Question IX. Whether Joshua left no remnants of the Canaanites?

Joshua smote all, “so that he left no remnants of them,” says v. 9; and afterward (v. 16) he is said to have occupied “all Canaan”; and again (v. 19), “He took all by war”; (v. 23) “Joshua took all the land.” But indeed [that] very many Canaanites, and their cities, and several places, escaped the storm of this Joshuan war, the books of Kings sufficiently teach — in which we read [that] the whole land first came under the dominion of the Israelites under David and Solomon, as I also said above (ch. 1, q. 9); the book of Judges teaches [it] (ch. 1 and 2); this very [book] which is in [our] hands teaches [it], [namely] Joshua (below, ch. 13; ch. 17, v. 12 and following; ch. 18, v. 2 and 3 and following). St. Augustine answers two [things] (q. 17). First: [that] Joshua stormed all [the places] which he stormed, and which he strove to storm. Secondly: [that] he stormed and took all — “not as to the individual [places], but as to the greatest and general parts,” for example “the mountainous, the southern, and the like” (v. 16). Masius adds a third: [that] there were no remaining Canaanites who dared then to prosecute and wage war, and who could hinder the partition of the land.