According to Joshua 10:33, the king of Gezer and his army had already been previously defeated.1 Once again we can presume that Canaanites returned to the city after the battle when the Israelites moved on to fight other cities. Gezer was an important outpost in the western lowlands guarding access to the hill country, and it would remain in Canaanite hands until the time of Solomon. Even then it was only granted to him as a dowry in the marriage of Solomon to the pharaoh’s daughter (1 Kings 9:16).
10 However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer, so the Canaanites have lived in the midst of Ephraim to this day but have been made to do forced labor.