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 thy
hands, then shalt thou 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 spoils 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, namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites,
the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, as
the Lord thy God hath commanded thee._" They were authorized also by the
law, to purchase slaves with money of any nation except the seven. Here
is the proof--Levit. xxv: 44, 45, and 46: "Both thy bond-men and thy
bond-maids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are
round about you; (that is, round about the country given them of God,
which was the country of the seven nations they were soon to occupy;) of
them shall ye buy bond-men and bond-maids. Moreover, of the children of
the strangers that do sojourn among you, (that is, the mixed multitude
of strangers which come up with them from Egypt, mentioned in Exod. xii:
38,) of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you,
which they begat in your land; and they shall be your possession. And ye
shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to
inherit them for a possession, they shall be your bond-men forever."

Now, let it be noted that this first law, of Deut. xx: above referred
to, which authorized them to make slaves by war of any other nation, was
executed _for the first time_, under the direction of Moses himself,
when thirty-two thousand of the Midianites were enslaved. These slaves
were not of the seven nations.

And it is worthy of further remark, that of each half, into which the
Lord had these slaves divided, he claimed for his portion, one slave of
every five hundred for the priests,