"Even from the mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir; even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under mount Hermon; and all their kings he took, and smote them, and slew them. "Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. "There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gideon; all other they took in battle. "For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come 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. "And at that time came Joshua, and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, for Debit, from Anab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel; Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. "There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod there remained. "So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war." (Josh. xi, 7 to 23.) "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. "And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. "And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it. "And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. "But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. "Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. "But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: "But thou shalt utterly destroy them." (Deut. xx, 10-17.) Neither the old men nor the women, nor the maidens, nor the sweet-dimpled babe, smiling upon the lap of his mother, were to be spared. "And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel [a merciful god indeed]. Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate through-out the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor." (Exod. xxxii, 27.)