Who fulfilled this passage?23“When you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall call to it for peace” (Deuteronomy 20:10). Joshua son of Nun. Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: What did Joshua do? He would publicize an edict in every place that he went to conquer.
In it was written: ‘Anyone who wishes to leave, let him leave; whoever wishes to make peace let him do so; and whoever wishes to wage war, let him do so.’ What did the Girgashite nation do? It evacuated and went away from before them, and the Holy One blessed be He gave them a land as beautiful as their land – that is Africa. The Givonites, who made peace, Joshua made peace with them.
But the thirty-one kings, who came to wage war with him, the Holy One blessed be He caused them to fall into his hands. From where is this derived? It is as it is stated: “We smote him until we left him no remnant” (Deuteronomy 3:3).