“When you advance on a town to attack it, first offer it terms for peace. If it accepts the terms for peace and opens its gates to you, then all the people there are to be put to forced labor and work for you.”-Deuteronomy 20:10-11
When the invading Hebrew army advances into a Canaanite town, they are to offer the citizens “peace” first.
This means they are to give them the chance to accept favorable terms of surrender.
This isn’t about making them buddies but it is about inviting them to become part of the community of Israel by opening their gates and submitting to the Israelite army.
Basically, the citizens of the Canaanite town being invaded are given two choices.
They can either become resident aliens which means being a part of Israel but NOT actually converting to become official Israelites.
Since they are living in Israel, they will of course be subject to Israel’s laws but they will be allowed to keep their identity as foreigners while still living inside the community of God.
The second option open to the Canaanites being conquered is that anyone who wishes to become an Israelite is welcome to do so.
What did this mean exactly?
I’m talking about a full-blown conversion.
The Canaanite is to reject his pagan gods, discard his identity (he can no longer consider himself to be a Canaanite), and be circumcised.
I find it ironic as hell that conversion back then seemed so much easier than it is today.
I have a close friend who is seeking conversion and when he set up an appointment with an Orthodox Rabbi, he was told in a discouraging fashion that the whole process would take about three years!
Anyway, that’s another deep discussion for another time.
So what became of those cities and villages who chose to surrender instead of fight?
To put it simply, their lives were spared but they were forced to work on behalf of Israel and pay tribute to their new conquerers.
In other words, they were turned into a vassal state of Israel.
In those days, that was actually standard practice.
Now don’t have the mistaken image of a cruel taskmaster overseeing a group of half-starved and chained slaves with sunken eyes and tattered rags on their thin frames on the verge of death about to collapse over.
In this context “Forced labor” simply meant that every once in a while Israel would have them work on a government project.
Don’t forget that the Law of Moses demanded humane treatment of slaves and servants.
Per God’s Law, they had rights including the option to convert.
Having said that, there is no doubt that some Canaanites were forcibly handed over to some Israelite families to work their land as slaves or serve in their homes as servants depending on the situation.
Leave a Reply