Joshua 16 · a question people ask
Was it wrong to leave the Canaanites in Gezer and put them to forced labor?
Joshua 16:10 reports it and passes no judgment, as 13:13 did of the Geshurites and Maacathites (chapter 13 looks at that verse). Other passages speak to it. The Law had said of the peoples of the land, "They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me" (Exodus 23:33), and in the same chapter, "Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and inherit the land" (Exodus 23:30). The Law allowed forced labor for a city that made peace (Deuteronomy 20:11), but only for "all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations" (Deuteronomy 20:15). Of "the cities of these peoples that the LORD your God gives you for an inheritance" (Deuteronomy 20:16), it said, "you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite" (Deuteronomy 20:17). In Judges the LORD's angel recalls, "You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars", and says, "But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this?" (Judges 2:2); the nations will stay: "I will not drive them out from before you" (Judges 2:3). Judges also gives the LORD's reason for leaving nations: "that by them I may test Israel, to see if they will keep the LORD’s way" (Judges 2:22). Joshua 16 itself says only what happened, and that it was still so "to this day" (16:10).
The verses
“They didn’t drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites dwell in the territory of Ephraim to this day, and have become servants to do forced labor.”
“Nevertheless the children of Israel didn’t drive out the Geshurites, nor the Maacathites: but Geshur and Maacath live within Israel to this day.”
“The LORD’s angel came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I brought you out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to give your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you. You shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land. You shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice. Why have you done this? Therefore I also said, ‘I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you.’””
“The LORD’s anger burned against Israel; and he said, “Because this nation transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and has not listened to my voice, I also will no longer drive out any of the nations that Joshua left when he died from before them; that by them I may test Israel, to see if they will keep the LORD’s way to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.” So the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily. He didn’t deliver them into Joshua’s hand.”