Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Joshua 9:1
And it came to pass, when all the kings which [were] on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard [thereof];
Ch. Jos 9:1-2. The First League of the Canaanite Kings
1. And it came to pass ] Thus “that spring morning” did Israel “consecrate Palestine unto the Lord, and take sea and lake, mountain and valley the most hallowed spots in their history as witnesses of their covenant.” It was probably on this occasion that the Egyptian coffin, containing the embalmed body of Joseph (Gen 50:25-26), was laid by the two tribes of the house of Joseph in the parcel of ground near Shechem, which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor (Gen 33:19). These important preliminaries having been carried out, the further prosecution of the campaign was possible.
the kings ] Hitherto single cities had been the objects of Joshua’s contention. Now leagues and confederacies were formed against him.
in the hills ] i.e. the hill country of southern and central Canaan. In Num 13:17, it is called “the mountain.” Comp. also Deu 1:7. The whole region of the western portion of Canaan is here described under three divisions: ( a) the central hills, ( b) the valleys = the shephelah (Deu 1:7), ( c) the seaboard. For the nations here enumerated see above, Jos 3:10.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the hills – See the Num 13:17 note.
The valleys – Or the vale (the Shephelah, Deu 1:7), which imports the lowland country between the mountains and the sea coast.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jos 9:1-2
The kings . . . on this side Jordan . . . gathered themselves together.
A Canaanitish league
I. The characteristics of this league.
1. It was very wide, embracing every tribe in Canaan, those of the hills as well as those of the plain, and those of the sea coast as well as those inland. Even so has it been in all ages. Men of all ranks and occupations can be found to sneer at, condemn, and crush if they could, the pure gospel
2. It was very singular. Strange elements were brought together on this occasion. A common danger, a common enemy, a common hate, makes them forget old feuds, bury the war-hatchet, and unite on common ground for a common object. Who ever hated each other more cordially than Pharisee and Sadducee? yet they united in crying, Crucify Him, and in compassing His death. Pilate and Herod cemented their broken friendship with His blood.
3. It was spontaneous. No pressure was employed to gather the clans together; none was needed. On every side there sprang up a desire to take united action. It is a sad and a terrible fact that the deepest thing in the natural heart is enmity against God. Every sinner is potentially a Deicide.
4. It was crafty. The wisest heads in Canaan were here drawn together, and engaged in strengthening this league. Their most skilful diplomatists, their most wily warriors, would give their advice, and seek to help the league in every way. The rich would give of their substance, the poor would give their strength, the wise would use their wits in discussing and arranging plans; and thus by their united energy all might yet be well. Thus again and again has all mans wisdom been brought to bear against the purposes of God.
5. And who could deny that such a league was powerful? It was powerful because of all the accumulated experience and wisdom that could be brought to bear upon the work; because of the minute knowledge of the country which the common people as well as the leaders possessed; and because of the immense resources they could fall back upon.
6. And it is also very plain that this league was heartily, yea, even enthusiastically, entered into. Like the great sea billows they rage against this bark, and with implacable wrath would smite and overwhelm it. Alas, frail bark! Alas, poor Israel! what canst thou do against such a league, so wild, so strange, so spontaneous, so crafty, so powerful, so zealous?
II. The occasion of this league. No doubt many things contributed to bring it about, but one thing is specially singled out and mentioned by the Holy Ghost in this connection. When they heard of that strange march and the solemn ceremony in the vale of Shechem, then they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel with one accord. This shows that these Canaanites understood something of the significance of this action. They interpreted it rightly as an act of dispossession, so far as they were concerned. How often does the pious devotion of Gods people provoke and exasperate the unrighteous above everything else! The sinner hates above all things the holiness of the saint, because it is his most emphatic condemnation. Perfect surrender to Gods will always brings the enmity of the world to a head. Would you learn the true spirit of the world? March to Ebal and Gerizim, and pitch your tent in that sacred and fruitful vale Of utter consecration. But if such a life as this stirs up of necessity the evil which reigns in the heart of man, it is also to be remembered that such a life alone is powerful to do good to man or bring glory to God. Who can measure the strength of such consecrated souls? John Wesley knew something of this when he said, Give me ten men who hate sin only and love God only, and I will shake the gates of hell. Its enmity will be roused, even as that of the Canaanites by the consecration of Israel; but it will be roused, only like theirs, to be utterly broken.
III. The purpose of this league. They banded themselves together to fight against Joshua and against Israel. Though great wonders have been wrought before their very eyes, they will oppose this people. Therefore their action cannot for a moment be classed with the resistance which, e.g., the Britons offered to the invading Romans under Caesar. The position of these Canaanites was altogether different. In fighting against Israel they deliberately set themselves against Israels God, Jehovah. They knowingly pit the strength of their idols against that of the Lord of hosts. At Him they aim their shafts through His people. Earth loves not its rightful Monarch. It rebels against His edicts, it cleaves to the great usurpers sway. What daring rebellion have we here! men plotting under Gods very eyes. Conspirators usually meet in secret, in the darkness of night, screened from the eye and sheltered from the hand of the power outraged; but here these sinners gather together openly, to take counsel against Him who is marching through their land in awful majesty. Oh, hardened soul, remember the only alternatives. Bend or break; turn or burn. What utter futility have we here? Could we conceive anything more useless, more inefficient, more foolish, more powerless, than this league? The only consequence to these leaguers will be their own ruin. For this they plot, and not in vain. It comes upon them as a whirlwind, certain, irresistible, terrible, complete, irretrievable.
IV. The lessons of this league. Surely, to begin with, we are very plainly taught that the people of God in carrying out the purposes of God may count upon opposition. It always has been so; and it will be so to the very end, for we read that even the glorious millennium is ushered in with a terrible struggle. We are apt to get downhearted when we see the hosts of evil mustering on every side. We exclaim, What can the poor Church of God do? If she can do nothing more, she can look up. She can see a sight which can calm all her fears, and make her laugh to scorn her loudest foes. Look up, then! look up! See Him who sitteth on the circle of the heavens, and before whom the nations are as grasshoppers. God is keeping silence. God is having them in derision. The attacks which to us may seem formidable are to Him despicable. Let us therefore have good hope. The systems of corruption and error and oppression, however well compacted and widely organised, must in the long run be destroyed, and he who expects and prays and works for their downfall will not be disappointed. Let us look back when we are despondent and faint-hearted, and remember how often God has restrained the wrath of the enemy; how often, when iniquity was coming in as a flood, He has raised up a standard against it. Yea, look around, and see what God has wrought. Think of the diffusion of Christianity, and of its mighty influence, whether direct or indirect. But we may learn another lesson from this league. We may learn as the host of God to unite our forces more and more in prosecuting the work set before us. (A. B. Mackay.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IX
All the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites,
Hivites, and Jebusites, unite them forces against Joshua, 1, 2.
The inhabitants of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to Ai,
sent ambassadors to him, feigning themselves to come from a
very distant tribe, requesting a friendly alliance with him,
3-5.
Their address to Joshua, and the means they used to deceive the
Israelites, 6-13.
The Israelitish elders are deceived, and make a league with
them, which they confirm with an oath, 14, 15.
After three day they are informed that the Gibeonites belong to
the seven Canaanitish nations, yet they spare their cities,
16, 17.
The congregation murmuring because of this, the elders excuse
themselves because of their oath, 18, 19.
They purpose to make the Gibeonites slaves to the congregation,
20, 21.
Joshua calls them, and pronounces this sentence against them,
22, 23.
They vindicate themselves, and submit to their lot, 24, 25.
They are spared, and made hewers of wood and drawers of water to
the congregation and to the altar, 26, 27.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Verse 1. And it came to pass, when all the kings-heard thereof] From this account it appears that the capture and destruction of Jericho and Ai had been heard of to the remotest parts of the land, that a general fear of the Israelitish arms prevailed, and that the different dynasties or petty governments into which the land was divided, felt all their interests at stake, and determined to make the defence of their country a common cause. This was the most prudent step they could take in their circumstances, and therefore they entered into a confederation in order to arrest the progress of the Israelites. The Great Sea mentioned here is the Mediterranean Sea, the coasts of which were inhabited by the Phoenicians, Syrians, Sidonians, and Philistines. It is very likely that all these united with the Canaanites for their common safety.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
1. all the kings which were on thissidethat is, the western side of Jordan.
in the hills, and in thervalleys, and in all the coasts of the great seaThis threefolddistinction marks out very clearly a large portion of Canaan. Thefirst designates the hill country, which belonged afterwards to thetribes of Judah and Ephraim: the second, all the low country fromCarmel to Gaza; and the third, the shores of the Mediterranean, fromthe Isthmus of Tyre to the plain of Joppa. (As for the tribesmentioned, see on Nu 13:29).
heard thereofthat is, of the sacking of Jericho and Ai, as well as therapid advance of the Israelites into the interior of the country.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass, when all the kings which [were] on this side Jordan,…. On the side Israel now were, and was that in which the land of Canaan lay, and was now governed by many kings, and all that were now remaining, even all but the kings of Jericho and Ai, who were slain: both those
in the hills, and in the valleys; that dwelt in the mountainous part of the country, and in the plains of it:
and in all the coasts of the great sea, over against Lebanon; who inhabited and governed in that part of the country which lay on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, the country of Phoenicia, in which were Tyre, Sidon, and other cities, and were over against Mount Lebanon, which was on the northern part of the country; according to the Latin version, they dwelt near Lebanon; and according to the Septuagint, near Antilibanus. It seems best, with Noldius g, to render the words, “even unto Lebanon”, for it designs all the sea coasts reaching to it; for all the maritime coasts did not lie over against it:
the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard [thereof]; what they heard is not said, but to be understood; particularly they heard what had been done by Joshua, and the people of Israel, to Jericho and Ai: and their kings, Jos 9:3. Some think, as Abarbinel, that they had heard of the altar Joshua had made, and of the stones he had set up, and of his reading the law to the people, by which they were to be governed; all which they understood as taking possession of the country, and looking upon it as conquered, and obliging his people to swear fealty to him. All the nations of Canaan are mentioned but the Gergasites; which, according to the Jewish writers, are omitted, because they were but few; the Septuagint version has them in some copies.
g Concord. Ebr. Part. p. 80. No. 370.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jos 9:1, Jos 9:2 form the introduction to chs. 9-11, and correspond to the introduction in Jos 5:1. The news of the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Jordan had thrown all the kings of Canaan into such despair, that they did not venture to make any attack upon Israel. But they gradually recovered from their first panic, partly, no doubt, in consequence of the failure of the first attack of the Israelites upon Ai, and resolved to join together in making war upon the foreign invaders. The kings of Canaan did this when they heard, sc., what Israel had hitherto undertaken and accomplished, not merely “what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai” ( Knobel): that is to say, all the kings across the Jordan, i.e., in the country to the west of the Jordan ( , as in Jos 5:1), viz., “ upon the mountains ” (not only the mountains of Judah, as in Jos 10:40; Jos 11:16, etc., but all the mountains which run throughout the whole length of Canaan, as in Deu 1:7 and Num 13:17: see the explanation of the latter passage); “ in the lowlands ” ( shephelah, the low-lying country between the mountains and the sea-coast, which is simply intersected by small ranges of hills; see at Deu 1:7); “ and on all the coast of the Great Sea towards Lebanon,” i.e., the narrow coast of the Mediterranean Sea from Joppa up to the Ladder of Tyre (see at Deu 1:7). The different tribes of the Canaanites are also mentioned by name, as in Jos 3:10, except that the Girgashites are omitted. These gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and Israel with one mouth, or with one accord (1Ki 22:13).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Application of the Gibeonites. | B. C. 1450. |
1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof; 2 That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.
Hitherto the Canaanites had acted defensively; the Israelites were the aggressors upon Jericho and Ai. But here the kings of Canaan are in consultation to attack Israel, and concert matters for a vigorous effort of their united forces to check the progress of their victorious arms. Now, 1. It was strange they did not do this sooner. They had notice long since of their approach; Israel’s design upon Canaan was no secret; one would have expected that a prudent concern for their common safety would put them upon taking some measures to oppose their coming over Jordan, and maintain that pass against them, or to give them a warm reception as soon as they were over. It was strange they did not attempt to raise the siege of Jericho, or at least fall in with the men of Ai, when they had given them a defeat. But they were, either through presumption or despair, wonderfully infatuated and at their wits’ end. Many know not the things that belong to their peace till they are hidden from their eyes. 2. It was more strange that they did it now. Now that the conquest of Jericho had given such a pregnant proof of God’s power, and that of Ai of Israel’s policy, one would have thought the end of their consultation should be, not to fight with Israel, but to make peace with them, and to gain the best terms they could for themselves. This would have been their wisdom (Luke xiv. 32), but their minds were blinded, and their hearts hardened to their destruction. Observe, (1.) What induced them now at last to enter upon this consultation. When they heard thereof (v. 1), not only of the conquest of Jericho and Ai, but of the convention of the states of Mount Ebal, of which we have an account immediately before,–when they heard that Joshua, as if he thought himself already completely master of the country, had had all his people together, and had read the laws to them by which they must be governed, and taken their promises to submit to those laws,–then they perceived the Israelites were in good earnest, and thought it was high time for them to bestir themselves. The pious devotion of God’s people sometimes provokes and exasperates their enemies more than any thing else. (2.) How unanimous they were in their resolves. Though they were many kings of different nations, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, &c., doubtless of different interests, and that had often been at variance one with another, yet they determined, nemine contradicente—unanimously, to unite against Israel. O that Israel would learn this of Canaanites, to sacrifice private interests to the public welfare, and to lay aside all animosities among themselves, that they may cordially unite against the common enemies of God’s kingdom among men!
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Joshua – Chapter 9
Canaanite League, vs. 1-2
The reference to the Canaanite tribes having “heard thereof” apparently is to the fall of Jericho and the destruction of Ai. The worship exercise at mounts Ebal and Gerizim would also have emphasized the intent and ease with which Israel moves about the land as though it is already theirs. The hills refer to the inland area from the Jordan on the east and the Mediterranean on the west; the valleys are the numerous watersheds of the small rivers and streams flowing down from the hills both east and west; the coasts of the great sea are the coastlands of the Mediterranean; “over against Lebanon” means the Mediterranean opposite the Lebanese range of mountains in the north. The five tribes mentioned are not all those in the land, but the most prominent. The kings of these people united in an effort to successfully resist the Israelites.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. And it came to pass when all the kings, etc. As the arrival of the people was well known to these kings from the very first, it is certain that their minds were intoxicated from above with security or lethargy, so that they did not forthwith league together to oppose them. It implied excessive stupor not to provide for themselves till they were violently roused to exertion by the overthrow of two cities. (80) For as the war was common, it was a kind of voluntary surrender to send no aid to their neighbors, nay, to have no army ready, which might make a powerful impression for their defense. But in this way God spared the weakness of his people, to whom the combined forces of so many nations would have caused no small fear.
It is certain, then, that by the sloth and torpor of their enemies, the Israelites were rendered more expeditious. For an interval was, in the meanwhile, given them to compose themselves, and thus those whom the mere name of enemies might have alarmed, prepare leisurely to encounter them. (81) In the same way, although the reprobate are desirous, by every possible device, to destroy the Church, God, to take away their power of hurting her, scatters and confounds their counsels, nay, destroys their spirit. (82) On the other hand, these nations display their frantic audacity. Instead of being overcome by manifest miracle, they continue to rage like wild beasts against the unassailable power of God. A report of the taking of Jericho had reached them. Had it been overthrown by the counsel, or the acting, or the prowess, or the engines of men? Nay, the walls had fallen of their own accord. With what confidence then can they league to take up arms against heaven?
(80) French, “ Car c’estoit une stupidite par trop grande de ne se point tenir sur ses gardes, jusqu’a tant quils fussent resveillez comme par force de leur paresse oyans la ruine et le sac de deux villes;” “For it implied excessive stupidity not to stand upon their guard, until they were awakened, as if by force, from their indolence, on hearing of the run and sacking of two towns.” — Ed.
(81) To encounter them.” Latin, “ Ad eos excipiendos.” French, “To give them a good reception, and repulse them bravely.” — Ed.
(82) French, “ Dissippe et renverse leur conseils, entreprises, et machinations: et mesme il leur oste le sens et l’entendement;” “Dissipates and overturns their counsels, enterprises, and machinations; and even deprives them of sense and understanding.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE DECEPTION OF GIBEON
Joshua 9.
And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perissite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord (Jos 9:1-2).
THE language of this text indicates the extent to which the preparations for war were made. The inhabitants of the hill country, the lowlands, and the Mediterranean shores united to battle the incoming hordes of Israel. The fall of Jericho and the conquest of Ai created universal consternation, and the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, tribes that were commonly at war one with another, formed a league against a common enemy. This is a good type of the New Testament record of Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians uniting against our JoshuaJesus.
War makes strange bed-fellows. The great World War of 1914-18 brought into the fellowship of fight nations that had long been at enmity one with another.
But while fear united these discordant tribes, it also wrought after another manner with the inhabitants of Gibeon. It drove them to seek favor.
FAVOR SOUGHT BY FALSIFICATION.
Fear suggested the need of salvation.
When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.
And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us (Jos 9:3-6).
Fear is seldom a sound basis of procedure. It almost uniformly resorts to indefensible strategy, to conscienceless shifts. It is fear that leads the criminal to dye his hair and grow his whiskers and seek to so disguise himself as to escape detection. It is fear that sends the heathen on long pilgrimages, or suggests to him) bodily infliction. It is fear that drives the Catholic to penances and confessionals. It is fear that leads the crooked politician to secret conclaves, to exacting pledges, and to all underhanded methods. It is fear that creates the program of modernism and accomplishes an ecclesiastical machine, carefully constructed and well oiled, with which to railroad its measures.
Perfect love casteth out fear, and leads men to work in the open rather than wilily, to appear as they are, rather than in false guise, and to meet the enemy boldly rather than by compromise and deception.
Deception was determined! as the method of appeal.
And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Per-adventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you?
And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?
And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, because of the Name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt,
And all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heskbon, and to Og, king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.
Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.
This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy.
And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new, and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey (Jos 9:7-13).
In this instance, as is common with would-be deceivers, their stories involve the improbable, if not the impossible. Joshua and Israel seemed to have suspected this fact, and put to them the question, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you (Jos 9:7)? Who are ye? and from whence come ye?? Mark the answer. It is most informing.
They said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, because of the Name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt,
And all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heskbon, and to Og, king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth (Jos 9:9-10).
They failed to tell Joshua and Israel how this news reached them. The telegraph did not exist in that day; the telephone was not yet invented; they had never even imagined the radio. People at such great distances would not know of these skirmishes, (for they were little more), and yet, here they are professing perfect familiarity with all that had taken place, and forgetting to tell how the information reached them.
When did a deceiver ever make a statement without self-entanglement? The best wav in the world to meet the hobo is to let him talk and tell his story, and, then perhaps, make an investigation of his own report. Ask him to sit in a room while you wire to the city whence he comes and to the acquaintances named. You dont need to send the wire. Take ten minutes away from his presence arid when you return to him he will not be there. More than once have I seen the beggar pale at the proposal to wire his friends and confirm his story that I might help him. Most of these, like the men of Gibeon, take their victuals and ask not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. We are not certain concerning this text, whether it applies to the Gibeonites or to the Israelites. If to the Gibeonites, it means that they were a godless company, who forgot to be grateful for the very food by which they were sustained. If, on the other hand, it refers to the Israelites, it means that they were easily deceived, accepted the appearances of things as adequate proofs, and were fooled into a fellowship that would have been impossible upon investigation of facts. Both classes exist nowmen who take their food and forget that Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, and men that determine great questions on the basis of their own reason, despising the Scripture injunction, If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him (Jas 1:5).
The ruse resulted in a league of nations. And Joshua made peace with, them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and princes of the congregation sware unto them (Jos 9:15).
The League of Nations, then, is nothing new. It is at least as old as Joshuas day. The League of Nations, then, is not always firmly based. Here it rested upon a falsehood. Who will argue that any league of nations ever rested upon anything else? When nations come together to form an agreement looking to the prevention of war, when and where do they ever plan, even, to tell the truth about themselves? Is it not the official business of every national representative to secure for his nation the most favorable terms possible? And is not that the chief objective rather than the prevention of war?
Selfishness is seldom outspoken. It is not its habit to make known the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Selfishness is a poor witness in court! Thats why leagues of nations have never held, and they never will. Thats why, when they break up, charges and counter-charges are so common. Deception and self-interest play too conspicuous a part in their creation.
JOSHUAS FAITHFULNESS TO COVENANT
Three days and the deception was uncovered.
And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.
And the Children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibe on, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim (Jos 9:16-17).
When did a falsehood ever survive three days?
When did a deception ever know anything but a brief existence? Thats the trouble about lying. A lie does not live long enough to do one practical good. Thats the trouble about shrewd, satanic victories. They are shortly over. Even death could retain its hold upon the Christ but three days. Deception is the devils method. Thats why he, himself, will be eventually undone. When the end of this age shall come and Satan, loosed out of prison for a little season, shall have compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, the victory will be short-lived.
The league was regarded as binding by Israel.
And the Children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.
But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.
This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them (Jos 9:18-20).
