Judges 1:28

By the time of Solomon these cities had become Israelite possessions, 1 Kings 4:11 f.; it was probably David who subdued them, after they had been weakened by the Philistines. The latter were masters of Beth-shean in Saul's time, 1 Samuel 31:10 ff.

taskwork or forced labour. The word masproperly denotes a body of men engaged upon forced labour; here it is used of the Canaanites when reduced to subjection, cf. Deuteronomy 20:11; Isaiah 31:8. As an institution in Israel, the corvée or labour-gang (employed in the East down to modern times) first appears at the end of David's reign, 2 Samuel 20:24; it was further organized by Solomon for his public works, 1 Kings 5:13; 1Ki 9:15; 1 Kings 9:21. Though Canaanites may have been employed for the fortifying of Megiddo and Gezer (1 Kings 9:15), the levying of Israelites for this slavery was deeply resented, ib.1 Kings 12:4; 1 Kings 12:18. The word does not mean -tribute."

did not utterly drive them out Even when subjugated, the Canaanites in many places continued to live among the dominant population, a constant danger, as the subsequent history shews, to Israelite religion and morals. The extermination of the Canaanites was but the theory of later times. Of the cities named, Beth-shean, for instance, harboured an alien population throughout its history; see G. A. Smith, Hist. Geogr., p. 358.