of humanity; as the bloody Spaniards have done among the miserable Indians; causing them to cry out, that it had been far better that the Indies had been given to the devils of hell than to them, and that if the Spaniards go to heaven when they die, themselves will never come there, though they might.