There are people who imagine that when they have entered a contract, if the other man does not keep all of his part, or if he has practiced deception in securing agreement, their pledge is thereby nullified. Not necessarily so! The word of Gods man ought to be good under almost any circumstances. We are not concerned to discuss here those hypothetical propositions with which some people pester themselves; namely, when a man has his pistol poked in your face and is threatening to take your life, are you permitted to employ any ruse to escape or retain your money? Are you privileged to deny the possession of any part of the same that might be on your person? Or, if he has kidnaped your child and is demanding a ransom, and you have met the ransom, and publicly agreed, through the press, not to prosecute, are you bound to keep your pledge? In our judgment, God is not the petty, exacting individual that takes no account of circumstances, that knows only the speech and demands the keeping of the last farthing of the same!
But there are great life contracts that bind Gods people, irrespective of whether the other party has deceived or is proving dependable. They are purchasers of land on contract basis, in which contract it is plainly said that if the purchaser fail to make payments on the exact date therein mentioned, he shall forfeit all his rights. But the highest courts have decided that rights are not so easily forfeited when once a man has made valuable investment.
There are instances in which a man and woman stand before the altar of marriage and take solemn vows to mutually love, honor, cherish and protect, and before many moons it may be discovered that certain deceptions were practiced in order to bring about the marriage, or that one party to the marriage is failing daily to fulfil, to the last letter, the pledges taken. Does that release the other from the keeping of his obligations? We think not! There are men who unite themselves with churches and subscribe to the covenants of the same, and then later, when something transpires in the church that is nonacceptable to them, they feel that their pledges of fidelity are no longer binding, and oftentimes refuse even to pay pledges of financial character. Are such righteously released? We think not!
Israels word was regarded by Israel herself as worth something, and pitiable is the man who does not so esteem his own speech when it takes the form of a pledge.
Israels new interpretation of this vow was in selfish interest. And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation (Jos 9:21).
There are ways of keeping ones word, and yet not keeping it, paradoxical as that may sound. You may let a man live and yet kill him daily. You may bring him forth from behind the iron bars of a prison house, and yet put him under the steel bars of ignoble slavery. It is not an uncommon thing in America for some man or woman, living on a farm, to approach a foundling asylum and propose the adoption of a child, and sign up all the legal papers essential to the same. In that instrument are contracts that pledge affection, clothes, food, parental care. And yet, how often those same people will take a child from a foundling asylum to farm slavery, and while granting him freedom of open air and of country spaces, make him as abject a slave as ever wrought under the lash of a Southern plantation. This is interpreting a league in self-interest, and Joshuas method was not vastly better, as recorded in Jos 9:23, Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. But this act was softened, somewhat, by the circumstance that
GIBEON VOLUNTARILY SUBMITTED TO SUBJUGATION
They frankly admitted their fear and falsehood.
And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing (Jos 9:24).
This raises a question, of course, as to which is better, slavery or death? Between the frightful horns of this dilemma, men have ever been supposed to have the right of choice, and the Gibeonites preferred the former. Can we blame them? No! Self-preservation is the first law of life. And yet, the man who saves his life by surrendering to an abject slavery, seldom excites the admiration of his fellows. The world is wont to admire and laud those heroes who prefer death to enslavement; who willingly submit themselves to the same rather than to subjugation.
Yet, the true man will hardly condemn those who love life and cling to the same, even at the cost of freedom. The language of the Gibeonites is the language of surrender. Behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do (Jos 9:25).
Joshua both saved! and enslaved them. So did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the Children of Israel, that they slew them not. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose (Jos 9:26-27).
There is a slavery that is sweet, and a bondage that is blessed. It may be possible that life under Joshua was a vast improvement upon what life in Gibeon had been. The black men of America were captured and carried away from Africa, and under the whip of taskmasters in America, made to daily drudge. And yet, who will say that American enslavement was not an improvement upon African freedom? The man who yields himself to our JoshuaJesus, becomes a slave. Paul counted himself a bond-slave of the Christ; and yet, experience has proven that such slavery is heaven in comparison with the hell of freedom known to the life of sin.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE GUILE OF THE GIBEONITES, AND THE LEAGUE WHICH THEY SECURED
CRITICAL NOTES.
Jos. 9:1. On this side Jordan]Lit., beyond Jordan; meaning the western side. The historian contemplates the invasion as having been made from the country east of Jordan. Hills valleys coasts] By the hills is meant the whole of the hill-country which became afterwards the territory of Judah and Ephraim; the valleys indicate the plain, or lowland, from Gaza to the Cape of Carmel; the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon include the country on the coasts of the Mediterranean from the bay of Acre to Tyre. The Hittite, etc.] The Girgashite is left out of this list. The Jewish tradition, sustained by Procopius, is that they fled the country on Joshuas approach, and settled in north-western Africa. Jos. 24:11, shews that if they did thus flee, they fought against Israel, with the other tribes of Canaan, before their flight (Crosby).
Jos. 9:2. With one accord] Lit., with one mouth, i.e., unanimously.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jos. 9:1-2
THE CONFEDERACY OF THE KINGS
When about four hundred years after this league was made and broken up, David wrote what we know as the second Psalm, it seems as if the history of this confederacy must have been more or less fully present to his mind. A devout lover of the word of God, he would be familiar with the incidents of the combination; and, as the scene of the battle recorded in chapter 10. was only a few miles from Jerusalem, he would be well acquainted with the very ground on which this southern half of the confederacy was defeated and destroyed. Who can say that the poet who was probably led to write the song of the thunder-storm (Psalms 29) to the movements of its own grand music, was not similarly influenced, on the human side, as he penned the prophetical lyric of the triumphs of the greater JOSHUA? We can almost think of David as just returned from Ajalon, and the remarkable pass of Beth-horon; as having read over, with a thrill of patriotism and piety, these yet exciting chapters of Joshua; as having his soul still moved by those exultant words from the book Jasher; and then as sitting down to write of those more glorious victories of the Son of God. Any way, the opening of this Psalm of wonderful prophecy reads almost like a song, prompted in part by this memorable history:Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: Jehovah shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and trouble them in His sore displeasure.
This combination of the kings of Canaan may be considered in the following aspects:
I. The influences by which it was provoked. When all the kings heard thereof, they gathered themselves together, to fight, etc. The tidings which led them to plan this league may not have been the tidings of any one event in particular. They had recently heard of a good many things, more than a little calculated to attract attention, and to incite to some common action. Let us think of some of these things which presently brought about this combination.
1. There was the anxiety that came from the Israelites victories. These runaway slaves from Egypt, who had been wandering up and down the southern deserts for forty years, like so many demented people, had actually overthrown the Amorites, all the Amorites on the eastern side of Jordan. Sihon and his people had fallen. Og and his people had fallen also. The men who formerly had dispossessed the giants, and taken their country, were now, in their turn, overthrown and slain by these slaves. Suddenly the news is spread over the whole land that these people have crossed the river. Not even the swellings of Jordan had sufficed to stop them. Then came the tidings that Jericho had fallen, and soon that Ai, too, had been entirely destroyed. No wonder that the country was stirred by reports like these, from Gaza even unto Tyre, (a.) So long as they walk with God, any people may be victorious. Walking in the way of holiness, even recently liberated bondsmen soon become triumphant soldiers of Christ. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength, because of Thine enemies. (b.) The victories of the past make way for yet more glorious triumphs in the future. They nerve and stimulate the conqueror; they dishearten and paralyse his foes.
2. There was the dismay that arose from the supernatural element. The staying of the waters of the Jordan, and the falling of the walls of Jericho, could not be other than the work of the God of heaven. These things must have reminded the Canaanites strongly of the traditions of the working of that same Almighty hand in the flood, from which their father Ham had escaped, and in the terrible destruction of Sodom. From the language of Rahab (chap. Jos. 2:10-11), and of the Gibeonites (Jos. 9:9), it is evident that there was still some knowledge of God, and faith in God, among these backsliding descendants of Noah. When the people saw and heard such evidences of the working of God as accompanied the entrance of the Israelites into their land, they might well feel overcome with dismay.
3. There was the hope which sprang from Israels defeat. These enemies of Canaan had been beaten at Ai; why might not the defeat which had been inflicted on them there be repeated elsewhere on a larger scale? What had been might be again. When they heard of this thing, perhaps then they took fresh courage, and resolved on this combination. Every defeat of a Christian is an encouragement to the world.
4. There was the provocation which arose from the religions service at Ebal. The Israelites were daring to behave as though already they were masters of the land. They had held a general convocation at which their laws had been proclaimed, at which their obedience had been avowed, at which an altar had been erected, and at which their God had been thanked and worshipped. And when the kings heard thereof, they gathered themselves together.
II. The spirit in which it was promoted.
1. The confederacy was formed in a spirit of rebellion against God. Not that the kings of Canaan wished to appear as acting against Jehovah. They would much have preferred to leave God entirely out of the question. But this could not be. In spite of themselves, they were constrained to believe that the Lord fought for Israel. It is worth while to notice that out of five instances in the book of Joshua, in which Canaanites are represented as speaking, three contain an expression of this conviction, and the remaining two are each merely the record of a command, and are so brief as not to exceed the limits of a single verse (cf. chapters Jos. 2:9-12; Jos. 9:9; Jos. 9:24; Jos. 2:3; Jos. 10:24). In every instance in the book in which a Canaanite speaks at any length, he confesses his belief in the God of heaven. Other grounds are furnished by the history for concluding that many of the inhabitants of the land felt that they were fighting, not merely against Israel, but against God. There is a point where opposition to men becomes rebellion against God. Where God is evidently with men, shewing that He shields and helps them as His people, to fight against them is to fight against Him.
2. This confederacy was formed in a feeling of hearty unanimity. They gathered together to fight with one accord; or, as stated in the margin, with one mouth. The voice of all, excepting the Gibeonites, was unanimously for the league. Thus while the Church is sometimes divided in its defence of the truth, the enemies of the Church are united and firm in their opposition. They willingly sacrifice private differences and feuds in their resistance of truth and righteousness. When Christ is to be tried, even Herod and Pilate are straightway made friends.
III. The instrumentality by which it was anticipated and weakened. The unanimity of the inhabitants of the land was hearty as far as it went, but it was not complete.
1. The combination of the Canaanites was broken by a serious defection among themselves. The Gibeonites went over to the other side of Israel. Although not required or permitted to take any active part in the war, the Gibeonites, by their secession, placed four important cities in the hands of the enemies of their country. (a.) Christ overcomes the world by the world. In His army, those who fight for Him were once contending against Him. The world is ever going over to the Church. The foremost Christian leaders of to-day, and of every age, were once opposed to the Saviour, (b.) Christ attacks individual men from within themselves. The human conscience invariably goes over to the side of truth; then the affections, the intellect, and the man often follow.
2. For the purposes of the war, the position of these cities of the Gibeonites was among the most important in all the land. With them in his possession, Joshua was able to break up the confederacy of the kings, almost ere it was formed. As Professor Wilkins has remarked, he was able to drive his army like a wedge into the very heart of the hostile country, and strike his blows right and left at the isolated divisions of the enemy. The geographical position of nations has not been lost sight of by Providence in the conflicts of the cross. When England went over to Christ, Christianity obtained a stronghold in the very centre of the worlds future commerce and enterprise
3. The time of the Gibeonite secession was no less important than the fact itself. Just as the kings of Canaan had all combined to resist the Israelites, this defection of the Gibeonites severed the new union into halves. The southern confederacy hastened to wreak its vengeance on the traitorous cities; Joshua hastened to succour them, and ere the northern kings could join in the conflict, the southern half of the kingdom had fallen for ever. Thus, as events proved, no time could have been more favourable for the league of the Gibeonites with Israel. Thus, too, has it been in the history of the Church. When the faith of men in the Romish hierarchy was shaken by the corruptions of priests like Tetzel, Luther went over to Christ. The history of Christianity in England offers similar parallels. The events even now occurring in connection with central Africa, suggest similar thoughts. The results of recent missionary and geographical expeditions, and of events in Egypt and the South-east of Europe, seem as if working together and concentrating for the spiritual redemption of a long-neglected and degraded people.
IV. The ease with which it was utterly destroyed. As the after history shews, the very efforts which the Canaanites made to defend themselves only served to haste: their overthrow. Apparently the combined forces of the kings effected no more harm than was done at Jericho, and not so much as was wrought at Ai. The battle at Gibeon was a rout, and that which was subsequently fought at the waters of Merom was little better.
1. The number and power of the enemies of the Cross need offer no discouragement to the soldiers of Christ.
2. He fights safely and victoriously, who fights with God.
3. Every conflict between truth and error does but hasten the time when Christ shall have dominion from sea to sea. He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos. 9:1-2.THE WITNESS OF LAST HOURS.
To the Israelites, or to the Canaanites, the end of life was rapidly approaching. Things had gone too far for any retreat, or for any room to hope for much mercy. Henceforth, manifestly, as it had really been from the first, the war was unto death. One nation or the other was about to be swept from off the earth. These possibilities of the end bear witness in every man. The secret places of the heart are turned towards the light. A dying man finds concealment difficult. The crisis without makes a revelation within. The hidden things, for once, come outside. Consciousness informs demeanour, and demeanour informs every beholder.
In the light of these final struggles between the representatives of truth and of idolatry, mark:
I. The harried excitement of the sinfal.
II. The strong confidence of be lievers.
III. The majestio calmness of God.
THE FOLLY OF THE WICKED
I. The foolish delays of the un godly. Why was not this confederacy formed earlier? The overthrow of Sihon and Og might have been a sufficient warning that Israel was not an enemy to be despised as insignificant. Why did not the combined forces of the kings of Canaan meet the Israelites at the Jordan, and dispute with them the passage of the river? The ungodly are ever behind in preparing for the dangers of their future.
II. The mistaken action of the ungodly. After the displays of Gods power at the Jordan, and at Jericho, this league was manifestly going from bad to worse. The folly of the former delay, looking at it on the human side, was now equalled by the folly of the present movement. It is not seldom Gods way to take the wicked in their own net, and to bind them fast by their own mistakes.
The Canaanites might have seen themselves in Jericho and Ai, and have well perceived it was not an arm of flesh that they must resist; yet they gather their forces, and say, Tush, we shall speed better. It is madness in a man not to be warned, but to run upon the point of those judgments wherewith he sees others miscarry, and not to believe till he cannot recover. Our assent is purchased too late, when we have overstayed prevention, and trust to that experience which we cannot redeem.Bp. Hall.]
As once the Canaanites against Israel, so still and ever the foes of God gather themselves together to fight against Him and His Church.[Lange.]
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The League of Kings Against Israel Jos. 9:1-2
And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the Great Sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
2 That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.
1.
What divisions of Canaan are mentioned? Jos. 9:1
Canaan was a land made up of hills which formed the center of the country. The Jordan River formed a valley which ran the entire length of the land. This river was on the east side of the country, and on the west side was the Mediterranean Sea. This land area is described as all the coasts of the great sea. There were mountainous areas, and the main range was the Lebanon Mountains which were on the north of the country. By mentioning all these areas the author is giving us the impression that the league took in kings from all over the country. These were leaders of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. All of them were Canaanite people.
2.
Were these kings usually in league with one another? Jos. 9:2
When the twelve spies came back from looking over the land they said it was a country which eateth up the inhabitants thereof (Num. 13:32). This may be a reference to the fact that these kings were constantly at war with each other. Certainly they were often attacked from the east and the south as kings from Mesopotamia and the Nile regions vied with each other for control of the land. Probably these kings were not normally united; but when they had a common foe, they forgot their usual differences and entered into a pact against Joshua and the Israelites.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IX.
PREPARATIONS OF THE CANAANITES FOR WAR.
(1, 2) These verses record the general preparation of the natives of Canaan for the last struggle with Joshua.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE CANAANITES CONFEDERATED, Jos 9:1-2.
1. All the kings Palestine was divided into many petty sovereignties, the heads of which were dignified by this title.
This side Jordan Literally, beyond Jordan, but meaning here, as the context shows, the west side of Jordan. See note on Jos 1:14.
In the hills Or, in the mountain. The reference is to the entire mountain range which forms the backbone of Palestine.
In the valleys Or, in the Shephelah. This word designates the maritime plain of Philistia, and might well be translated the low countries.
Great sea The Mediterranean.
Coasts over against Lebanon The Phenician plain. Canaanites from even these remoter parts joined this confederacy. On the Canaanitish tribes here mentioned, see note on Jos 3:10.
Heard thereof Not of the demonstration at Ebal and Gerizim, but of the rapid conquests of Joshua. The word thereof, supplied by our translators, is better omitted.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The General Fear Of Israel ( Jos 9:1-2 ).
As a result of the news getting around of the presence of the Israelites, and of what they had already done, the independent Canaanite cities became very much afraid and began to plot what they could do in order to oust these ‘strangers’. Each began to muster its forces with the intention of resisting Israel’s presence in the land, for they were quite well aware that in the end it could spell disaster for themselves. And some even began to get together in confederacies.
Jos 9:1
‘ And so it was that when all the kings who were Beyond Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland, and on all the shore of the Great Sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard of it.’
Note here the use of Beyond Jordan (compare ‘Beyond Jordan westward’ – Jos 5:1). It would seem that the name could apply to land on both sides of the River regardless of where the speaker was. It was a region on either side of the Jordan, especially the land in the Jordan Rift, the Arabah. The point of the whole description here is to include the whole of Canaan. The Arabah, the hill country (central mountain range), the lowlands (the Shephelah – the lower slopes to the south and the south west), the coastal plain, right to the Mediterranean (the Great Sea) and up to the Lebanon Range (compare Deu 1:7).
The kings of all these people heard ‘about it’. Was this about the children of Israel and their arrival? Or was it about the covenant ceremony and the absorption of a Shechem which was already somewhat feared because of its previous activities? Or was it about the writing of the Law of YHWH on the stones, a sign of taking possession of the land for their warlike God. Or was it about the defeat of Ai and Bethel? Or was it about all four? ‘It’ does in fact probably mean ‘all that was happening’.
For the idea compare Jos 5:1. These six nations are also mentioned in Jos 11:3; Jos 12:8 compare Exo 3:8; Exo 3:17; Exo 23:23; Exo 33:2; Exo 34:11; Deu 20:17; Jdg 3:5 but given in differing orders. In Jos 3:10; Jos 24:11; Deu 7:1, the Girgashites are added. They reveal something of the mixed nature of the ‘Canaanite’ population.
Jos 9:2
‘That they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua, and with Israel, with one accord.’
This was not intended to indicate that they formed a huge alliance, although some did form alliances, but that each in his own way gathered his forces ready to meet this new threat and consulted with neighbours, while also making wider contact with others. They were all of one mind, acting at the same time, although semi-independently. The whole country was stirred by what it was hearing. It is, however, quite possible that messengers gradually passed between them all, in spite of the difficulty of travel, so that there was specific spoken general agreement between them.
Their aim was to fight ‘Joshua and Israel’, Joshua as the great general and leader and Israel as the people of God (and in their eyes as the intruders). The mention of both brings out that the latter is being stressed. A nation would normally be assumed without mention when its leader was mentioned. But the reason for it was partly because Israel had to be faced on two fronts, on the one hand as a large army under Joshua, and on the other as a people as a whole gradually encroaching and settling in different areas.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel’s Covenant with the Gibeonites Jos 9:1-27 records the story of Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites. In Deu 20:10-20 Moses delivered the laws on how Israel was to make treaties with foreign cities and nations. However, in the initial conquest of Canaan, led by Joshua, it was understood that there would be no treaties. God had commanded these Canaanite cities and people to be destroyed. During the following periods of Israel’s expansion such treaties would be allowed. It was only through deceit and craftiness that Gibeonites managed to form a treaty with Israel. This story shows a great example of how a culture of cleverness engages with a culture of integrity. If a person does not use wisdom, or obtain the Lord’s counsel as Israel failed to do, then he is easily taken advantage of. This is why Jesus told His disciples, “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” (Mat 10:16)
Jos 9:1-2 Comments Introduction – Jos 9:1-2 serves as an introduction to Israel’s southern and northern campaigns against the Canaanite kings, which is recorded in Jos 9:3 to Jos 11:15. Israel’s conquest of Canaan will be summarized in Jos 11:16-23, with a subsequent list of defeated kings given in Jos 12:1-24.
Jos 9:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
Jos 9:2 Jos 9:8 Jos 9:8
Jos 9:9 And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
Jos 9:9
Jos 9:15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
Jos 9:15
Exo 23:32, “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.”
Exo 34:12, “Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Gibeonites Deceive Joshua and the Princes
v. 1. And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, v. 2. that they gathered themselves together, v. 3. And when the inhabitants of Gibeon, v. 17. heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and Ai, v. 4. they did work wilily, v. 5. and old shoes and clouted upon their feet, v. 6. And they went to Joshua, unto the camp at Gilgal, v. 7. And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, v. 8. And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants, v. 9. And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord, thy God; for, v. 10. and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon, king of Heshbon, and to Og, king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. v. 11. Wherefore our elders, v. 12. v. 13. and these bottles, skins, of wine, which we filled, were new, and, behold, they be rent; and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. v. 14. And the men, v. 15. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
THE GIBEONITES.
