Josué 10:19

Smite the hindmost of them. — See Deuteronômio 25:18, the only other place where the same Hebrew verb occurs.

For the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. — It is worth while to observe that the command given to Israel to exterminate the Canaanites, though perfectly general, is notwithstanding limited as to time and circumstances by this very condition, in Deuteronômio 7; Josué 10:1, “when the Lord thy God shall bring thee in,... and hath cast out... before thee... seven nations, and when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them.” Again, Josué 10:16, “Thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver thee,” and Josué 10:22, “The Lord thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little; thou mayest not consume them at once.” The extermination of each particular army or nation was to be determined (as to time and circumstances) by the mandate of Jehovah, whose guidance Israel must follow on all occasions. The present occasion was one for pursuit and slaughter without respite or delay. But though the army, as an army, was annihilated, a remnant of fugitives escaped into fortified places (Josué 10:20).