John Trapp on Nehemiah 9:24

Verſe 24. So the children went in] After that they had been held a long while under the Egyptian ſervitude. God knows how to commend his favours to us, which citò data citò vileſcunt, lightly come by, are lightly ſet by.

And thou ſubduedſt before them — the Canaanites] There is an elegancy in the original, Thou bowedſt or preſſedſt down thoſe crookened or depreſſed ones, the Canaanites who had their very name (portending their condition) from bowing down, as born to be ſervants of ſervants, according to Noahs curſe, Gen. 9.25. with Rom. 11.16.

And gaveſt them into their hand] If any were unſubdued, it was through their own ſloth, for which they are reproved, and by which they afterwards ſmarted. It is the obſervation of a good Divine, that as ſeven Tribes are juſtly taxed by Joſhua for their negligence and ſloth in not ſeeking ſpeedily to poſſeſſe the land God had offered them, Joſh. 18.2. ſo may the moſt of us be juſtly rebuked for grievous ſecurity about the heavenly Canaan. Divers of the better ſort have but a title: and therefore it juſtly falleth out, that theſe are buffeted by Chriſt, as thoſe were diſgraced by Joſhua.

That they might do with them as they would] Save or ſlay whom they pleaſed; yet not forgetting the Lawes of humanity; as the bloody Spaniards have done amongſt the miſerable Indians: cauſing them to cry out, that it had been far better, that the Indies had been given to the Devils of hell then to them, and that if the Spaniards go to heaven when they die, themſelves will never come there, though they might.