Jos 9:1
And it came to pass, when all the kings. According to the explanation given above (Jos 6:5, Jos 6:15) of the particle with the infinitive, this must mean immediately. We must therefore suppose that the distance at which they lived from the scene of the events had prevented them from comprehending their astounding character so clearly as those who lived in the immediate neighbourhood (see Jos 2:11; Jos 5:1; Jos 6:1). The kings (see Introduction). In the hills. “The land is classified under three heads: the hills (or mountain district), the plain, and the sea coast over against Lebanon” (Keil). The hills are not the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon range, the operations against which are detailed in Jos 11:1-23; but the mountains of Ephraim and Judah. The word translated “valleys” here is neither nor (see above note on Jos 3:16), but or low country, i.e; the great plain from Joppa, or Carmel, to Gaza. The or sea coast probably refers to the coast between Type and Joppa. The Hittite. The Girgashites are the only tribe omitted here from the list in Jos 3:10.
Jos 9:2
With one accord. One mouth, according to the Hebrew, referring not merely to their opinions, but to the expression of them. “O that Israel would learn this of Canaanites, to sacrifice private interests to the public welfare, and to lay aside all animosities among themselves, that they may cordially unite against the common enemies of God’s kingdom” (Matthew Henry).
Jos 9:3
The inhabitants of Gibeon. That is, of a confederation of cities (see Jos 9:17), of which Gibeon was the head. Gibeon was a city of some importance (Jos 10:2). Though it was for size and importance “as one of the royal cities,” we hear nothing of a king there. Hengstenberg, in his history, describes it as “eine freie Stadt,” with daughter cities dependent on it. In fact, the Phoenician cities (see Introduction) seem to have had as great a variety of constitution as those of ancient Greece. Its inhabitants were Hivites (Jos 9:7, and Jos 11:19). Its name (compare Gibeah and a hill) signifies hill city, like the termination dunum in Latin, as Lugdunum, or Lyons; dune in Anglo-Saxon, as Ethandune. Compare also Dunkirk. Robinson, in his ‘Biblical Researches,’ 2:135-9, identifies it with el-Jib, a village on an eminence in the midst of a fertile plain, where the remains of large buildings may still be seen. (So Vandevelde and Condor) “Onely the Hivites are wiser than their fellowes, and will rather yeeld and live. Their intelligence was not diverse from the rest; all had equally heard of the miraculous conduct and successe of Israel; but their resolution was diverse. As Rahab saved her family in the midst of Jericho, so these foure cities preserved themselves in the midst of Canaan; and both of them by beleeving what God would do. The efficacie of God’s marvellous works is not in the acts themselves, but in our apprehension” (Bp. Hall).
Jos 9:4
They did work wilily. Rather, and they workedthey alsowith craft. The reference, no doubt, is to the confederacy of the other kings. The Gibeonites also acted upon what they had heard, but they preferred an accommodation to war. So Calvin and Rosenmuller; also Drusius. And they felt that they could only effect their purpose by craft. Other explanations are given, such as that a reference is made to Joshua’s stratagem at Ai. Keil rejects both, and proposes an explanation of his own, which is unintelligible. Origen’s interpretation here is interesting as a specimen of the theology of the third century. He regards the Gibeonites as the type of men who, though they are enrolled in the Church as believers and have faith in God, and acquiesce in all the Divine precepts, and are ready enough to take part in all the external duties of religion, are yet involved in vices and foulnesses, like the Gibeonites in their old garments and clouted shoes. They display no signs of improvement or alteration, yet Jesus our Lord concedes to them salvation, even though that salvation does not escape a certain stigma of disgrace. That there may be some persons in a condition somewhat resembling this described by Origen may be admitted, but it is difficult to see how any one in a state of salvation can display no signs of improvement whatever. There are many who do not improve as they might, whom we should yet hesitate to pronounce altogether reprobate from God. But surely the entire absence of all improvement is a manifest sign of reprobation. This passage is one of many among the voluminous works of Origen in which that holy and learned man has not sufficiently weighed what he was saying (see below, verse 23). Made as if they had been ambassadors. “Sent an embassy” (Luther). If we take this reading, we must suppose, with Grotius and others, the word to be the Hithpahel of to go, to revolve. But the form is rare, and the word is elsewhere unknown, at least in Hebrew, though an Arabic form of it is found. It is therefore better to read “they prepared themselves provisions.” This is the reading of the LXX; the Vulgate, the Chaldee, the Syriac, and of most modern editors. It is rendered still more probable by the occurrence of the same word in verse 12. Old sacks. Rather, worn out, and so throughout the passage. The usual mode of conveyance still in the East is in sackcloth bags on the backs of horses, mules, camels, and asses. Such bags are apt to meet with rough usage in a long journey. Wine bottles. Rather, wine skins, the wine then being kept in skins, not in vessels of glass. This explains how they could be burst open () and tied up. These skins were hung up frequently in the smoke (Psa 119:83), which gave them a shrivelled appearance. The first bottles were made of such skins, as Herodotus tells us. The Egyptian monuments confirm his statements, displaying as they do skins of animals so used, with the legs or the neck forming what we still term the “neck” of the bottle (cf. Homer, Iliad, 4:247, ). Similar bottles are depicted on the walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the like may be seen still in Italian villages. They were pitched over at the seams to prevent leakage. Bound up. The usual mode of mending in the East, except when a patch is inserted, is to tie or sew up the hole.
Jos 9:5
Shoes. Literally, things tied on; i.e; sandals, attached with straps to the sole of the foot. Clouted, i.e; patched. The intensive Pual suggests that they were very much patched. The participle Kal is translated “spotted” in Gen 30:32, Gen 30:33, Gen 30:35. Mouldy. literally, marked with points, i.e; mildewed, Provision . “Proprie vendtionem” (Vatablus). “Panis enim mucidus punctis respersus est albis viridibus et nigris” (Rabbi David, in libro Radicum). So the LXX; Theodotion, and Luther. This gives a better sense and more according to the derivation than the interpretation crumbs of bread, given by Gesenius and Keil, after Aquila, Symmachus, and the Vulgate, which has “in fustra comminuti.” The cracknels (the same word in Hebrew as here) in 1Ki 14:3 were probably biscuits marked with points by a sharp pointed instrument, in the same way as the Jewish passover cakes are at the present day.
Jos 9:6
To the camp at Gilgal. Many commentators, among whom we may number Vandevelde and the recent Palestine Exploration Expedition, suppose that the Gilgal mentioned here is another Gilgal, and certainly the supposition derives great force from the fact that there is a place the modern name of which is Jiljilia, situated near the oaks of Moreh, whose situation would be far more central, and would fall in better with the rest of the history (see notes on Jos 8:30), than the original Gilgal. That such a second Gilgal is known to Jewish history would appear from Deu 11:30, where its situation is clearly pointed out as that of the modern Jiljilia, near the oaks of Moreh, and near the Arabah (champaign, Authorised Version), which runs in that direction. Jiljulieh, in the plain of Sharon, is supposed by Vandevelde and the Palestine explorers to be a third Gilgal, and Jerome, in his ‘Onomasticon,’ has identified it (see note on Jos 12:23). The Gilgal in 1Sa 13:4-12 seems to require a central position like that of Jiljilia, rather than a place near the fords of Jordan. As Ewald reminds us, the earlier Gilgal lay out of the road from Jericho to Bethel (see also 2Ki 2:1-6). The only argument against such a second Gilgal is the improbability of a removal of the camp without any mention of such removal by the historian, and the improbability of there having been a second Gilgal as the place of encampment of the Israelites. It is possible, however, that the second great place of encampment received the memorable name of the first, from the keen sense that the Israelitish encampment was the abode of a people from which the “reproach of Egypt” was forever rolled away. Another explanation is suggested by a comparison of Jos 15:7 with Jos 18:17 (see note on the former passage). The second Gilgal, if it really existed, was well suited for its purpose. “It was in the centre of the country, situated upon a steep hill, with a good table land at the top, and commanded a most extensive prospect of the large plain in the west, and also towards the north and east” (Keil)precisely the place which an able general would be likely to select. Though “in a high position” (Vandevelde), it was “lower than Gibeon,” and was “an hour west of Sinjil on the Jerusalem Shechem road.” Its situation enabled Joshua to strike a decisive blow without delay (Jos 10:7, Jos 10:9). It is clear that this suggestion entirely obviates the difficulty of the concluding verses of Jos 8:1-35. And as the name implies a circular form as well as motion, and early camps were usually circular, it may have been the ordinary name for an encampment among the Hebrews.
Jos 9:7
And the men of Israel said. The Keri here has the singular number instead of the Chethibh plural, in consequence of Israel speaking of itself collectively in the word and of the singular . But this last with a plural verb, as a noun of multitude, occurs in the historical books in places too numerous to mention. See, for instance, 1Sa 14:22, just as in many passages, e.g; 2Sa 18:7, is the nominative to a plural verb. The Hivites (see note on 2Sa 18:3). Peradventure ye dwell among us, and how can we make a league with you? This was strictly forbidden in Exo 23:32; Exo 34:12; Deu 7:2, in reference to neighbouring nations, on account of the polluting influence their example had exercised (Num 25:1-3), and was sure to exercise, as the subsequent history of the Israelites from Jdg 2:1-23 onwards, proves.
Jos 9:8
We are thy servants. This does not mean altogether, as Jos 9:9 shows, that the Gibeonites intended by this embassy to reduce themselves to servitude. Their object, as Grotius remarks, was rather to form an alliance on terms of something like equality. The phrase was one common in the East as a token of respect (e.g; Gen 32:4, Gen 32:18; Gen 50:18; 2Ki 10:5; 2Ki 16:7). But no doubt the Gibeonites (see Jos 9:11) expected to have a tribute laid on them. And they would willingly accept such an impost, for, as Ewald remarks ( ‘History of Israel,’ Jos 4:3), their object was “to secure the peace which a mercantile inland city especially requires” (see also note on Jos 3:10). From whence come ye? Joshua uses the imperfect, not the perfect, tense here. Commentators are divided about its meaning. Some suppose that the perfect, “from whence have ye come?” is mere direct and abrupt than “from whence may you have come?” or, “from whence were you coming?” and certainly an indirect question is in most languages considered more respectful than a direct one (see Gen 42:7). But perhaps with Ewald we may regard it simply as implying that their mission was still in progress.
Jos 9:9
And they said unto him. “I commend their wisdom in seeking peace; I do not commend their falsehood in the manner of seeking it. Who can looke for any better in pagans?” (Bp. Hall) It is worthy of the craft of the Gibeonites that they evade the first question, and as it is of vital importance to the success of their mission, they throw their whole force upon the second. The course of conduct enjoined on Joshua had reached the ears of the Canaanitish peoples, as we learn from verse 24. They also take good care to say nothing of the more recent successes of the Israelites. With consummate astuteness they confine themselves to the successes “beyond Jordan.” No wonder such mastery of the arts of deceit should have imposed on the Israelites. But inasmuch as the historian lacked the stimulus of that “necessity” which is proverbially “the mother of invention,” we must recognise here a sign of the genuineness of the narrative.
Jos 9:10
Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan (see Num 21:21, Num 21:35). Ashtaroth (see Jos 12:4; Jos 13:31; also Deu 1:4). In Num 21:1-35. Edrei only is mentioned. This is not the Ashtaroth-Karnaim of Gen 14:5, which is so called from the worship of the horned Astarte, or crescent (see below), to distinguish it from this Ashtaroth. The two cities were close together. Eusebius and Jerome state that they were only nine miles apart. The site of this city has been identified with Tel Ashtereh, in a wide plain on the east of Jordan. It appears as Astaratu in the Karnak list of cities captured by Thothines III. The name has been identified with the Assyrian Ishtar, the Persian, Greek, and Latin aster and our star. So Gesenius, ‘Thesaurus,’ s.v. Whence Lucian seems to have been wrong in his idea that the worship of Astarte, like that of Artemis at Ephesus, was that of the moon. But Rawlinson, in his ‘Ancient Monarchies,’ decides against this identification. The last mention of this city in Jewish history is in the bold and successful expedition of Judas Maccabaeus into Gilead, in which he penetrated as far as this city (called Kar-naim), and brought the Jews residing there and in the neighbourhood to Jerusalem (1 Macc. 6). Kuenen, in his ‘History of the Religion of Israel,’ makes a distinction between the worship of Ashtaroth and of Asherah. The former he regards as the worship of the moon, and a pure worship; the latter of Venus, and an impure one. But though Asherah and Ashtaroth, or Ashtoreth, are undoubtedly distinct, yet both worships may have been impure, as the worship of Artemis of the Ephesians (the Diana Multimamma, or the image of fecundity) unquestionably was. “It is probable,” says Mr. G. Smith, “that the first intention in the mythology was only to represent love as heaven born, but in time a more sensual view prevailed, and the worship of Ishtar became one of the darkest features in Babylonian mythology.” The Babylonian Mylitta, or Venus, was worshipped under a crescent form, as Babylonian sculptures prove. A Syrian altar with the crescent on it is now in the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge. It has a female figure on one side, with the crescent, and a male figureof Baal, no doubton the other. Another is mentioned in a late able article in the Times, as having been found in Carehemish, the Hittite capital. The Chaldaean astronomers had, no doubt, discovered the use of telescopes (though in the translucent sky of Chaldaea perhaps the crescent Venus might be seen without them), for we find Saturn represented on their monuments with a ring. Consequently the worship of the crescent Venus involves no anachronism. Asherah, often wrongly translated “grove” in our version (see Jdg 6:25), is probably the goddess Fortune, derived from , happiness. Ashtaroth is spelt not with Aleph, but with Ain.
Jos 9:11
Our elders. Gibeon and its allied cities did not possess a regal government (see note on Jos 9:3).
Jos 9:14
And the men took of their victuals. Most commentators prefer this rendering to that of the margin, “and they received the men because of their victuals.” The natural explanationthough several others are given, for which see Keil in loc.would seem to be that the Israelites relied on the evidence of their senses, instead of upon the counsel of God. They could see the condition of the garments, sacks, and wine skins of the Gibeonites. They tasted of their victuals to convince themselves of the truth of those statements of which the sight was insufficient to take cognisance. And asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. Even in the most obvious matter it is well not to trust too implicitly to our own judgment. Nothing could seem more clear or satisfactory than the account given of themselves by the Gibeonitesnothing more easy for the unassisted intellect to decide. And yet Joshua and the congregation were deceived. It is perhaps too much to say, with some commentatorsMaurer, for instancethat Joshua disobeyed a plain command in acting thus. The passage in which Joshua is instructed to “stand up before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him at the judgment of Urim before the Lord” (Num 27:18-23), does not require him to do so in all cases. But it was clearly “an act of gross carelessness” (Calvin). And the inference may safely be drawn that in no case whatever is it wise to trust to ourselves. However obvious our course may be, we shall do well to take counsel with God by prayer.
Jos 9:15
The princes of the congregation. Literally, the exalted ones, of the congregation, “Die obersten der gemeine” (Luther); that is, the heads of the various tribes (see Num 1:44; and note on Jos 7:14).
Jos 9:17
On the third day. After the trick was discovered. Keil remarks that we need not suppose that the three days were consumed on the march. Not only did Joshua, when celerity was necessary, perform the journey in a single night, but the whole distance was not more than eighteen or twenty miles, if we accept the hypothesis of a second Gilgal. Now their cities were. Beeroth still exists, we are told, as el-Bireh (Robinson 2:132. So also Vaudcvelde and Conder). Jerome identified it with a place only seven miles from Jerusalem, which is an obvious error. It contains nearly 700 inhabitants, and is only about twenty minutes’ walk from el-Jib, or Gibeon. Kirjath-jearim (the name means the city of forests) is well known in the history of Israel (e.g; Jdg 18:12). But it is, chiefly remarkable for the twenty years sojourn of the ark there (1Sa 7:2). It was also known by the name of Baalah, Kirjath-Baal (Jos 15:9, Jos 15:60; 2Sa 6:2). The Hivites seem to have been removed thence (probably to Gibeon), for there is no trace of any non-Jewish element in the population in the account of the reception of the ark among them (see 1Sa 6:1-21). It is called Baale of Judah in 2Sa 6:2 (cf. Jos 18:15). The Jewish population seems to be due to one of the posterity of Caleb (see 1Ch 2:50-53). Modern explorers, with the exception of Lieut. Conder, have identified Kirjath-jearim with Kuriet-el-Enab, “the city of the grape,” about four miles from el-Jib, or Gibeon. This is the opinion of Robinson and Vandevelde. Supposing it to be near Beth-shemesh, on the authority of Josephus, Lieut. Conder places it at ‘Arma, west of Bethlehem, and identifies the waters of Nepbtoah with a fountain nearly due south of the valley of giants or Rephaim (see Jos 15:9). But this is too far from Gibeon. He identifies Kuriet-el-Enab with Kirjath in Jos 18:28, and regards this as one of the cities of Benjamin within the border. But this Kirjath may be Kirjath-jearim, and may as reasonably, standing on the border, be accounted to belong to both tribes, as Zorah, Eshtaol (mentioned in the boundaries of Judah and Dan), Beth-arahah, possibly Gibeah or Gibeath (belonging to Judah and Benjamin), and even Jerusalem itself (see Jos 15:53). The identification of Kirjath-jearim with Kuriet-el-Enab, of the waters of Nephtoah with Ain Lifta, giving a line running northwestward from the valley of Rephaim, seems more probable as the border of Judah and Benjamin, and the word “compassed,” or rather deflected, adds probability to this interpretation (see Jos 15:9, Jos 15:10, and notes).
Jos 9:18
And the children of Israel smote them not. There is great difference of opinion among the commentators as to whether this oath were binding off the Israelites or not. This difference is to be found among Roman Catholics as well as Protestants, and Cornelius a Lapide gives the ingenious and subtle arguments used on both sides by the Jesuit commentators. Many contend that as it was obtained by fraud, and especially by a representation that the Gibeonites did not belong to the tribes which Joshua was specially commanded to destroy (see Deu 20:10-18, with which compare the passages cited in note on Deu 20:7), it was null and void, ab initio. But the Israelites had sworn by the sacred name of Jehovah to spare the Gibeonites. It would have been to degrade that sacred name, and possibly (verse 20) to bring trouble on themselves, to break that oath under any pretence whatever. If they had been deceived the fault was their own. The Jehovah by whom they swore had provided them with a ready mode of detecting such deceit, had they chosen to use it. Calvin, though he thinks the princes of the congregation were unnecessarily scrupulous, remarks on the superiority of Israelitish to Roman morals. It would have been easy enough for the congregation to argue, as the Romans did after the disaster at the Candine Forks, that the agreement was of no effect, because it was not made with the whole people. Cicero, however, had no sympathy with such morality. He writes (‘De Officiis,’ 1.13), “Atque etiam si quid singuli temporibus adducti, hosti promiserunt, est in eo ipso tides conservanda.” And not a few instances of similar perfidy since the promulgation of Christianity may lead us to the conclusion that the example of Israel trader Joshua is not yet superfluous. As instances of such perfidy, we may adduce the battle of Varna, in 1444, in which Ladislaus, king of Hungary, was induced by the exhortations of Cardinal Julian to break the truce he bad entered into with Amurath, sultan of the Turks. It is said in this case that Amurath, in his distress, invoked Jesus Christ to punish the perfidy of His disciples. Be that as it may, a signal defeat fitly rewarded their disregard of truth. Later instances may be drawn from the conflict between Spain and the Netherlands in the latter part of the sixteenth century, in which the Spaniards frequently and wantonly, in the supposed interests of religion, violated the articles of capitulation formally entered into with the insurgents. These breakers of their plighted word also found that “wrath was upon them;” that God would not prosper the arms of those who, professedly for His sake, were false to their solemn obligations. Both the princes, in the narrative before us, in withstanding the wrath of the congregation, and the congregation in yielding to their representations, present a spectacle of moral principle which few nations have surpassed. Cornelius a Lapide, after giving the opinions of others, as we have seen, and remarking on the opinion here followed as “probabilior,” sums up in the following noble and manly words: “Disce hic quam sancte fides, praesertim jurata, sit servanda hosti, etiam impio et infideli. Fide enim sublata, evertitur omnis hominum contractus et societas, quae fidei quasi basi innititur, ut homines jam non homines, sed leones, tygrides, et ferae esse videantur.” Would that his Church had always acted upon these insatiable principles of justice and morality! In after years a terrible famine visited the Israelites as a chastisement for the infringement of this agreement (see 2Sa 21:1-9). Murmured. Literally, were stubborn.
Jos 9:20
Lest wrath be upon us. The original is not quite so strong: “and wrath will not be upon us ( , LXX).
