Question IV. Whether Joshua, at the beginning of these wars, invited the Canaanites to peace and surrender?

Frequent in the commentaries of the Rabbis — but especially in Tanchuma, Ellehhad debarim rabbah [Devarim Rabbah], and Misnaioth [Mishnayot] — is the narration [that] Joshua, as soon as he touched the promised land, sent letters to the peoples, cities, and Kings of the Canaanites, and invited them to peace and surrender, and offered good and equitable conditions to those who should wish to make terms. “But I,” says Masius (on ch. 9), “as I cannot fully join faith to that matter concerning public letters, so I would readily believe [that] that which those ancients left written about the offering of peace is not altogether nothing.” For indeed equity itself dictates [that] no war seems just unless [first] declared; and this [is] so among all nations always. Nay, Moses himself, the interpreter of God, commands [that], when thou hast approached a city, [thou] not assail it before thou hast offered it peace. And this Ralbag (Levi, son of Gershon), and Kimhi [Radak], and indeed almost the whole crowd of the Jews, reckon is to be understood not only of foreign cities, but also of the Canaanite [ones]. Nor do they think [that] any nation, except the Moabites and Ammonites, is not to be invited to peace. For concerning these two nations, singular commands of God exist, to this effect: “Thou shalt not seek peace from them, nor that which is expedient for them” [Deut. 23:6].