Jos 9:21
Said unto them, i.e; to the Israelites. But let them be. Rather, and they were, with Rosenmuller and Keil. See Keil in loc. for the force of the Vau conversive. The LXX. and Vulgate render as our version. Hewers of wood and drawers of water. Some amount of casuistry has been displayed upon this passage. But the fairness of the proceeding seems clear enough. The Gibeonites had escaped death by a fraud. For that fraud they deserved punishment. Their lives were spared by virtue of a solemn oath. But equality of rights had never been promised them. They might think themselves well off if they escaped destruction, even though they might be condemned permanently to occupy a servile condition. They appear to have assisted at the tabernacle worship, since they were condemned to serve, not individual Israelites, but the congregation. Such was the office of the (Nethinhim i.e; the given or devoted) in the later history of Judah (see 1Ch 9:2; Ezr 2:43-54, Ezr 2:58, Ezr 2:70; and Ezr 8:20. See also Drusius and Masius in loc). The latter discusses the question whether the Nethinim were really the Gibeonites, or whether David, as stated in Ezr 8:20, instituted a new order of persons to take their place. If the latter were the case, then we have a proof that the Book of Joshua was written anterior to the time of David. It seems quite possible that Saul (2Sa 21:6) had all but exterminated the Gibeonites, and that David was compelled to institute a new order in their stead. If this suggestion be correct, and it is far from improbable, we have here an undesigned coincidence strongly supporting the credit of the narrative, in the place of Knobel’s insinuation, contained in the words, that “the Elohist in Saul’s time gives no hint of this, although he took the greatest interest in the persons engaged in God’s service.” As the princes had promised them. These words as they stand are unintelligible. No such promise had been given. The literal rendering is “as the princes” (see note on verse 15) “said to them,” by the mouth of Joshua, as recorded in verse 23. The Syriac Version supplies some words here to make up for a supposed deficiency in the text. But this is not necessary. The repetition in verses 23 and 27 is quite in the manner of the historian. Nor are the words “as the princes said to them” explicable on the supposition that the words after, “let them live,” are the words of the princes (see note above).
Jos 9:23
There shall none of you be freed from being bondmen. Literally, as margin, there shall not be cut off from you a servant, as in 2Sa 3:29, and 1Ki 2:4. The sense is, “you shall not cease to be servants.” The term “bondmen” is somewhat too strong. The was usually a bondman among the Hebrews, but not always (see 1Sa 29:3; 1Ki 11:26, etc). But the Gibeonites were to be employed forever in servile work. Hewing of wood and drawing of water was a task frequently imposed on the strangers (probably captives) dwelling among the Israelites, as we learn from Deu 29:11. We are not directly told that, as Keil and others have stated, the “lowest of the people” had to perform this office. It is, however, implied that the stranger who performed it occupied the lowest social station in the community. “Si qui tales sunt in nobis, quorum tides tantummodo habet ut ad Ecclesiam veniant, et inclinent caput suum sacerdotibus, officia exhibeant, servos Dei honorent, ad ornatum quoque altaris vel Ecclesiae aliquid conferant, non tamen adhibeant studium ut etiam mores suos excolant, actus emendent, vitia deponant, castitatem colant, iracundiam mitigent, avaritiam reprirnant, rapacitatem refrenant, maleloquia et stultiloquia, vel scurrilitatem et obtrectationum venena ex ore suo non adimant, sciant sibi, qui tales sunt, qui emendare se nolunt, sed in his usque in senectutem ultimam perseverant, partem sortemque at Jesu Domino cum Gabaonitis esse tribuendam“.
Jos 9:24
The Lord thy God Commanded (see Exo 23:32; Deu 7:1, Deu 7:2). The prophecies of Moses during their sojourn in “the plains of Jordan by Jericho” (see Num 22:1-41. sqq). We were sore afraid. Prophesied in Exo 15:14.
Jos 9:26
That they slew them not. See Jos 9:18, which attributes the preservation of the Gibeonites to the action of the heads of tribes. Perhaps this should be rendered, and they slew them not.
Jos 9:27
And for the altar (see note on Jos 9:21). In the place which he should choose. This phrase, and especially the use of the imperfect tense, implies that Solomon’s temple was not yet built. The ark of God, and the tabernacle which contained it, had several resting places before its final deposition in the temple (see note on Jos 24:1). And the grammatical construction just referred to also implies that there was more than one place. It is also clear, from the language of 2Sa 21:1-6, that this narrative was already in existence when that chapter was penned. It is equally clear that the author of this passage knew nothing of that (see Introduction).
HOMILETICS
Jos 9:1-27
God’s people off their guard.
This chapter contains the record of a venial sin; an act, that is, which was rather one of thoughtlessness than of deliberate intention to offend. It is one thing to forget for a moment God’s superintending providence, and to act without consulting Him. It is quite another to act systematically as if there were no God. Thus we read of no very serious results flowing from this inadvertence. God is “not extreme to mark what is done amiss,” and distinguishes between human infirmity and human depravity.
I. “THE CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD ARE WISER IN THEIR GENERATION THAN THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT.” The Canaanitish kings see the necessity of union. They act with one accord. It is strange that God’s people should find it more difficult to unite than others. It is, however, but an illustration of the old adage, “Corruptio opthni pessima.” It is zeal for the truth, which, when carried to an extreme, becomes bigotry, and leads to dissension. Thus the Jews at the siege of Jerusalem were divided among themselves when Titus and his legions were at the gates. So now Christians are quarrelling among themselves when infidelity is abroad, and threatening the very foundations of the Christian faith. We are wrangling about non-essentials as though they were essentials, and men thus come to think that there can be no truth at all among those who seem unable to agree on a single point. We strive for pre-eminence, social, political, numerical, and while we strive, the enemy of souls comes and carries off too many of the prizes for which we are contending. We are united upon the fundamentals of the Christian faith, yet we fail to see it ourselves, so eagerly do we contend for the objects of our unchastened desires. The heathen rebuke us, for they could act unitedly in a moment of danger for a common cause. The very devils shame us, for they combine to thwart, were it possible, the counsels of the Most High. It is only Christians who can carry on their intestine conflicts when the foe is thundering at the doors. Could we but learn
(1) what are the fundamentals of the Christian faith, and
(2) that whatever lies outside these is legitimate matter for argument and amicable controversy, but not for strife and disunion, we should no longer have to deplore souls lest to Christ for this cause, and it alone.
II. WE OUGHT TO REFER ALL OUR ACTIONS TO GOD. Joshua and the princes in this narrative made a distinction which many of us make, and which is not warranted by the Word of God; the distinction, that is, between matters of importance, which we should never think of deciding without prayer, and comparatively unimportant matters, in which the exercise of our own judgment is sufficient. But the truth is, that no matter is unimportant. Everything, strictly speaking, should be the subject of prayer; not necessarily of formal and prolonged prayer, but of a momentary ejaculation to God for help. This may be thought impossible, but it is in truth the secret of Christian perfection. “Pray without ceasing,” says the Apostle, and he only has the true key to Christian progress who has acquired the habit of continual approach to God in prayer. Prayer should be the golden thread which binds together our whole life, consecrating every act and thought of it silently and secretly to God’s service. This habit is only gained by perseverance, and it must itself be sought with prayer; but only he who has attained it can be truly said to “walk with God.”
III. A PROMISE IS SACRED, AND MUST BE KEPT AT ALL RISKS. There may, of course, be exceptional cases in which a promise may not be kept. If we have promised to do what is wrong, it were clearly worse to keep our promise than to break it. But then it must be clear that it would be morally wrong to keep our promise. Israelite casuistry here decides that a positive command of Godone, that is, which is not grounded upon a moral necessityis outweighed by the obligation to keep an oath. God had commanded them to make no covenant with the people of the land, and they had unwittingly bound themselves by an oath to break that command. It was a race point for the moralist. There was no moral necessity to put men to death. The command to exterminate the Canaanites was imposed upon them as the ministers of God’s vengeance. But the duty of keeping an oath was of universal obligation. To absolve one’s self from it would be to set one’s self free from the elementary principles of morality. Thus the duty of keeping one’s word is important enough to outweigh even a command of God, where that command is not of primary necessity. It would be wrong, for instance, to commit a murder, or a theft, because we had promised to do so. But if we had wrongly promised to neglect some one of the external duties of religion, it would seem that we were bound to keep our promise, unless it were clear that God’s cause would suffer thereby. It is, however, difficult to find any precept of God’s law under the Christian dispensation which we may venture to neglect; because the ceremonial law is abrogated, and there is no precept of Divine obligation left which does not involve the weightier matters of the law. Two considerations may be drawn from this history.
1. Be very careful how you promise. Joshua and the Israelites promised lightly, and found to their regret that they ought not to have promised at all. Many young Christians entangle themselves as lightly in engagements which they find should never have been made, and thus involve themselves in troubles and difficulties from which Christian prudence would have kept them free.
2. Keep your promise, when made, unless, as has been said, to keep it would be a sin. The difficulties in which it involves you are sent by God to make you more careful for the future. They will not overwhelm you if you have faith in God. But it were better to suffer some anxiety and annoyance than lose your hold on truth. Inconvenience is no sufficient reason for breaking one’s word, though it may be for not giving it. It is as true, as a rule, of promises made to man, as of vows made to God; “better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow, and not pay.”
HOMILIES BY S.R. ALDRIDGE
Jos 9:14
The Israelites outwitted.
A story that bears on its face the evidences of authenticity. A wiliness displayed quite in keeping with our notions of Oriental duplicity. Has lessons appropriate to modern days. Whilst some incidents of this book enjoin courage, this induces discretion, and thus are we preserved from a one-sided development of our spiritual life. No study more instructive than that of history, and no history more suggestively written than that of the Israelites.
I. THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES shows us
1. The different courses adopted by different men in respect of the same dangers. The overthrow of Jericho and the destruction of Ai struck terror into the hearts of the neighbouring inhabitants of Palestine. Would not their turn come next? How should they deal with the difficulty that threatened them? The only safety seemed to lie in united opposition. So reasoned many of the kings, and they organised their forces for battle. But the Gibeonites determined to act otherwise. To contract a treaty with the foe would be a greater safeguard than to encounter him in war. This they accordingly endeavoured to secure in the subtle manner which this chapter records. This variety of sentiment is being constantly exhibited in the plans men pursue regarding the “terrors of the Lord” or the assaults of conscience. Conviction of sin and of the retribution to which it exposes the sinner does not always incline him to sue for mercy. Some brave the attack, and with incredible folly fight against God. Though others have been overcome, they hope to be successful. The fall of other cities does not deter them from vain enterprises. Some, like the Gibeonites, are teachable, and if we cannot commend the deception they practised, we can at least exhort that the impossibility of staying the spread of God’s kingdom be practically recognised. “Be ye reconciled unto God.”
2. The pains taken to preserve life. Self-preservation is accounted one of the strongest instincts of our nature. These Gibeonites spared no trouble in order to gain their end. And yet how often are the things relative to eternal life utterly neglected!
3. The desire often entertained by the world to enter into an alliance with the Church. Simon Magus could desire the gift of the Holy Ghost for his own selfish purposes. It suits the plans of many to be considered religious; they assume the garb of piety to carry on their nefarious work unmolested. The Church of Christ is bound to exercise discipline, but prevention is better than excommunication. Guard against the intrusion of ungodly men. Seek the direction of God, who will keep His Church pure. The Gibeonites said nothing about adopting in heart the religion of the Israelites, about renouncing idolatry and serving the true God; they only wanted the advantages which would accrue from making a league with the Israelites. If we would share the advantages we must become God’s people in heart and life.
4. The success of craft. Mental is sometimes more powerful than physical force in overcoming a difficulty. The Midianites were able to seduce the Israelites into sin though they could not injure them in open battle. There is undoubtedly a legitimate use of craft; according to the Apostle’s declarations, “I have caught you with guile,” “becoming all things to all men.” There must be, however, nothing inherently wrong in our procedure, no tampering with truth, as in the case of the Gibeonites. For we proceed to remark
5. Deceit is certain of ultimate detection. Hypocrisy must ere long have its veil removed. Show will not always be taken for reality. God knows the actual state of the heart and often makes it manifest to others. Soon did Israel discover the trick which had been practised on them. Our subject contains a warning to mere professors of godliness. Privileges secured by appearance of conformity are only temporary.
II. THE MISTAKE OF THE ISRAELITES teaches us
1. That the senses easily lead us astray. The mouldy bread, the damaged bottles, the clouted shoes seemed plain proof of the truth of the strangers’ words. Many persons think all their doubts would vanish if they once saw an angel or heard the voice of the Almighty; but the irrefragable testimony might be a delusion just as much as the convincing sights beheld by the Israelites. The things touched and viewed are what they are; the error is in the conclusions drawn from them. The bread was mouldy, but it did not warrant the belief that it had become so by a long journey. We must be careful in our reasonings. Earthquakes and pestilences do not necessarily prove God’s anger, nor do they furnish testimony against the perfections of His character as a God of love. Prosperity is not conclusive evidence of God’s favour or man’s desert, nor adversity of man’s ill-desert and his Maker’s displeasure. In various directions the caution may be employed.
2. The weakness of human wisdom. All appeared so natural that the Israelites forbore to consult the Lord. Was not their path clearly indicated? They soon repented of their haste and simplicity. And has no similar error befallen us, the way seeming so evident that we have rushed into it without due deliberation and prayer? God expects us to use the sagacity He has bestowed upon us, but not to rely upon it wholly. It must form only one element in the judgment reached. “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.” We are so biassed, so influenced by inclination, have such perverse feelings, that we are not fit to be guides to ourselves. Experience attests this fact, Scripture often asserts it, reason corroborates it, and history proves it. The pride of the Israelites was probably flattered by the notion of their fame having extended to such a distant nation.
3. The importance of seeking the counsel of the Almighty. There is the reflex influence of prayer, purifying the desires, calming the passions, revealing the mischievous nature of much that seemed desirable, and leading to a clearer perception of principles. It cleanses “the thoughts of the heart.” There is the answer granted to prayer. The mind is divinely directed, the Spirit of God fastens the eyes on particular passages of Scripture, and upon certain indications of Providence in external circumstances. To God, nothing that concerns His children is of trivial import; we may submit to Him matters great or small. “Commit thy way unto the Lord.”A.
Jos 9:18, Jos 9:19
An oath observed.
Recapitulate the chief circumstances: The embassage from Gibeon. Described in Jos 10:1-43. as “a great city,” and “all the men thereof mighty.” Not because they were inferior to the other inhabitants of the land did they seek to make a compromise with Israel. The surprise of the Israelites on discovering the nearness of Gibeon. “Those old shoes had easily held to carry them back to their home.”
I. THE ANGER AND WISH OF THE PEOPLE arose from
1. Their mortification at being outwitted. Pride had been honoured by the arrival of such an apparently distant deputation. The evidences were incontestable. All the stronger would be the consequent revulsion when the trickery was discovered. Each man thinks himself as wise as his neighbor, and cannot endure to be triumphed over in any transaction. If we did not rate ourselves so highly, we should not be troubled with such pangs of shame.
2. The natural hatred of deception. One of the proofs of the existence of a moral sense, and therefore of the moral constitution and government of the world, is found in the condemnation universally pronounced upon underhanded dealing. Commerce and intercourse must cease where no bond of good faith is observed. The Gibeonites perjured themselves by words and deeds. The fiercest reproofs of our Lord were administered to the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. He called them “whited sepulchres;” they “made clean the outside of the cup and platter, but within were full of extortion and excess.”
3. A mingled remembrance of God’s commandment and their own desire for plunder. The craft of the Gibeonites could not fail to make them regarded as enemies of God; and if this wholesome sentiment was sometimes feeble in operation, it was certainly strengthened on this occasion by the sight of the rich booty which the Israelites would have enjoyed but for the league entered into under such false pretences. Moral indignation is vastly swelled by a sense of personal injury. Interest quickens resentment and action. Not so with the Almighty. Raised far above all our petty interests, His wrath against sin is pure, a bright flame that has no base admixture to sully its awful grandeur.
II. THE DETERMINATION OF THE PRINCES.
1. Regarded the sacredness of their word. Like Jephthah, they had given their word, and could not go back. They were prepared to face the opposition of the populace. In this they showed themselves worthy of their position as heads of the people. On all leaders a great responsibility rests; it is sometimes necessary to check as well as to urge forward their followers. They must be ready to resist the clamours of the multitude. To think weightily of a spoken word, a promise, is an all-important matter. Words are in the truest sense deeds. “By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” Language is not meant to conceal but to express our thoughts, and a spoken should be as binding as a written speech. Here should Christians be well to the front. In business their every utterance should be capable of being trusted, and they should risk much rather than excuse themselves from the performance of their contracts.
2. Respected the inviolableness of an oath. When Jesus Christ prohibited all swearing, He did but, in the paradoxical method of statement He adopted, interdict all useless, vain, needless interlarding of conversation and business and legal declarations with the introduction of holy names and things. He Himself used the most solemn formulas in His public teaching and before the high priest; the apostles invoked the witness of God to the truth of their statements; and the Lord God is said to have “sworn with an oath.” An oath is therefore permissible, but ought not to be lightly taken; it implies solemnity and deliberation. Only, therefore, under exceptional circumstances can it be considered right to break an oath. Doubtless a promise made upon the strength of the promisee’s false statements is not always obligatory, but the case cannot be generally determined. Few will doubt that in the instance before us the princes acted wisely. They attributed special importance to the fact that they “had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel,” and they looked to the evil effects that would be produced if the name of Israel’s God should be dishonoured. It was their own fault, their heedless hurry, that they had committed themselves to the rash oath. Note, too, that the narrative, by not condemning the resolve of the princes, seem to sanction it. And in after years the Israelites incurred the grievous displeasure of the Almighty, because Saul had, in his mad zeal, sought to slay the Gibeonites in contravention of this agreement (2Sa 21:1-11). In the result these Hivites gained their life, but were reduced to servitude. The curse pronounced upon Canaan (Gen 9:25) was fulfilled; these men were “cursed” (per. 23), and became a “servant of servants” unto the Israelites.
This incident reminds us of
THE SAFETY OF RELIANCE UPON THE WORD OF GOD. “He is not a man that he should lie.” He cannot contradict Himself. If He does seem to “repent,” it is because His promise was conditional; and if we seek His favour and do His will, His “repenting” will be only for our good, it will mean the removal of some threatened punishment. On the other hand, if we observe not the terms of the covenant, we cannot complain if God withdraws His promised blessings. God has confirmed His word to His people with an oath. “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent.” This indicates that what is said is irrevocable. Note the argument in Heb 6:17-19, and the rock grasping anchor which makes stable the Christian’s hope among all the waves and winds of life’s stormiest sea. He is acquainted with all the circumstances of the case; He cannot be deceived. To Him the dateless past and the endless future are an ever present now. He bids us receive in Christ life forevermore. Who would not build on this unshakable foundation, the “word and oath” of the living God?A.
HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE
Jos 9:15-23
The Gibeonites.
The manner in which Joshua dealt with the Gibeonites shows how inflexible is the respect God requires for truth. That respect is exemplified in two ways in tiffs narrative. First, in the fulfilment of the oath made to the Gibeonites, that their lives should be saved; and second, in the punishment with which they are visited for their falsehood. They deceived Joshua by their miserable subterfuge of mouldy bread and way-worn garments, and thus passed themselves off as the inhabitants of some distant region instead of a neighbouring city. Therefore, while their lives were spared, they were reduced to a state of slavery (verse 23).
I. NOTHING IS MORE HATEFUL TO THE HOLY GOD THAN A LIE. He is in His very essence light (1Jn 1:5). Falsehood and cunning pervert all the relationships of life. Lying breaks the social bond, since a man’s word is the only medium of moral exchange between men; and when mutual confidence is lost, the foundations of the social edifice are undermined. Therefore St. Paul says, “Lie not one to another for ye are members one of another.” In the direct education which God gave to His people Israel, He has given unmistakable demonstration of His horror of all deceit. Hence the punishment of the Gibeonites.
II. THE PUNISHMENT which these unhappy men brought upon themselves rested not only upon them as individuals, but upon their whole nation. God thus showed that evil is not transformed into good by being made to subserve a public cause. There are not two codes of moralityone for private and another for national life. Polities ought to be as scrupulously governed by the law of God as the life of the individual. Although since the abolition of the theocracy, the sphere of religion and of the civil power ought to be kept altogether distinct, it is no less incumbent on the State to adhere to the plain principles of morality. In spite of all that may seem to argue the contrary, every violation of these principles brings its own punishment. History is in its essence one long judgment of God.
III. By not allowing the Israelites to break their oath to the Gibeonites, even though they had been deceived by them, GOD TEACHES US THAT WRONG DONE BY OUR NEIGHBOUR DOES NOT AT ALL VINDICATE US IN BEING GUILTY OF A LIKE WRONG. One sin never justifies another. We are to “overcome evil with good,” and it is this which distinguishes the people of God from all other people. It is by not being conformed to this world we triumph over it. If the people of God were to act in the same way as the Canaanites, there would be no reason for giving them the ascendancy. When the Church becomes worldly it falls under the condemnation of the world. Let us be, then, everywhere and always men the rule of whose life is the law of God. The only retaliation we must ever allow ourselves is rendering good for evil. “Be not overcome of evil,” says St. Paul, “but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).E. DE P.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
Jos 9:3, Jos 9:4
A stolen treaty.
The Canaanite kings are at last roused to united action against Joshua and the host of Israel. But their confederation is not complete. The inhabitants of Gibson, on the principle that “discretion is the better part of valour,” endeavour, in something like selfish treachery to the common cause, to make peace with the invaders. A suggestive example of the spirit that animates the corrupt social life of the world. When men are bent on saving them. selves they care little for the ties that bind them to others. Self interest is a very insecure bond of social unity. It was natural, however, that these men should seek to save themselves, and their suit for a treaty of peace would have had no wrong in it but that it took the form of deceit.
I. THE STRATAGEM. It was cleverly devised and skilfully carried out. It was both an acted and a spoken lie. Their profession of reverent submission to the God of Israel (“Because of the name of the Lord thy God,” verse 9) was a hollow pretence. Their whole behaviour forbids our attributing to them the honesty of purpose that Rahab manifested. Base, slavish fear was their real motive (verse 24). Observe
(1) how one sin leads on to another, perhaps a greater. The path of transgression is a downward way. Every fraud needs a falsehood to cover it. When men have once placed themselves in a false position they know not in what meanness and shame it may involve them.
(2) If half the ingenuity men show in the pursuit of their own carnal ends were spent in the service of truth and righteousness, how much bettor and happier the world would be. The followers of Christ may learn many a lesson in this respect from the facts of secular life around them, and even from their adversaries. “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light” (Luk 16:8).
II. ITS SUCCESS. They gained their end so far as thisthat their lives were spared, secured to them by a treaty and a solemn oath (verse 15). They gained it through the too easy credulity of Joshua and the princes, who supposed that things were as they seemed to be, and through the unaccountable omission of Joshua to “ask counsel of the Lord” (verse 14).
(1) Trickery often seems to prosper in this world. It trades upon the generous trustfulness of men. But its success is short lived. It carries with it its own condemnation. Better always be the deceived than the deceiver.
(2) We must expect to fall into practical error when we fail to seek Divine direction. The wisest and best need something higher than their own judgment to guide them in the serious businesses of life. “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy steps” (Pro 3:6).
III. ITS PENALTY. They saved their lives at the cost of liberty and honour (verse 21). The servile condition to which they were reduced fulfilled the curse pronounced by Noah on the children of Ham (Gen 9:25). Joshua and the princes did right in regarding their oath as sacred and binding, even though it had been won by deceit. The people would have had them violate it. “All the congregation murmured against the princes.” Popular impulses may as a rule be trusted; but are sometimes very blind and false. Vox populi not always Vox Dei. Happy the people whose rulers are able wisely to curb their impetuosity and present before them an example of inflexible rectitude. If the oath of Joshua and the princes had pledged them to a thing essentially wrong, they might have used the fact that they were beguiled into it by fraud as an argument for disregarding it; but not so seeing that, while it bound them to nothing absolutely unlawful, they were involved in it by their own neglect. That God approved of its observance is seen in the fact that, when the Canaanite kings sought to inflict vengeance on Gideon for the clandestine treaty, He gave Joshua a signal victory over them (Jos 10:8-12); and also in the fact that the curse of blood-guiltiness came upon the land in after days because Saul broke this covenant with the Gibeonitos and slew some of them (2Sa 21:1, 2Sa 21:2). These men, however, must pay the penalty of their deceit. The decision of Joshua respecting them is of the nature of a just and prudent compromise. It avoids the dishonour that would be done to the name of God by the violation of the oath; but saves Israel from the disgrace of a dangerous alliance with the Canaanites by reducing them to a state of absolute subjection. Learn
(1) the sanctity of an oath. A righteous man is one who “sweareth to his own hurt, andchangeth not” (Psa 15:4). He who “reverences his conscience as his king” will never treat lightly any verbal pledges he may have given, or endeavour sophistically to rid himself of their responsibility. His “word will be as good as his bond.” However false others may be, let him at least be true.
(2) The need of a spirit of wisdom to determine aright the practical problems of life. The path of duty is often the resultant of different moral forces. The most difficult points of casuistry are those at which impulses equally good (fear of God, self respect, humanity, etc) seem to be at variance. Let every right motive have due weight. “Of two evils choose the least.”
(3) How men sometimes disqualify themselves for any high and noble position in the Church of God by their former infatuation in the service of sin. These Gibeonites are delivered from destruction, but their perpetual servitude is a perpetual disgrace. So do saved men often bear with them, as long as life lasts (in moral disability, or social distrust, etc), the marks of what they once have been. They may well be thankful when their past transgressions, for Christ’s sake, are forgiven, and they are permitted to take any place in His kingdom, even “as slaves beneath the throne””hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation.”W.
HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER
Jos 9:3-27
The submission of the Gibeonites.
According to the explicit law of Moses (in Deu 20:10-18), there were three courses which Israel might pursue towards the cities they besieged:
1. In the event of a city refusing to capitulate, they were, after taking it, to destroy all the males who survived, but take the women and the little ones and the spoil, and divide the same. This first course, however, was only to be pursued to such cities as were outside the boundaries of the promised land.
2. In the event of cities within these boundaries refusing to capitulate, then, on taking them, they were to slay all the inhabitants of either sex, lest they should “teach them to do after their abominations.”
3. But, thirdly, in the event of any city, within or without these boundaries, submitting to them without resistance, then they were to make the people “tributaries to them;” but no life was to be taken. From Jos 11:19, Jos 11:20, it is obvious that every city had the opportunity of capitulating, and would have saved its inhabitants from extermination by doing so; but that the thought of capitulation did not enter the hearts of any community, but that of Gibeon only. These remarks seem necessary to enable us to understand aright the exact position of affairs. They suggest:
1. That the submission of Gibeon was a right thing wrongly done.
2. That the wrong part of their actionthe liewas needless, as they would have been saved without it; and fruitless, as they would have had probably a better lot had there been no attempt to mislead.
3. That, accordingly, we have not here the example of a profitable lie (a thing that has never been seen since the fall), but only the example of wisdom in yielding to the inevitable, and seeking peace with the earthly representatives of God. Thus understood we may gather from their action two or three lessens worth our consideration.
I. AVOID DOING GOOD THINGS IN A BAD WAY. This is a common fault. Often all the grace of kindly acts is lost by an ungracious way of doing them. We giveperhaps avowing reluctance to do so. We confess mistakesbut exhibit a churlish regret, not for the mistake, but for the necessity of acknowledging it. We take good advicebut sullenly. We act on a good impulsebut slowly. We yield our hearts to Godbut only with much misgiving, and after long delay. We do the right and just part, but only after earnestly trying to avoid doing it. So these Gibeonites rightly submit, but make the submission, which is right, in a wrong way, using falsehood and pretence, taking away from Israel the grace of generosity and the friendly spirit that would have moderated their lordship over them. Do not so blame them as to forget that every fault is a mirror, looking into which each may see some likeness of his own imperfection. You and I are like the Gibeonites in this, that always some bit of evil creeps into and mixes with the good. Such mixtures, in God’s mercy, may not be fatal to our welfare, but they will always mitigate it. In this case a less abject and menial form of servitude would have been the result of their submission if they had possessed the courage of their wisdom. Do your good things in a good way.
II. PROMPT ACCEPTANCE OF THE INEVITABLE IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST PARTS OF WISDOM. The other cities of Canaan were not more brave, they were only more foolish than Gibeon. They lacked the imagination of faith which could realise the fate awaiting them. They dreamed of safety without taking measures to secure it. They believed in that “chapter of accidents which is the Bible of the fool.” Like some Oriental governments which we have seen, they stared destruction in the face, and did nothing to ensure success in averting it. Wisdom averts the preventible, but sets itself to work at once to accept the inevitable. And Gibeon deserves credit for its clear perception of its danger, and its sagacity in trying to make the best of what could not be avoided. Perhaps, being more republican than any of the other nationalities, we have here an instance of the superior wisdom of the popular instinct to that of the rulers’. Without dwelling, however, on the source of their wisdom, we may with advantage follow its example. One of the chiefest parts of the art of life is frankly, promptly accepting the inevitable. Whatever the pressure that you cannot avoid, proceed at once to make the best of it. If it be poverty, do not with desperate ventures attempt to win back wealth, but with contentment and industry set yourself to make the best of it. If disease affects you from which you cannot free yourself, come to terms with it. Send your ambassadors and make a covenant with it. And accepting the situation in which you find yourself, address yourself to gather the “sweet uses of adversity,” and you will find weakness a great teacher and not without its compensations. If you have done wrong, and to humble yourself is a necessity of honour, do so like Gibeon, at once. If submission to your redeeming God has become a necessity of your case, do not, like the other cities of Israel, dream and defy, and then fall before the destroyer; but with timely overtures seek Him while He is near. Thus in all relations of life accept frankly the inevitable. Agree with thine adversary quickly, and with the force you cannot resist make such terms as will allow you to enjoy a less dignity, but yet some degree of happiness.
III. GOD CROWNS WITH HIS REWARD ALL GOOD, HOWEVER MIXED WITH EVIL. In the action of the Gibeonites there is the good of a rudimentary faith, there is the evil of deceit. It is to be observed that, while the evil is punished, the good is not ignored. God does not require the retractation of the oath; and when, centuries later, Israel breaks the oath, He shows His disapproval of their course. God sanctions their being spared, and thus approves the good that is mixed with evil. Happily for us, God is still the same. Perfect motive He never finds, and unmixed good He never looks on. But, in His infinite compassion, whatever of good there is in our action receives a rich reward. His love holds as keen a scrutiny as His justice, and wherever in the action of men the slightest good appears, then He rewards it.
IV. WHATEVER OPPOSES GOD‘S CAUSE WILL EITHER BE MADE SUBSERVIENT TO IT, OR BE DESTROYED. The fate of Ai or Gibeon, destruction or service, are the only alternatives of Canaan. It is a great pity when the foe declines to become a friend, and when those outside lack the aspiration to be reconciled thoroughly. For unreconciled they must serve, or disappear. Philosophies that oppose the gospel will turn round and speed on the triumph of truth, or they will melt away like a cloud before the warmth of dawn. Policies that seem adverse to the prosperity of the Church will prove productive of advantage to it, or be swept into oblivion. No weapon formed against the Church of God ever prospers. Be not on the wrong side. However strong you may appear, if you do not side heartily with the cause of God, you will be made its reluctant servants, or its extinguished foes.G.
Jos 9:14
The oracle neglected.
Between Joshua and Eleazer, the ruler and the high priest, a noble heritage was divided. The one has the obedience of Israel, the other the secrets of God. They have at their command respectively human power and Divine wisdom. According to Num 27:21, Joshua was taught to expect to find a heavenly oracle in the Urim and the Thummim of the priest; and constantly the promised oracle was given. In this case, however, it was not sought. Joshua and the rest were flattered with the story of their fame, and too readily assumed the insignificance of the occasion. Otherwise, had they asked they would have received counsel, and have been set on the track of discovering the fraud. It probably did not materially matter to Israel then. The chief loss to that generation was the booty they would in that ease have divided, and the private advantage of so many slaves divided amongst the families, instead of having a servile tribe allotted to the ministry of the tabernacle. Still the historian notes the neglected oracle as if Joshua had learned here a lesson of carrying even things that seemed little to his God. The occasion gives two or three lessons worth learning.
I. THERE IS AN ORACLE WHICH WILL WISELY GUIDE ALL WHO FEAR GOD. God has never been at a loss to guide the willing steps of men; but to the heart that has sought He has always given guidance. In various ways He has led men. Abraham through a whispering of His great name; Jacob and Joseph through dreams; Moses through voice and vision and miracle alike; Joshua through some gleaming of the high priest’s breastplate; Gideon through the angel; Samuel through a raised state of every faculty; the prophets by the breathings of great thoughts and feelings; Jonah’s sailors by the lot; the wise men from the East by a star; the Ethiopian by a page of prophecy. He seems to accommodate all and give them their guidance where they expect to find it. God still “fulfils Himself” m many ways, The African rain maker rebuked Livingstone, by declaring his methods of getting rain were really prayers which the good God was in the habit of granting. The Moravians, who expect Divine guidance through the casting of the lot, doubtless find it there, though no one else would get it. Sometimes through the providential barring of dangerous paths; sometimes through a restraint like that which Paul described in the words “the spirit suffered us not;” sometimes through inward impulse of a cogent kind, a being “bound in the spirit to go” in a certain direction; sometimes by the mere commendation of certain courses to our taste, our judgment, or our conscience. God still gives guidance to all who ask it.
“No symbol visible
We of Thy presence find,
But all who would obey Thy will
Shall know their Father’s mind.”
Pray for light, and in some way it will reach you. There is a living oracle for all who wish to walk according to the will of God.
II. TRUE WISDOM COMMITS SMALL THINGS AS WELL AS GREAT TO GOD‘S CARE. A child tells all to the parent that it trusts; the least discomfiturethe greatest distress. And when we have the child-like heart we commit all to God, feeling that the least is not too little for His great love. The ability is developed of rising on every occasion in thought to Him, till the mood becomes so confiding, so expectant, that it forms a “prayer without ceasing.” And this habit of committing all becomes fortified by the wisdom which observes how often the issues of things are to be in the inverse ratio of their seeming importance: vast consequences flowing from what seem most trivial events, and events that seem of a stupendous character leaving no trace of influence on after history. So, little things as well as great are lifted by the devout heart to the Divine ear. Joshua here thought recourse to the oracle needless because the matter seemed unimportant. But it had more importance than he knew. Strangely enough, this compact with Gibeon fixes the resting place of the ark for centuries, right down to the time of David. For Kirjath-jearim was one of the cities of Gibeon, and it was probably the residence there of the Gibeonites that determined the resting there of the ark. This, in its turn, threw the centre of the national life to the southward, helped the supremacy of Judah, the choice of Jerusalem as capital, the subordination of Ephraim and Samaria. If Joshua had seen all that hung on his decision, he would not because of the seeming insignificance of the matter have neglected the oracle. Take God into thy counsel in all matters, less and larger. Commit the little acts to His decision, surrender the little things which self will would decide. “Faithful in least, faithful in much;” and, even so, devout in least, devout in much. Christ raised the dead, and then said, “Give her something to eat;” the omnipotent miracle, the homely kindness, being equally characteristic of Him. Walk with God always. In least things consult His oracle.
III. ALL MAKE MISTAKES, BUT GOD‘S SAINTS PROFIT BY THEM. This is the second mistake of the same kind which Joshua has made since crossing Jordan. Not consulting the oracle, he sends too few men against At. Not consulting the oracle, he makes this covenant with Gibeon. But our text recording the mistake shows how it was discovered, and the repetition of it avoided. There is no mistake which is absolute mischief, it will always give us at least a lesson. Blessed are they who can turn all their faults into schoolmasters. For though such schoolmasters use the lash, they give good teaching, being skilled to teach humility, watchfulness, dependence on God. Turn your faults to good account, and every act of folly into a spring of wisdom. Lastly, observe, that not only did Joshua turn the fault to account, but
IV. GOD MAKES THE BEST OF A GOOD MAN‘S MISTAKES. After all, the alliance with Gibeon gave them entrance into a position of importance, became the occasion of the great victory of Beth-heron, and has no traceable results of mischief. Thus it ever is. God makes the best of us and of our work. When the heart is right our every failing is turned to good account. Be not too nervous about the results of our actions. For when the purpose is honest and devout
“Our indiscretions ofttimes serve us well.
There’s a Divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them as we will.”
G.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when all the kings, &c. The success of Joshua’s arms in the eastern part of the land of Canaan, soon struck with terror those princes whose territories lay to the west of that country. The fright was general, even to the mountains inhabited by the Amorites on the south, (Deu 7:19-20.) upon the coasts of the Mediterranean, where the Canaanites, properly so called, had their settlements; and to Lebanon, which bounded the Promised Land on the north. See on Deu 20:17 and hereafter on chap Jos 16:10.
The great sea over against Lebanon The Mediterranean sea as far as to Lebanon. See Nold. 80. 831.
Note; 1. Those whom God means to destroy, are generally infatuated with malice and revenge. The enemies of God’s people, however divided among themselves, are unanimous to oppose the truth: Deists, Arians, Socinians, Formalists, moral or profane, Conformists, or Separatists, all unite against the spiritual seed. 3. When we see the world so leagued together against the truth, surely they who are faithful should overlook their trivial differences in unessentials, and, laying every cause of dispute aside, join heart and hand against their common enemy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
b. Contests Against the Allied Kings of the Canaanites
Joshua 9-11
1. The first League of Canaanite Kings against Israel
Jos 9:1-2
1And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side [on the other side of the] Jordan, in the hills [on the mountain], and in the valleys [the low land], and in all the coasts [on all the coast] of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof; 2That they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
While Joshua had hitherto contended against separate cities, namely, Jericho and Ai, there now follows an account of the struggles with the allied kings of the Canaanites, of whose first league we are informed in Jos 9:1-2, of their second in Jos 11:1-3. They are defeated in two great battles, at Gibeon (Jos 10:1 ff.), and at the sea of Merom (Jos 11:4-9). Following upon that first triumph, southern Palestine west of the Jordan is subjugated (Jos 10:28-43), and upon the second, the northern part (Jos 11:10-23). Only the Gibeonites were shrewd enough, as is related in 9:327, to save themselves by a stratagem from the edge of the sword.
Jos 9:1. On the other side (Eng. vers. on this side), as in Jos 5:1, where the country west of the Jordan is intended. This land, Canaan proper, is, from its conspicuously diverse features, divided into the mountain, , the plain or lowland, , and the sea coast, , toward Lebanon (Keil). The mountain, , is the Mount Ephraim and mount (or mountain of) Judah; the lowland is the region from Akko to Gaza lying west of the mountain; the sea coast is the coast of north Galilee and Phnicia. elsewhere in poetical passages as Gen 49:13; Jdg 5:17; Jer 47:7; Eze 25:16. prop, with one mouth, unanimously. Exo 24:3; 1Ki 22:13.
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2. The Craft of the Gibeonites
9:327
a. Coming of the Gibeonites to Joshua and his League with them
9:315
3And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho 4and to Ai, they [also] did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors [went, and set out, or, went and1 provided themselves with victuals], and took old [prop. decayed] sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles [wine-skins], 5old [decayed], and rent, and bound up; And old [decayed] shoes and clouted [patched] upon their feet, and old [decayed] garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. 6And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be [are] come from a far country: now therefore [and now] make ye a league [covenant] with us. 7And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us;2 and how shall we make a league [covenant] with you? 8And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? 9And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, because of the name of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, 10and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of 11Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which [who] was at Ashtaroth. Wherefore [And] our elders, and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore [and] now make ye a league [covenant] with us. 12This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is [has become] mouldy: 13And these bottles of wine [wine-skins] which we filled were new, and behold they be [are] rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old [are decayed] by reason of the very long journey. 14And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at [omit: counsel at] the mouth of the Lord [Jehovah]. 15And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league [covenant] with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
b. Discovery and Punishment of the Fraud
9:1627
16And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them. 17And the children of Israel journeyed [broke up], and came unto their cities on the third day. Now [And] their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim. 18And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel.And all the congregation murmured against the princes. 19But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord [Jehovah] God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. 20This we will do to them; we will even let them live,3 lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. 21And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be [and they became] hewers of wood [wood-choppers], and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised [spoken to] them.
22And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you, when ye dwell among us? 23Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being [there shall not fail to be from among you] bond-men, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. 24And they answered Joshua, and said, Because4 it was certainly told thy servants how that the Lord [Jehovah] thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 25And now, behold, we are in thy hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. 26And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. 27And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord [Jehovah], even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Gibeon would appear to have been a sort of independent republic, since we hear of elders there (9:11), but not of a king; and of their city it is said (10:2) that it was a great city like a royal city. The inhabitants, having heard of the deeds of Joshua, hit upon a different plan of resistance from that adopted by the kings before named,the plan of negotiation, but with wiles. They pretend to have come from a very far country (9:9) to form an alliance with Joshua; and to confirm their declaration they point to their mouldy bread, their torn wine-skins, and their worn-out clothing (9:12, 13). Joshua suffers himself to be deceived, and makes a treaty with them which is ratified with an oath (9:15).
The deception, however, is discovered. After not more than three days the Israelites hear that the Gibeonites dwell in their very neighborhood (9:16). They break up, go thither themselves, and spare them because of the oath which the chiefs had sworn to them (9:18). When discontent arises in the camp on this account, Joshua consults with the chiefs, but they appeal to their oath, and decide in favor of letting them live. To this resolution they adhere, but the Gibeonites, as a penalty for their falsehood, are made woodchoppers and water-carriers for the congregation and the altar of Jehovah (9:2127).
a. Arrival of the Gibeonites and Joshuas league with them, Jos 9:3-15. Gibeon, Jos 18:25. They also did work wilily. They had heard what Joshua had done in the case of Jericho and Ai, and they also () did something, and that with craft. , Jos 9:3, and , Jos 9:4, are relative to each other, so that the refers not to what the Canaanite kings had done, but to Joshuas deeds. These would they emulate, only not by warlike exploits, but by a finely contrived trick. So also the LXX.: . Joshuas stratagem against Ai (Joshua 8) is to be remembered. Maurer thinks also of Jericho; but that is less apposite.
Provided themselves with, victuals. The Hebrew , is nowhere else met with, and instead of it we should read with all the ancient translations and many MSS., , which also occurs in Jos 9:12 (Knobel). Keil adheres unqualifiedly to the textus receptus, and, connecting with , nuncius, translates: they went and journeyed as ambassadors, or set out as ambassadors [thus bringing out the sense of the English version]. But was it necessary to state this particularly? Is not that evident of itself, that if the Gibeonites went they went as ambassadors, since Jos 9:3 leaves us to suppose a previous consultation?
Jos 9:6. Gilgal. In the Jordan Valley, as Ewald also assumes, and not, as Keil supposes, the Gilgal on the mountain near Bethel, often mentioned in the Book of Judges and in First Samuel. But something would surely have been said of it if Joshua had moved the camp from Gilgal in the Jordan Valley to Gilgal near Bethel; and as this is not the case, we have no ground for thinking here of another Gilgal. Joshua had rather returned from his successful expedition against Ai to his well situated headquarters in the Jordan Valley, in order to undertake from thence fresh enterprises. Comp. the preliminary remarks to Jos 8:30-35.
Jos 9:7, . This Kethib is to be retained after the analogy of Jdg 8:22; Jdg 20:36; 1Sa 14:22. The Israelites are not clear in this matter. The thing looks suspicious to them, hence the question: Perhaps thou dwellest in the midst of us (me), how then can I make a covenant with thee ?
Jos 9:8. To this entangling question the Gibeonites return no answer at all, but say, with true oriental adroitness, apparently submissive and humble: We are thy servants. This was no sincere declaration of submission (Serar., C. A. Lap., Rosenm., Knobel), but simply a form of courtesy, as Gen 50:18; Gen 32:4, which was, however, very well designed and cunningly addressed. Nevertheless, Joshua shows himself not satisfied with it, and asks again, more definitely than others had done before: Who are ye and whence come ye? The imperfect , is worthy of notice as indicating the still incomplete action, comp. Jdg 17:9; Jdg 19:17; 2Sa 1:3; Jon 1:8; Ewald, Lehrgeb. 136, 1, a.
Jos 9:9. So pressed, the Gibeonites are compelled to answer Joshua, and first repeat what they have said before (Jos 9:6), but add that they have come on account of the name of Jehovah, whose fame () they have heard. In the more detailed specification which follows of what they had heard they say nothing of Jericho and Ai [to have heard of which might indicate that they lived not very far off], but cunningly confine themselves to what God has done to the Amorite kings beyond the Jordan, therefore at a distance, nay even in Egypt (Jos 9:10).
They then recall the commission given them by their elders (Jos 9:11), and refer in conclusion to their mouldy bread, etc., as a proof of the truth of their story. The Gibeonites must have played their part admirably; for all the scruples which had been expressed are now silent.
Jos 9:14. And the men took of their victuals. The men, as we learn from Jos 9:18; Jos 9:21, are the princes, i.e., heads of the tribes. The taking of their food is a sign of friendship, of inclination to make a league with the Gibeonites, Gen 31:46; Lev 2:13; 2Ch 13:5. Keil will not allow this, but adopts the explanation of Masius, approved also by J. H. Michaelis and Rosenmller. He says: Est enim veluti oppositio qudam inter illa; sumere panem Gibeonitarum in manus, suisque oculis satis fidere et os s. oraculum Domini interrogare. This opposition is not to be denied, but would it not be much stronger, if it related not merely to a testing of the bread whether it was so old, but to an eating of it with a symbolical import, which implied readiness to make a league with the Gibeonites?
And the mouth of the Lord they asked not. That was a transgression of the explicit command, Num 27:21, that the priest Eleazer should seek counsel for Joshua, and that , i.e., through the judgment or right of Urim (and Thummim).5 The priest by that becomes the mouth of Jehovah, since he announces Gods answer in His name, just the same as the prophet who (Isa 30:2; Jer 15:19; Exo 4:16) is so called.
Jos 9:15. And Joshua made peace with them. He assured them of peace and so of preservation from the edge of the sword.
b. Discovery and Punishment of the Deceit. Jos 9:16-27. Jos 9:16. At the end of three days, as in Jos 3:2.
Jos 9:17. And came to their cities on the third day. It took them so long, namely, to come from Gilgal lying in the Jordan valley to Gibeon. They might have accomplished the journey in much less time, as appears from Jos 10:9, but here there was no forced march commanded as in that passage. They could therefore take their time. But it would have been an unreasonably slow march, if, as Keil supposes, Joshuas headquarters had now been at Gilgal near Bethel, and he had taken more than two days for a distance of seven or eight hours. Chephirah, Jos 18:26. Beeroth, xviii. 25. Kirjath-jearim, xv. 60.
Jos 9:18-19. The question whether the princes were really bound to keep the oath which they had sworn to the Gibeonites, after it appeared that the condition on which it had been given did not hold good, has been much discussed by the interpreters, and decided rightly by most of them in the negative. The contrary is maintained by Osiander, Ising (p. 208), Corn. a Lapide, and Clericus. The last named expresses that opinion the most decidedly: Non videntur Hebrorum proceres in tabulis fderis hoc adscripsisse, se ea lege fdus cum iis facere, si modo remotam oram habitarent, quod nisi esset, fdus hoc foret irritum. Simpliciter jurarunt, se Gabahonitis vitam non erepturos idque invocato nomine Dei Israelis. Quam ob rem suum hoc jusjurandum revocare amplius non potuerunt. . Upon this Keil, from whom we borrow this extract, justly remarks: Although the Israelite princes did not verbally make the truth of the declaration of the Gibeonites a condition of the validity of their oath, and add it to the league, expressis verbis, still it lay at the bottom of their oath, as the Gibeonites very well knew; and hence they so carefully represented themselves as having come from a very far country. The Israelites had not, therefore, so wholly simpliciter, as Clericus assumes, sworn to preserve their lives, and were not bound to spare them after the discovery of their trick. That the princes nevertheless felt themselves bound in conscience is sufficiently explained, psychologically, by their reverence for the oath in itself, Lev 19:12. Although the congregation murmur, the princes abide by their conviction that the Gibeonites must be spared on account of the oath. This murmuring was directed once against Moses also, Exo 15:24; Exo 16:2; Exo 17:3; Num 14:2. Murmuring against God is mentioned, Jdg 8:21. Lam 3:39, is a classic passage. In the N. T., , Mar 14:5; Luk 5:30; Joh 6:41; Joh 6:51.
Jos 9:20. They would therefore let the Gibeonites live. On , comp. Ewald, Lehrg. 280, a. [Ges. 131, 2, ]. By the inf. abs., much the same as by the Lat. gerund in -ndo, or by our part. pres. act., is more definitely expressed what they would do; Lev 3:5; 1Sa 3:12.
Jos 9:21. The princes repeat with emphasis that they shall live. Hence the Gibeonites then became wood-choppers and drawers of water for the congregation, as the princes had spoken to them. That is, the princes had made this proposition together, with their [Jos 9:20]. The author had omitted it there because it is manifest from the historical statement in the second member of this verse. So Jos 3:8 (Knobel).
Jos 9:22-23. Joshua communicates to the Gibeonites what has been decided upon. There shall not fail from among you servants and wood-choppers and water-carriers,i.e., such slaves [ explicative] as are wood-choppers and water-carriers, and are, therefore, reckoned among the lowest class of the people (Deu 29:10-11). Together with captives taken in war and devoted for like purposes to the sanctuary, they bore, at a later period, the name [Dict, of Bible,art. Nethinim], Deo dati, donati, 1Ch 9:2; Exo 8:20; Neh 7:43; Neh 7:46. Saul was disposed to exterminate them, as is implied in 2Sa 21:1-2, and David sought to propitiate them again by granting their blood-thirsty request (2Sa 21:6).
Jos 9:24-25. The Gibeonites plead as an apology the fear which they felt towards the Israelites, and leave their fate entirely in the hand of Joshua.
Jos 9:26-27. Joshua does as he had informed them, according to verse 23. And delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel. These would certainly, in their warlike zeal, as we may infer from their murmuring, have been glad to destroy the Gibeonites. Superior to the people stands the leader here, who proceeds in the spirit of humanity, and, in full harmony with the princes, gives no heed to the murmuring of the people.
Jos 9:27. For the congregation and for the altar. The worshipping congregation is meant, the , as appears plain, partly from the word ( Num 27:17), partly from the additional qualification, and for the altar. For profane service the Gibeonites could not be employed. They were temple slaves.
In the place which He (Jehovah) should choose. Keil infers from these words that the author of our book wrote before the building of Solomons temple, because in his time God could not yet have chosen a fixed and permanent place for his sanctuary. Knobel regards them as an addition by the careless Deuteronomist, who alone in all the Pentateuch had used this expression (Deu 12:5). But in Exo 20:24, which passage, even according to Knobel, certainly does not belong to the Deuteronomist, we meet with a related expression so that we are not compelled to think of an addition by the careless Deuteronomist. Just as little necessary is it to suppose that the whole arrangement by which the Gibeonites were obliged to serve as wood-choppers and drawers of water for the congregation was first made in later times by Solomon. Reasons: (1) The Gibeonites are not expressly mentioned, 1Ki 9:20; (2) 1Ki 9:21, has reference to tributary work ( ), and that, as the context shows, for architectural purposes, but not to servants for the purposes of worship. To such tributary services did Solomon appoint () the rest of the population ( ) of the Amorites, Hittites, Perrizites, Hivites, and Jebusites; but the Israelites he made soldiers (Jos 9:22). Our view is, accordingly, that Joshua did certainly appoint the Gibeonites at once to the lowest service at the sanctuary, for congregation and altar, as the text says, especially as this service might already be performed about the tabernacle, as soon as this had an assigned place.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The question how far a promissory oath is binding on him who has given it, depends very much on our determination of the conditions under which one is at liberty to swear at all. On this Jer 4:2 is rightly regarded as a locus classicus. According to this passage an oath may be given. (1) , (2) , (3) . These three conditions, truth, right, and justice, are that which being presupposed an oath may be taken. They are, as Jerome long ago called them, and as the canonical law recognizes them, the comites jura nenti, namely, veritas in mente, judicium in jurante, justitia in objecto. If then, as in the case with the Gibeonites, the justitia in objecto is absent, the oath need not be observed; and so in all cases, when the thorough knowledge of the subject is wanting to the swearer without his fault. Completely so when this subject matter of the promissory oath is something directly unallowable, in clear opposition to the law of God, which, nevertheless, one has hastily, without rightly understanding it, sworn to do, as was true of Jephtha (Jdg 10:30-31) and Herod (Mat 14:9). Only, in that case, some expiation must be made, according to the principle laid down, Lev 5:4-6, which, if a man, e.g. has taken an oath of office, and this office he cannot discharge, might consist in his resignation of the office, and in the case of a king, in his abdication. Christian ethics, especially that of the evangelical church, cannot be too earnest on this doctrine of the obligation of an oath, since mental reservations are so easily allowed which threaten truth, right, and justice. Very beautifully, on this point, Nitzsch says (System of Christian Doctrine, 207): Better, indeed, if the Christian state had done away with the word oath, , and the like, together with the whole train of heathenly-religious presuppositions which are connected with them. We might and should speak of Gods witness, appeal to God, worship in court, duty to God, etc. The form of the oath of this kind would have far less difficulty. Much more would depend on performing the whole service in a truly religious way, according to place and time, and on limiting, in conformity with this, the requisition and permission, and on giving due heed to what Christian morals and policy might have to advise further.
On the conditions of a right, that is, Christianlypious offering and performance of an oath, Harless observes (Christian Ethics, 39, b): The first condition is, that the oath should be rendered only by virtue of a right demand for it The second condition is, that the swearer be in truth a confessor, i.e. that his oath be the expression of a believing hope truly dwelling in him. The third condition is, that the engagement into which he enters under his professing oath should be such that the God Himself whom the swearer acknowledges may acknowledge it. For the oaths sake to fulfill engagements displeasing to God is wickedly to carry to completion that which has been wickedly begun, to add a second sin to the first. Not to fulfill what has been sworn is in such cases, not the violation of an oath pleasing to God, but the penitent recall of a God-offending oath. Worthy of consideration further are the richly instructive articles in Herzogs Realencyk. (iii. 713 ff.) on the Oath among the Hebrews by Ruetschi, and on the Oath by C. F. Gschel.
2. The sanctity of the oath stood very high with the ancient Israelites, so that, as this narrative shows, they would rather, in dubio, hold fast to their oath even when they might justly have released themselves from it. As the name of God was to them thrice holy (Isa 6:3; Psa 111:9), so also was the solemn appeal to this name whether in a promise or an assertion. With this is connected the fact that the administration of oaths before the court was restricted to a few cases (Exo 22:6ff11; Lev 5:23; Lev 5:25; Num 5:19 ff.) For that state of things ought modern legislation also to strive, and upon that ought Christian ethics to insist. Yet in North America, otherwise so puritanically disposed, what sport is made with the oath, while in the territory of the Zwinglian church in Switzerland, the oath scarcely occurs any more before the courts.
3. Priests and prophets are called the mouth of Jehovah, and rightly, because he speaks through them when they have been enlightened by Him. This illumination, however, ought not to be thought of as in any way a mechanical process, but is rather to be regarded always as in the closest connection with the entire personal life, and official position of the individual bearer of the divine revelation. Even in the handling of the Urim and Thummim, this also must be taken into account
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
As once the Canaanites against Israel, so still and ever the foes of God gather themselves together to fight against Him and his church.The trick of the Gibeonites (1) shrewdly thought out, (2) cunningly carried out, but (3) detected and punished.There is no thread so finely spun, but comes at last before the sun.Lying and deceit bring no blessing.Humble words alone do not accomplish it, they must also be true.The glory of God among the heathen.Do nothing without asking God.If we ask the Lord, He gives us also an answer; if we neglect it we have to bear the hurt ourselves.How necessary it is for us to ascertain accurately the state of the case before we bind ourselves by an oath, lest we afterwards be troubled in conscienceshown in the case of the princes of Israel.The firmness of the princes against the murmuring of the congregation.The judgment upon the Gibeonites: (1) the hearing; (2) the sentence.Man fears for nothing more than his life, and yet this life is only a temporal good.Joshuas beautiful humaneness.Better to be wood-choppers and water-carriers for the altar of the Lord than to have no part therein, as the Gibeonites had well deserved by their treacherous scheme.
Starke: It is no new thing for the mighty of the world to bind themselves together against God and his gospel, Psa 2:2. But rage ye peoples, and be confounded; and give ear all ye of far countries; arm yourselves and be confounded; take counsel together and it shall come to nought; speak a word and it shall not stand, for God is with us, Isa 7:9-10.No man should lie; straightforward truth gives the best security, Eph 4:25.Gods wonders and works are not hidden even from the heathen; how then shall they excuse themselves in that day? Rom 1:19-20.For the preservation of mortal life men may well give themselves a deal of trouble, but where lies the care for the souls welfare Mat 16:25-26.He who always takes counsel of God in prayer will not easily be deceived.It is a bad case when one, on account of lying and deceit, must blush and turn pale; let every man, therefore, strive after uprightness and honesty.
Cramer: God must have wood-choppers also and water-carriers in his congregation, and He gives to every one gifts according to his portion, 1Co 12:27.
Hedinger: It is thoughtless stupidity in a man, if he will not take warning but runs also into the judgment where he sees that others have gone to ruin.Credulity brings us into trouble.
Gerlach: This history warns the congregation of God at all times of the craft and disguises of the world, which often, when it would be an advantage to it, seeks recognition and admission into the kingdom of God.
Footnotes:
[1][Jos 9:4.The verb from , not elsewhere found in Hebrew, should from the signification of its derivatives, and from the analogy of the Arab., mean to go, to set out on a journey. But since no other trace of this form or signification exists in Heb. or in Araman, it is better to read with six mss. , they provided themselves with food for the journey, as in Jos 9:12; which is also expressed by the ancient versions, Gesen. With this agree Knobel and Fay. But De Wette, and Keil adhere to the root-meaning set out on a journey, and there is a reasonable probability that the change suggested by a few mss., and the anc. vers. was owing simply to the strangeness of the word which originally stood here. The meaning to act as ambassadors appears to have been derived from the analogy of a messenger, and is retained by Zunz: Stellten sich als Boten.Tr.]
[2][Jos 9:7.The Hebrew uses the sing. in the midst of me, and how shall I.Tr.]
[3][Jos 9:20.De Wette, Fay, and others translate this and the following verse accurately: This [sc. what we have sworn] will we do to them, and let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we have sworn to them. And the princes said to them, Let them live. And they became wood-choppers and water-carriers (or drawers of water) etc.Tr.]
[4][Jos 9:24. is better regarded as merely introducing the words quoted: It was told and we were afraid, etc.Tr.]
[5]See the Art. Urim and Thummim in the Dict. of the Bible.Tr.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This chapter relates to us, the confederacy formed by the several kings of Canaan to fight against Israel. The subtilty of Gibeon, to make peace with Israel; and the event of their craft, in being made servants to Israel.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Reader! observe, how all nations unite against Israel. No doubt, the Hittite and the Amorite, had their jealousies and struggles one among another for preeminence, as well as other people; but, yet there is but one common cause among them, when the Lord’s people are the object. Was it not so in after ages, when the Lord of his people himself, was brought before Herod and Pilate. Foes as they had been to each other, yet when Jesus and his cause comes in view, the same day they are made friends together. Luk 23:12 . Is it not so now? Are not all the parties of sin confederates against Jesus? Psa 83:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Gibeonites
Jos 9:2-27
IT would seem on reading this narrative that it can have no possible relation to our time and our circumstances. But God would never write a Bible which was to obliterate itself as the ages come and go. If he could have written such a Bible, surely some instruction might have been given as to the excision of the parts whose meaning has been exhausted. But the book remains in its entirety. It must therefore contain meanings which were not merely local. All that can be required of us is to search the Scripture even in its oldest forms of history and parable; to penetrate it, to take it reverently to pieces, and examine it with devoutest scrutiny. We have undertaken to show that such an examination may be conducted with great profitableness. Again and again we have seen that the Bible is within the Bible, that all letters, forms, representations are symbolic, or are so many doors through which we may pass into the inmost places, the awful sanctuaries, in which may be found eternal truth, celestial purity, supernal music. Flowers grow along the road traversed by the Bible story. The old wells are worth opening; water comes from deep rocks, and is refreshing to men and fertilising to the whole Church. Let us not be beguiled by the easy thought that the Bible is a self-exhausted book, that time obliterates its revelation, that the days impoverish it of heavenly energy. Be it ours rather to believe that it is the book which is daily inspired, daily written, and continually applicable to every variety of human circumstance and need.
The proof of this is upon the very face of the exciting narrative now before us. Do we not see here, first and foremost, the pitiable shifts to which all spiritual fear is driven? The fear of Israel came upon the Gibeonites, and the result was an invention, a false arrangement, an attempt to escape the inevitable. This is the story of today. Volumes might be written upon this one thought namely, that spiritual fear is always and of necessity driven to the most pitiable shifts. Spiritual fear says, What can I do? I will undertake long pilgrimages; I will discharge severe and exhausting penances; I will set apart certain days for self-distress; I will pay great fines willingly; I will draw a mask over my face and obliterate my identity; I will create a system of lucky days and fortunate numbers, and enter into complex speculations and arrangements; I will build churches, and seem to worship; I will commingle with the people of God as if I were one of them when my heart is a thousand leagues away from the very poorest soul in all the sacred number. This is the very philosophy of superstition. Great and solemn histories find their fount and origin in this one circumstance how to baffle God, how to pray without praying, how to succeed by trick and lie and mean pretence. Who will say that the Bible is exhausted as to its inner meanings and its profound revelations? The trick of the Gibeonites is the game of today. Spiritual fear knows not the spirit of truth, and cannot of course know the spirit of joy. So long as we are in fear, we are not in God, we are not in love: “perfect love casteth out fear;” we are not in truth, for truth blinks not in the presence of the midday light, it goes forth to a thousand lions, leaps over a wall, and runs through a troop as if through a film of air. Are we not always cursed by this spirit of fear? It leads us to misconstructions of God. He ceases to be God when he is looked at through the medium and under the base inspiration of servile fear. The man in whom the spirit of fear is, cannot read the Bible. It is a mere idol to him. He looks at it, pronounces its words, accepts its partial perusal as a task; but he never enters into the inner meaning, the divine thought, the eternal affection and redemptiveness of the book. What is the consequence? The consequence is that he can be frightened away from the book by any man who has a larger mind than his own, and who has a more inventive faculty in the region of destructive criticism and embarrassing remark. Hold the Bible with the timid hand of fear, and any thief may take it from our yielding grasp; hold it in our love and read it in the sunshine of joy derived from conscious sonship with God, and no man can pluck it out of our hand: it then becomes the Bible to us, not a collection of letters, forms, but a breathing spirit, the Holy Ghost, proving its inspiration by inspiring others. We may make the house of God an idol temple. We may make the Bible itself a mere idol. We may dispossess the heart of love by almost welcoming the spirit of fear. Being under bondage to fear, we are always inventing religions, inventing methods of escape, trying to impose upon the world and the Church, and even upon God. We have therefore to pray that the spirit of fear may be cast out of us as an evil spirit darkening the soul, weaving impenetrable clouds around the horizon of the divine revelation, and making the stars bright globes of heaven dim and murky, divesting them of all poetry and all religious suggestion. The spirit of fear must be driven out of the Church, or the young will not come near us. The spirit of the Church is a spirit of joy, truth, love, poetry, music, these are the fruits of the Spirit!
The application of this narrative to modern states and needs is made evident by the very fact that the best of men are powerless without the divine Spirit. This is proved by the fourteenth verse:
“And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.” ( Jos 9:14 )
We know what came of it. We are beguiled and befooled by appearances. Some circumstances appear to be so very simple as not to require consideration. That is the moment of danger! Men say to themselves, Here is a case in which there is no complexity; the proof of the innocence of these men is patent; there cannot be two opinions about that; they are travel-stained, they are way-worn; the bread they carry is mouldy, the bottles in which they brought their wine are old and rent and useless; the evidence is perfectly complete; there can be no reason whatever for making this a religious problem or an occasion of prayer; let us honour our own common-sense, pay tribute to our own reason, and act according to circumstances about which there can be no dispute. Thus the Church has always been ruined in some degree by its clever men! Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye cannot manage the Church of the living God, even in the lowest ranges of its affairs. Do not attempt to lock the church door except as a religious act. When you light up the sanctuary for worship, do it as if it were a solemn act of prayer and sacrifice. In everything, the smallest and apparently clearest, consult God. This is the religious life, the joy life, the free life, to do nothing without the spirit of prayer. There need not be any affectation of mere posture and form of prayer: there is a spirit of fellowship, a continual realisation of the divine presence, a feeling after God; and then the uplifting of a hand is prayer, as is the falling of a tear. When our reason seems to be equal to the occasion, the temptation of the Evil One is heavy upon us. We practically dismiss God. We do not mean to do so. If the charge were made in words, we should repel it. But we are not always right simply because of our willingness to repel charges that are made against us. Men do not always know when they are the subjects of envy, jealousy, evil passion; in the very paroxysms of jealousy of another man’s repute or good position, men have denied that there is any burning of envy in their hearts. How is this? Because envy has a way of coming in disguise; it says, “I have come a long way; I am no enemy of yours, I am no enemy of any man’s; I am really not envy or jealousy at all; I will do you good: I will prompt your righteousness to high indignation, but in all the flame of its wrath there shall be nothing that is not akin to the very fire of God’s own feeling.” Let us beware how we receive disguised spirits into the heart. “Brethren, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God;” and most try those spirits that look so perfectly simple and bring with them credentials written in large letters and signed by very conspicuous names. Truth requires no such introduction. Truth is fearless. Sometimes literally it may be discrepant and inconsistent with itself, so much so that a clever reader could mass all the discrepancies and make a case against the witness; but truth can afford to stumble, stammer, correct itself in the matter of mere memory; truth can apologise with dignity; truth can retract with candour. The great difficulty is that people will not make their reason a religious power; in other words, identify its action with religious prostration and inquiry of God. They say the case is so perfectly simple. Such simplicity is not to be found anywhere. God is in the smallest flower he ever made. Every atom that requires even a microscope to discover its existence has a distinct relation to the eternal throne; and reason in its proudest moments loses nothing, but gains everything by the prayer that ennobles its understanding and whets its penetration. Joshua and his men were beguiled by appearances, by a most evident and obvious case. They took not counsel at the mouth of the Lord, and what came of it is revealed in the narrative. How pitiful is the issue! How short is the life of the schemer!
“And it came to pass at the end of three days” ( Jos 9:16 ).
That is the life of a lie. It cannot go any longer practically; it may do so arithmetically, but “three days” is the measure of its duration. The third sunset the appointed time sees the mask fall off and the liar stand stand only to fall. When will men learn this? When will we lay this lesson to heart? Everything looks so successful, and the whole business is just approaching completion, or has actually passed the point of mechanical maturity, and the Gibeonites are about to settle down as men who have successfully perfected a trick; and, lo, at the end of “three days” their whole purpose is exposed and their cleverness is exhausted and at an end! Possibly some may be pursuing precisely the same policy. The circumstances are wholly different; but do not delude yourselves with the notion that circumstances make the reality of the case. What are we about now in commerce, in family life, in all the relations, personal and social, which we sustain? What about the trick, the mean device, the covered lie, the well-painted mask, the falsehood well got up? He would be’ no prophet of the Lord who did not ask the question so burningly as almost to force an answer from the perpetrator of the imposition. But men will not learn from history: every man must commit suicide. We see a thousand men before us in the very line we are taking, all dead, and yet we think we can pass the heap of ruin and successfully reach the final point of the line! It cannot be done. God is against it; and when God is against a man his reason is like a candle blown out, and his cleverness but adds to the aggravation of his guilt. Nothing will stand but truth, honour; truth will stand when all things fail. It lives in the open air all the days of the year; it can go out at midnight as safely as at midday; it speaks to a king, to a child, to a peasant, with all the simplicity of innocence and the beauteousness of a high and noble and valiant courage. But the man who is imposing upon others skulks, listens, wonders, is astonished at little sentences which people drop as if they were dropping them on purpose, is excited by an inquiry, is affrighted by an unexpected letter. He is a liar, and the liar has a bad time of it. O that men were wise, that they understood these things!
But the Gibeonites were spared. Yes, they were spared, but were made bondmen servants for ever:
“And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose” ( Jos 9:27 ).
The liar comes to humiliation. He cannot come to honour; If he came to honour, he dare not touch it. Everything turns to ashes in the bad man’s hand. His children are not his: they disown him; without being able to explain it, they hate him; they represent to him the wrath of an indignant God; they would not touch him: his kiss blasts their young lips; he is a liar, and should be kept a universe off virtue and beauty. Do not suppose a lie can be made permanently successful. Better eat the bread of poverty than the bread of falsehood. Better have the very lowest social position, hardly a foothold in the world at all, yet maintain it like an honest man, than have all the surface of the globe, and know that the air is full of anger, and that the judgment is gathering and will presently explode and destroy the victim. No counsel can prosper against God. The escape from one form of punishment is not an escape from all. A covenant had been made, and according to Eastern custom, when men had eaten salt with one another, the salt was to be as a perpetual protection between them. We have already seen how men spread salt upon a sword and took the salt, each of them: henceforth that sword was sheathed. So it was in this instance. The covenant had been made, and therefore was to be literally respected. So far as that covenant was concerned, it stood; but God has always one other thing he can do that we never imagined or suspected. We cannot escape God. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Our God is a consuming fire. He never consumed that which was good: he has no fire that would burn it. Men have tried to burn the good, and have failed. Men have guillotined noble reformers and patriots, but the reform and the patriotism came up sevenfold greater than before. Great tyrants have issued orders that rebels should be slain and crushed, and crushed and slain they have been, but in so far as the rebels represented righteousness, justice, fair play, the guillotine failed, not the men who were decapitated by it. So there is honour reserved for the good man and the true, however much he may suffer; and there is judgment reserved for the bad man, however much he may succeed. Set it down as part of your very life’s programme: God is with truth, God is with right, God is against falsehood, God is against wrong; and at the end of “three days” that is, at the end of some measurable period the liar shall stand convicted, the bad man who carried his head so high shall find that head falling upon his breast, and the man whose cause was bad and who succeeded for a considerable period will be brought short up, God will look at him, and in that look there will be hell enough!
What is the cure for all this? What is the great answer of Heaven to all this falsehood and suffering upon earth? The answer of Heaven is the answer of the Cross. Always we come back to the Cross of Christ the blood shed for the sins of the world. We have all been liars in the sight of God, though not to one another mayhap. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; but if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It comes to one of two things: to detection or confession. Detection means perdition. Confession means pardon!
Selected Note
Gibeon is a town celebrated in the Old Testament, but not mentioned in the New. It was “a great city,” as one of the royal cities; and to its jurisdiction originally belonged Beeroth, Chephirah, and Kirjath-jearim (Jos 9:17 ; Jos 10:2 ). It is first mentioned in connection with the deception practised by the inhabitants upon Joshua, by which, although Canaanites (Hivites), they induced the Jewish leader not only to make a league with them, and to spare their lives and cities, but also, in their defence, to make war upon the five kings by whom they were besieged. It was in the great battle which followed, that “the sun stood still upon Gibeon” (Jos 10:12 , Jos 10:11-14 ). The place afterwards fell to the lot of Benjamin, and became a Levitical city (Josh, Jos 18:25 ; Jos 21:17 ), where the tabernacle was set up for many years under David and Solomon (1Ch 16:39 ; 1Ch 21:29 ; 2Ch 1:3 ), the ark being at the same time at Jerusalem ( 2Ch 1:4 ). It was here, as being the place of the altar, that the young Solomon offered a thousand burnt-offerings, and was rewarded by the vision which left him the wisest of men (1Ki 3:4-15 ; 2Ch 1:3-13 ). This was the place where Abner’s challenge to Joab brought defeat upon himself, and death upon his brother, Asahel ( 2Sa 2:12-32 ), and where Amasa was afterwards slain by Joab ( 2Sa 20:8-12 ). None of these passages mark the site of Gibeon; but there are indications of it in Josephus ( De Bell. Jud. ii. 19, 1), who places it fifty stadia north-west from Jerusalem; and in Jerome ( Ep. 86 ad Eustoch. ): which leave little doubt that Gibeon is to be identified with the place which still bears the name of El-Jb; for Jib, in Arabic, is merely a contraction of the Hebrew Gibeon. The name Gaboon is indeed mentioned by writers of the time of the Crusades as existing at this spot, and among the Arabs it then already bore the name of El-Jib, under which it is mentioned by Bohaedin ( Vita Saladin, p. 243). Afterwards it was overlooked by most travellers till the last century, when the attention of Pococke was again directed to it.
Prayer
Almighty God, we are exceedingly afraid of thy power: we dare not come nigh it; we may not provoke it. Our God is a consuming fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we speak of thee, and so we feel that verily this is true. Yet, God is love; God is our Father in heaven; like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. This also is true; this is the joy of our life, and its brightest hope; this is the glorious gospel of the blessed God. This view have we of thee in Christ Jesus thy Son; he revealed the Father unto us, and by him we have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we are able to say, Abba, Father, with a new meaning and a new music in our voice, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Thou hast great resources of wrath, yet thy mercy endureth for ever. In wrath thou dost remember mercy. Power belongeth unto thee, and to thee also, O Lord, belongeth mercy. It is unto thy mercy that we come: God be merciful unto us, sinners! Let thy mercy prevail, that our iniquities strike us not with the great hailstones from heaven, killing the creatures whom thou hast redeemed. Spare the lightning, and the hailstones, and the great rains, and the devastating tempests. Be pitiful unto us. We are as bruised reeds and smoking flax; as a vapour that cometh for a little time and then passeth away. The Lord be pitiful unto us; look upon us through the tears of his love and not through the anger of his righteousness. Comfort us according to our mourning: fill up the great vacancy in the heart; establish that which is wanting in our faith, so that it may be long, constant, strong, quite majestic and noble because of its amplitude and its power. Lord, increase our faith! Then we shall rejoice in tribulation also, finding in tribulation the beginning of patience and the pledge of final refinement and sanctification. The Lord send none unblessed away. If it please thee to send upon us first a great fear, let thy love afterwards reveal itself unto us, and may we see the brightness the brighter because of the darkness which made us afraid. Carry on our little life a little longer. Desert us not when the day gets towards eventide and far-spent. Thou hast not brought us thus far along to cast us away into the pit or leave us in desert places. We will think of all thy goodness in the past, and out of it we will bring a holy confidence, through the Lord Jesus Christ, our blessed and only Saviour, that thou wilt surely complete what thou hast begun. This is our strength in Christ; this is our hope as we stand near the Cross. We know our sin is great, but where sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. We will say this to our hearts; the Lord repeat the music to our listening expectancy and hope, and we shall yet be filled with a great gladness, and the eventide shall be brighter than the morning. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXI
THE FALL OF JERICHO, AI, EBAL, AND GERIZIM
Jos 6:1-10:43
This section commences with Jos 6:1 and the first item of the discussion is the capture of Jericho. The method of the capture of Jericho was intensely spectacular. The dramatic feature of it was cumulative; it got more intense every day. We have only to read two or three verses to see just what was done, and such a thing as was never done before or since, but done in the taking of the city. No sword was unsheathed, no man struck a blow in the capture of that place. The priests with the jubilee trumpets, not the ordinary trumpets, led the procession, seven priests, seven trumpets, seven days round that city. They would blow and the people were silent, not a word in the ranks. Once a day for six days they marched all around the high walls of Jericho and on the seventh day they went round it seven times, and at the close of the seventh time the trumpets sounded and the people shouted and the walls of Jericho fell, and each one in his position in their circuit, marched over the fallen walls and captured the city. It was God’s work throughout. You will notice that this capture was discriminative; that place in the wall where the house of Rahab stood did not fall; every other place fell.
The next thought in the capture of this city is that it was devoted. Learn the meaning of that word “devoted.” That means, when it applies to man, that death occurs; when it applies to materials as spoils, that it belongs to Jehovah. The Israelites had nothing to do with the capture of the city. It was entirely God’s. And the strongest prohibition was issued, that no man must rob God by appropriating to himself any part of the spoils which had been set apart for Jehovah’s own use.
Now, we come to another feature of the capture, and that is a curse was pronounced on any man that ever attempted to rebuild the walls of Jericho, not Jericho the city, for that still existed, but the fortified part of the city, where the arms were kept. It must never be rebuilt. Turn to 1Ki 16:34 , and read that verse: “In his days did Hiel the Bethelite build Jericho; he laid the foundation thereof with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of Jehovah which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun.” That is many hundred years after Joshua spoke that word, and there you come to a great text and a very appropriate one, if you are going to make a prohibition address. One of the great arguments for the continuance of the sale of ardent spirits in a city is that it promotes the interests of the city; that the grass would grow in the streets of a city if you did not allow it. The statement is erroneous, but if it were true, men ought not to lay the foundation of the city in the souls of men.
You will notice that the next says that Joshua, whom they had supported as leader in this, acquired great fame by the fall of Jericho throughout all the Promised Land; among the enemies the fame and dread of Joshua spread.
It is in connection with the capture of this city that we come across the sin of Achan, and that is the second thought for us to discuss. The text says, “Israel’s sin,” and the context shows that on Israel fell the punishment The real sinner was one person, Achan. Now, the question comes up, With what propriety can the action of a man with which the others had nothing to do, be called the sin of Israel and the Israelites be punished for the sin? You recall a passage in Corinthians, recently studied, where Paul accuses the church of sin in that it had retained one man and covered up the sin of that man that took his father’s wife, and he went on to say that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. So when you look at the solidarity of the people, their unity, or the solidarity of the church, a sin committed by one member that passes unrebuked will become the sin of the entire organization, and the whole body must suffer the penalty for what one does, because they being many constitute one body.
That is why this is called Israel’s sin.
I ask you to notice again the cause of this sin; it was covetousness. He knew about the prohibition; that he didn’t capture Jericho but God captured it, and that its spoils were devoted by the word of God, but he saw some gold and a goodly Babylonish garment and he took them and hid them in his tent. The people knew nothing about this sin. So far as they were concerned, it was a covered sin, and it doesn’t keep a ship from sinking when a leak is there, be it unknown to the captain of the crew. So that a covered sin is even more dangerous than a sin that is in the open. A fire that is merely smouldering, sending forth no blaze and no smoke, is more dangerous than a fire that advertises itself with its illumination and its roar, because in that case you can hedge against its spreading, but if it is unseen it spreads beyond control.
We now come to the nature of his offence. It was not ordinary stealing. It was not ordinary dishonesty. It was that blasphemy which robs God. You will recall in the New Testament that when the church had just started on its progress and donations were being given, people would sell their land and come and say, “It is all the price of the land,” Ananias and his wife conspired together to keep back a portion of the price and thus lied not to man, but unto God, and if that sin had not at the beginning been punished by instant death, the church never would have retained its power. Just as in this new nation coming among enemies with a world of conquest just ahead of them, their sole dependence was keeping in favor with God. Whoever then lost them the favor of God practically would bring about their destruction; therefore, it was not a case for mercy. Now, we find Israel paying the penalty of that sin. A detachment of men was sent out to Ai, their next stronghold, and to their own surprise they became panic stricken and fled and a number of them lost their lives. You can see the significance of their defeat. The enemy had been panic stricken and the only way to succeed was to keep up their prestige. This defeat took away from the enemy their fear of Israel, and unless that sin had been discovered and speedily punished, Israel would have been beaten back across the Jordan or enslaved in a very short time. But one of the most remarkable things in connection with the sin of Achan is God’s omniscient method of ascertaining and exposing it. Dr. Burleson preached all over Texas from this text. “Be sure your sin will find you out.”. And a great sermon of Jonathan Edwards that spread over a quarter of the nation and resulted in the conversion of 250,000 people was from this text, “Their feet shall slide in due time.” “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”; there is no escape from the omniscient eye of God. There is no getting away from his presence, there is no evasion of his omnipotence. A man who has committed a sin is like a horse staked out on the prairie; the stake rope may be long but yet it is not long enough to enable him to be free. He can go only to the end of his tether, and every time the horse walks around the stake pin, shortens his tether, and after a time it brings his nose right up to the stake pin. So is any sinner in the hands of God.
When God maketh an inquisition for sin, he remembers, he doesn’t forget, he knows where to go to look for it. It has chanced that three times I have preached from the text, “Be sure your sin will find you out,” at ten years’ interval, and each time I preached some one came and made me a confession that I never told, but the confessions of the strangest and most awful sin, and one of them was a young preacher. I have never been so puzzled as I have been puzzled by these three confessions. In two of these cases I was able not only to suggest a remedy, but to put the remedy into effect. The third case was not in any power of mine. Now, God’s plan was this: The whole camp, 3,000,000 of them, were drawn up and they were ordered to march by Jehovah, that is, where his presence was, at the tabernacle, and God would say which tribe, and he took one of the twelve tribes, Judah, and they were required to march by again and God designated which clan of Judah (the Zarhites) held the criminal, and that clan was required to pass by and God designated the head of the family, and the family was required to pass by and God designated the man. It is a remarkable exhibition of sin by divine Providence. When exposed, Achan confessed his sin and the Israelites, by purging themselves, regained the power over their enemies which they had lost. Following this detection and punishment of Achan’s sin, Ai easily falls before Joshua, as our chapter tells us and I need not repeat.
Now, with the conquest of Ai the children of Israel were established in an exceedingly strong strategical position. They struck a country sideways, about the center; they camped in the mountainous part that held the open ways to the south, and the open ways to the north, and the open ways to the west. Therefore we have an account of the first league. The nations around saw that no one nation could stand before Israel, and that as Israel was coming against all of them, it behooved them to make a defensive league. All the Amorites who held mountain country entered into that league except one nation, the Gibeonites, who held four cities in the mountains and controlled certain mountain passes. These Gibeonites came before Joshua disguised in apparel and in every way, and they told Joshua that they had heard of him and of Israel and that they came in peace. Now, Israel was allowed to make a league with other nations than the Canaanites, the enemies that inhabited the territory of Israel, therefore it was necessary to make treaty with these people. The only error of which they were guilty was in not asking God before they made it. It was found out that the Gibeonites’ territory lay in that path just ahead of them, but the covenant had been made and it was agreed that their lives should be spared, but they should become hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Israelites. This gave Joshua control of the crest of the land.
This brings us to consider the binding power of a nation’s obligation to God. It is just as important as that of individuals. If the United States makes a treaty with another nation, the national honor is involved in due observance of that treaty. Therefore this treaty with the Gibeonites, having been made, had to stand. Later we will see that Saul violated that covenant and his sons were hanged to pay for the violation of the covenant that was made with the Gibeonites. There are some people who say that one generation cannot bind another generation. Mr. Jefferson, in his works, goes dangerously near if not altogether right up to the thought that involves the very destruction of the idea of national responsibility, viz.: that every generation should be bound only by the obligations that that generation assumed. That would not have worked and did not work in the Achan case, and no statesman ought to stand in office who advises the people to disregard a national obligation. We have to meet it; we have to pay it. Suppose England should repudiate its national debt because this generation did not contract that debt, she would destroy all modern civilization. If the British debt was repudiated, the foundation of both continents would be destroyed.
Now, having obtained this strategical position, we come to Ebal and Gerizim. They are the two mountains that face each other. In Deuteronomy Moses commanded that when they got over into the land they must place half of the people on Mount Ebal and half on Mount Gerizirn and the priests with the ark in between, and the law should be read. When you come to the curses, the six tribes on Mount Ebal shall cry out “Amen”; and when you come to the blessings the six tribes on Mount Gerizirn shall cry out “Amen”; and when you come to the end of the law, all of the twelve tribes shall cry out “Amen.” It was a scene earth never witnessed before, mountaintop speaking to mountaintop. The voice of the people aligning themselves with the decrees of God and pronouncing themselves to be cursed if they disobeyed and to be blessed if they obeyed.
The next item in our history is that five mountain kings, Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, and Hoham, king of Hebron, Piram, king of Jarmuth, and Japhia, king of Lachish, and Debir, king of Eglon, were to make war on the Gibeonites (Jebus means City of Judah, finally called Jerusalem), because they had practically surrendered to Joshua and it behooved these nations to stand together and to punish the traitor. This is what they thought. Notice that Adonizedek is king of Jerusalem, that her king is no longer Melchidedek. You will find in your Hurlbut’s Atlas many maps that show Jerusalem, and you will have to study about Jerusalem all through the Bible, and when you get up to heaven to the New Jerusalem, you will still study about it. This is the first time you come to it.
This brings us to the great decisive battle of Beth-horon. When the Gibeonites found themselves invaded by these five allied kings, they sent a rapid messenger to Joshua at Gilgal, after he had gotten through the Ebal and Gerizirn matter. It is a very urgent appeal, “Come quick!” And Joshua marches all night and makes a certain attack and that brings about the decisive battle of Beth-horon. There are three stages: The first stage, Joshua attacks and discomfits them; they begin to retreat and seem to be about to get away. That brings us to the second stage, when God intervenes with an electric storm, an awful storm of hailstones, and more of that allied army perish by hailstones than by the sword of Joshua’s people. Hailstones are very large sometimes. If you take your encyclopaedia, you will find that a hailstone once fell that passed through a battleship and sank it, and another hailstone fell on land that buried itself, that weighed several tons, being as big as a house. You remember the remarkable account of the plague in Egypt and its awful destructive power, and if you ever have a chance to go to see the moving picture show of the life of Moses, you will see that hailstorm just as vividly as if you were standing looking on it, and you will see it kill cattle and people. In the third stage of the battle, the allies had been defeated, then they had been discomfited by the hailstorm. Joshua saw that a great deal depended on keeping the ranks together and so with sublime audacity he said, “Stand still,” to the sun, and “Thou moon,” that is, let the day be prolonged, and the record says that the sun did stand still and the moon, and that the day was so prolonged that there was no day like it before in the history of the world and none after it An infidel once said to me, “Do you know what Joshua ought to have done? He ought to have said, ‘Stand still, O earth.’ ” I said, “You are very smart in your knowledge of science. You could not stop the earth if you don’t stop the sun.” The earth is a satellite and the moon is a satellite, and the earth’s motion is of two kinds, centripetal and centrifugal, those forces combined make a circular motion that carries the earth around the sun. Just like a mechanic with a complicated piece of machinery in order to stop the outlying wheels, all he has to do is to stop the main wheel. If you want to talk about the language of science Joshua said exactly the right thing.
Now comes up the question about that miracle. It is perfectly foolish for people to waste time in the discussion of the credibility of miracles, the supernatural. All you have to do is just admit one thing God. Now, if there be a God, he can just as well control that which is above nature as nature itself. According to Horace in his Art of Poetry, “Never introduce a god unless there is a necessity for a god.” Well, it certainly was necessary. Upon that battle hinged all the southern part of the Promised Land. That battle would have been no more than a skirmish if these nations had gotten away and gotten into their walled cities. What was necessary was to have time, daylight enough to prosecute the work So the God that intervened at the passage of the Red Sea and at the Jordan, and in shaking down the walls of Jericho, intervened here. Now, it is the object of the miracle to accredit, to attest. Joshua needed to be accredited; there must be the most overwhelming evidence that he stood for God. If he stood in heat of battle and commanded the sun to stand still and the sun stood still, and the moon, and God heard him, then he stood accredited before the people, before the nations of the earth.
This brings us to the book called Jasher. What is the book of Jasher? “Is not this written in the book of Jasher?” Now notice the full quotation: “Is not this written in the book of Jasher? so the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man; for the Lord fought for Israel. And Joshua returned and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.” That last sentence is a part of the quotation, for Joshua had not returned yet, but after the event, it was written in the book of Jasher. That was the poem that was said to have been written in that book of Jasher. It was a book of poems that selected the great events in Jewish history. Twice it is referred to in the Old Testament. David’s song was written in it and this poem on the battle of Beth-horon was put in it.
Still going back to the battle, they pursued the enemy until the five kings took refuge in a cave and Joshua sealed the mouth of the cave with a stone and still pursued until the destruction of the enemy was complete, and the result of the battle was that while there were few enemies left in the city, he kept marching on, taking one town after another until we come to this description, that his conquest extended from Goshen to Gath; from Goshen to Kadesh, Negeb, Hebron, to the Dead Sea. Here comes up a question about Joshua, and some of these people that can believe half things, but are utterly at a loss to believe all things. Some believe that Goshen was not a border of Israel. We will take the definition of the Bible. Don’t look at your commentaries, look at the Bible. It shows that by this one battle Joshua captured all the country upon the Mediterranean coast to Gath and from Gath to Jerusalem, and from there to Hebron, and from there to the lower edge of the Dead Sea, and extending up on a line with Goshen. One battle practically gave him the whole of the south country. I will add this, that the five kings were executed and then hanged on a tree, for “cursed is every man that is hanged on a tree.”
I have one other remark to make. Later on in the book and even in the book of Judges you will find references to the conquest of certain places in this southern country that only Joshua took, but when you look at the details it mentions the junior officers that took it. From instance, Kirby Smith attacked the Federal outposts on the Mississippi River near Vicksburg and all on one day, and yet it was General McCullough, one of his subordinate officers, that attacked one point, and General Young that attacked another point. Now, if I should see in the life of Kirby Smith that he accomplished all that, and later if I take up the life of General McCullough and find that he took certain points, I would know which one was there. I do know, for I was there in it. Now, just so with these later accounts that some people use to indicate that the book of Joshua was not written until after the book of Judges. There is no evidence to show that any of these events occurred after the book of Judges, but they are generally stated here, and later, in putting the events of Joshua’s life, they will be specifically considered as when we come to the tribe of Dan.
QUESTIONS
1. Describe the capture of Jericho.
2. What discrimination in this capture?
3. What is the meaning of “devoted,” & what prohibition was issued?
4. What curse was pronounced on the rebuilder of Jericho, its fulfilment and a present day application of the text?
5. What exaltation of Joshua as the result, & the effect on his enemies?
6. Why called Israel’s sin and why Israel’s punishment? Give New Testament explanation.
7. What its cause?
8. Its nature?
9. Its effect?
10. Effect of social sin?
11. Its result?
12. Significance of defeat of Ai?
13. What its method of exposure?
14. Its confession and punishment? Give New Testament example.
15. What was the first league?
16. Give the case of the Gibeonites.
17. What of the covenant made with them and who violated it and the result?
18. What the application to modern nations?
19. What command did Moses give concerning this transaction?
20. Describe its fulfilment.
21. Describe the confederacy against the Gibeonites, and why its necessity?
22. Describe the great decisive battle that followed, giving 1Th 3 stages.
23. What the book of Jasher? What other reference to it?
24. What the result of the campaign? Outline the South Country.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jos 9:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which [were] on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard [thereof];
Ver. 1. The Hittite and the Amorite. ] Some say the Girgashites are not here named, because that, of all the seven nations, they accepted of conditions; of peace; the rest, save only the Gibeonites, who were of the Hivites, Jos 9:7 stood it out to their utter destruction. If men harden their hearts, God will harden his hand, and hasten their ruin.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED TEXT): Jos 9:1-2
1Now it came about when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan, in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, heard of it, 2that they gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel.
Jos 9:1 Now it came about when all the kings Jos 9:1-2 form a general introduction to this entire section of Joshua 9-12. The phrase all the kings seems to imply that the majority of the Canaanites were organized into city states, much like ancient Greece. However, the fact that Gibeon is identified with several other cities (cf. Jos 9:17) implies that it was a confederation, not a single city state.
This united Canaanite army never came together to fight Israel.
beyond the Jordan This phrase is used several times in the book of Joshua in two different senses: (1) sometimes it refers to the east bank of the Jordan (cf. Jos 1:14; Jos 2:10; Jos 9:10; Jos 14:3) and (2) sometimes it is used of the west bank (cf. Jos 5:1; Jos 9:1; Jos 12:7; Jos 22:7). It is possible that the seeming discrepancy is due to the author/editor/ compiler being with the group of Israelites who were on the plains of Moab but later moved into Canaan.
in the hill country There seems to be three distinct geographical and topological sections of the Promised Land mentioned in Jos 9:1 : (1) the southern hill country (BDB 249); (2) the low, rolling hills which are often called the shephelah (BDB 1050); and (3) the coastal plains (BDB 342). Numbers 2, 3 are often seen as one.
the Hittite There are three groups of Hittites (BDB 366) mentioned in the Bible: (1) we find one group of them early in the book of Genesis, which seems to be in the area of Mesopotamia; (2) later on we find another group in the Promised Land; and (3) there was a large developed civilization of Hittites (Anatolia) in central Turkey. See Special Topic: Pre-Israelite Inhabitants of Palestine .
Amorite The term Amorite seems to have the implication of highlander (BDB 57). It is sometimes used as a collective term for all of the tribes of Canaan (cf. Gen 15:16). See Special Topic: Pre-Israelite Inhabitants of Palestine .
the Canaanite The term seems to be used in the sense of lowlander (BDB 489). It is also used to denote the collective tribes of Canaan. The geographical name for the Promised Land was Canaan, derived from this collective use. See Special Topic: Pre-Israelite Inhabitants of Palestine .
Jebusite Jebusites (BDB 101) are the ancient inhabitants of the city of Jebus which was called Salem in Gen 14:8, and later, Jerusalem (cf. Jdg 19:10). Sometimes these native tribal listings of Canaan have one, three, seven, or ten groups. We see another list of these tribes in Jos 3:10, but there the Girgashites are omitted. See Special Topic: Pre-Israelite Inhabitants of Palestine .
Jos 9:2 that they gathered themselves together with one accord to fight with Joshua and with Israel
There are two VERBS in this phrase.
1. gathered together, BDB 867, KB 1062, Hithpael IMPERFECT, cf. Jdg 9:47; 1Sa 7:7; 1Sa 8:4; 1Sa 22:2
2. to fight, BDB 535, KB 526, Niphal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, cf. Deu 20:4; 2Ki 13:12; 2Ki 14:15; 2Ch 11:1; 2Ch 17:10; 2Ch 27:5; Dan 10:20; Dan 11:11
Because these city states had heard what Joshua had done to the Amorite kings of the eastern side of Jordan they decided to attempt a coalition, at least in the south, to thwart Israel’s invasion.
The phrase translated with one accord is literally, with one mouth. Mouth (BDB 804) is used idiomatically in several ways:
1. ask his mouth, meaning to ask personally (cf. Gen 24:57)
2. mouth of the sword, meaning the cutting edge of a sword (cf. Gen 34:26)
3. mouth to mouth, meaning face to face (cf. Num 12:8; 2Ki 10:21; 2Ki 21:16; Jer 32:4; Jer 34:3)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the Canaanite, the Perizzite. Some codices, with two early printed editions, read “and the Canaanite and the Perizzite”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
This time shall we turn to the book of Joshua, chapter nine as we begin our study this evening.
Now the children of Israel had conquered Jericho and Ai, which were strong cities. The kings that were in the land of Canaan where they were coming, felt that their only hope of stopping this migration of these people into the land would be by a combined effort, pooling all of their armies, all of their resources in one massive assault against Israel. Now this strategy was really prompted by the fact that the Gibeonites, which did cover an area of several cities, had determined that their only hope of survival was by a peace treaty.
So he starts out the ninth chapter, the first three verses talking about the kings that were getting together to present a united front against this invasion. Lest they would just be picked off kingdom by kingdom, they felt that they should all get together. Then, beginning with verse four, they tell of this Gibeonite conspiracy to develop a peace treaty with the Israelites as they were coming into the land.
Now the Gibeonites had heard of how God had delivered these people out of Egypt, and how He had destroyed the Egyptians. They had heard of how the kings of Og and Sihon, of their kingdoms on the other side of Jordan, had been conquered by Israel. They heard, of course, that Jericho had fallen, that Ai had fallen. So they determined that their best course of action was to make a peace treaty. However, they also knew that these people that were coming into the land, the Israelites, had no intention of making any peace treaties with the inhabitants of the land. For they were under the orders of God to utterly drive out all of the inhabitants of the land, to destroy, to drive out, not to make any covenant with them.
Deuteronomy, chapter seven, God commands them not to make any covenant with those in the land. So they knew that their only hope of making a covenant was by a disguise which they perpetrated. They got some fellows who put on some old, ragged clothes, old clodded shoes, they had some old wine skins that were falling to pieces, that they bound up. They had some dry moldy bread. So they came to the camp of Israel, and they said that, “We have come a long journey. But the fame of your God has spread through the world, and we’ve come to make peace with you.”
They said, “How do we know that you’re not our neighbors?” They said, “Oh, listen when we left home this bread was hot in our hands, and now look at it, it’s all dry and moldy. That’s how far we’ve come. Our shoes were new on our feet, but look how ragged they are, and we’ve really come a long way.”
So the children of Israel took of their victuals, [and inquired not of the Lord,] or sought not to counsel from the mouth of the Lord ( Jos 9:14 ).
And they made this covenant or peace treaty with the Gibeonites, and they swore unto them by God that they would have sort of a mutual defense pact that they would be allied together.
So as the children of Israel moved on from Ai, they started coming into the area of the kingdom of the Gibeonites, these cities. So as they started to deploy the troops to attack the cities, the men said, “Oh no, no you can’t do that.”
They said, “What do you mean?”
They said, “We’ve just made a pact with you, and you’ve sworn to us by God that you would not attack us.” So they honored the pact that they had made. They realized that they had been deceived. But they honored the pact that they had made with the Gibeonites; however, the people began to murmur against Joshua because of his strategic blunder.
It is interesting to note that this is really the second mistake that Joshua made as a leader. The first mistake was in the case of Ai where they sent up only a few thousand troops, and the men of Ai came out against them and defeated them. Now how that when Joshua cried unto the Lord, the Lord told him the reason for the defeat was because of the sin that was in the camp. That one of the children of Israel had taken of the accursed thing out of the spoils of Jericho, which were all to go to God. So Joshua then sought the Lord, got rid of the sin, and the Lord directed them then on how the conquest of Ai should go.
Now the problem with Ai was his failure to pray and seek counsel from God before they deployed the troops to attack the city. The same problem existed here. It was a failure to pray and inquire of God concerning the Gibeonites. They just looked at the outward circumstances. They saw the dry, moldy bread and the ragged clothes, and they just were deceived.
Now had they sought counsel from God, had he come to Eleazar the high priest and inquired of the Lord concerning these people, the Lord would’ve shown to them that these people were fakes. They would’ve realized that these men were just seeking to disguise themselves as having come on a long journey. But in reality they were fakes, but the Lord would’ve revealed that. They inquired not of the Lord. Their mistake was that of failure to seek God’s counsel. It got them into an ungodly alliance.
How many times we found ourselves in ungodly situations because we failed to seek God first. Oh, for sure when we get into these conditions, then we seek God like everything. But if we would only seek God first, we could be spared so many of these tragic experiences that we encounter in life. So the failure to seek God’s guidance led them into this alliance with the Gibeonites.
But having once made it, they honored it. However, Joshua called them and said, “All right you guys why did you deceive us like this?”
They said, “Hey, we knew that God was with you, that God was turning the land over to you, and we feared for our lives, and we felt that the only way we could survive was by this little ruse.”
Joshua said, “All right but as a result of this you fellas are gonna have to be the hewers of wood and become our servants.”
They said, “That’s fine, we’ll agree to that, we’ll be your servants. We will serve you but we’re just glad to be alive.” So the people of Gibeon, and the cities of Gibeon were spared.
Now the names of the city of the Gibeonites are listed there. In the listing of the names in verse seventeen, the last name Kirjathjearim is an interesting name and city, because it was at Kirjathjearim that the Ark of the Covenant was kept up until the time of David when he moved it from there to Jerusalem. So one of the cities of the Gibeonites became the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.
Now when these five kings heard that the Gibeonites had made this league with the children of Israel, then they decided to attack the Gibeonites, more or less, as traitors. So they came against the Gibeonites.
Chapter 12
Now that was a tragedy that they did leave unconquered territory, because they left it, it did become a problem later on to them. Now in chapter eleven it gives a list of the names of the kings that were in this land that they destroyed, or that they, that they had come against. So chapter twelve gives you a roster of the kings that they defeated.
Chapter 13
In chapter thirteen,
Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; [It means that he was beginning to be a little feeble. The idea of “stricken in years” refers to more or less the feebleness that oftentimes accompanies old age.] … and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed ( Jos 13:1 ).
This, as I said, was one of their tragedies, is their failure to continue until they had taken all of the land that God had promised. Now there is a sequel to that in our own spiritual lives. As I have told you before, coming into the land of promise, and taking the land of promise as a spiritual sequel, the life of victory, the walking in the Spirit that God wants you to know, the victory over the flesh and the old flesh life.
Now God has promised you victory over your flesh life. It is a victory that all you have to do is go in and claim, lay claim to it. “Every place you put your foot, God has given it to you for a possession.”
Now the tragic thing with so many Christians is they start off in the Spirit in a very powerful way. They make great initial spiritual strides in their lives. But then they will hit a spiritual plateau where a complacency will settle over them, and they’re no longer eager for conquest. They’re no longer really striving towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God, but they begin to sort of kick back in spiritual ease and resting upon the past victory. So that oftentimes when you talk to them their conversation is always of some past spiritual victory and blessing that they experienced in their life. But there’s nothing fresh and up to date. Most of the spiritual victories are relegated to some historic period in their own walk and experience, and they’re always remembering the glory days of the past, “Oh, I can remember the days of the tent.” Glorying in the work of God in my life while we were in the tent. Or “the days in the little church”, but it is always a sign of spiritual stagnation when you’ve got to look back to relate some vital experience with God. God wants you to have an up-to-the-moment experience of His grace and power and love in your life, and His victory.
Now they came to the place where they were satisfied, they were content; they didn’t press on to the full victory. Beware of spiritual plateaus. Beware of that spiritual complacency where you come to the place where you’re spiritually satisfied, “This is as far as I need to go, far as I desire to go. As far as the rest of the things in my life, I can live with them.” Whenever you can start living comfortably with your flesh, you are in danger spiritually. Our flesh is a constant enemy to our walk in the Spirit. “The spirit is lusting against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit, and these two are contrary”( Gal 5:17 ), the scripture said. They’re opposed to each other. Thus, how important that we press on to the full possession of that which God has promised unto us. But there remained yet very much land to be possessed. So it tells the territories that they had not yet conquered.
Now God had told them to “divide it by lot to the Israelites for an inheritance as I have commanded you.”
Verse fourteen,
Only unto the tribe of Levi there is no inheritance; the sacrifices of the Lord God of Israel made by fire are their inheritance, as he said unto them. Now Moses gave to the tribe of the children of Ruben the inheritance according to their families ( Jos 13:14-15 ).
He describes the borders on the other side of the Jordan River that belonged to Reuben. Then to the tribe of Gad he describes in verse twenty-five to the end, the borders of the area that were given to Gad, again on the other side of the Jordan River east from Jericho.
Chapter 14
Now in chapter fourteen we have the interesting account of this fellow Caleb. When Moses had sent out the twelve spies to go into the land, Caleb was a companion to Joshua. They spied out the south country of Israel. From near Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, the valley of Eshcol, on over to the valley of Elah, and southwards towards Hebron, and Beersheba on down to the southern border of Kadesh-Barnea.
Now when they came back and gave the good report, said, “Hey that land is great.” They had a big bunch of grapes that they carried on a stake between them. They got this pole and they tied this huge bunch of grapes. I’ll tell you there in the Valley of Eshcol they have some beautiful, beautiful grapes. Some of the most, ah-can’t talk about it. They are good, they are eating grapes. The Jews only really grow table grapes, and they are, they’re just delicious. That the Moslems only grow the table grapes; the Jews grow the wine grapes. But the Moslems grow the eating grapes, because the Moslems don’t believe in drinking wine. So they only grow table grapes. The area, of course, there in the valley of Eshcol, Hebron and so forth, is Moslem territory, the Arabs. But they have some of the most delicious grapes. Even to the present day, and huge bunches.
So these guys picked one of these great bunches of grapes. They were some of the first tourists to go into the land of Israel. The word “spies” actually is the word for “tourist” in Hebrew. They brought back souvenirs, this big bunch of grapes. They said, “Wow that land is all right. You know; it’s flowing with milk and honey. Look at this bunch of grapes that we’ve picked. Oh, it’s a good land.”
But the ten other spies said, “Oh man, it’s a land that eats up its inhabitants. They have huge cities, big walls, and there are giants there. We were like grasshoppers.” And these ten spies put fear in the heart of Israel and they turned away.
Now Moses when God said, “All right you know you’re gonna have to wander”. Moses promised Caleb, he said, “Look Caleb, when we take the land, you can have that territory that you spied out. That’s yours.” So they had covered, they had conquered pretty much the northern part, the upper Galilee region, the area of Samaria.
Now Caleb came to Joshua, and he said, “Joshua, when you and I spied out the land, when we came back and gave our report to Moses, you’ll remember that Moses promised me that I could have for my family, the territory that we spied out.” He said, “Now look I’m eighty-five years old, but I’m just as strong as the day that we spied out the land.” He said, “I want your permission now to go down and take that land that was promised to me.”
I love the grit of this old fellow. Eighty-five years old, he says, “Man, I’m ready to go to battle. I’m ready to take that land that God had promised to me, that Moses promised that I could have. I want your permission now to go down and take it.” So Joshua gave unto Caleb the permission to go down the area of Hebron, and those areas around Hebron, the areas that were promised to Caleb. So Caleb went down and conquered that area around Hebron. He was from the tribe of Judah, and Judah actually had that entire area south from Jerusalem, east to the Dead Sea, Jordan River, Dead Sea, and west all the way on over towards the Elah Valley where from there to the coast was the tribe of Dan.
So Joshua blessed him, [verse thirteen of chapter fourteen] and he gave him Hebron, [and the environs about it] for his inheritance. [The reason given the end of verse fourteen] because he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel ( Jos 14:13-14 ).
Chapter 15
So in chapter fifteen he describes the portion that was given from Judah, and he tells the borders of the land that was given to Judah, going over at one point, clear to the Mediterranean, the area of Hebron, and the area basically south of Jerusalem. Then it tells of the various villages and the cities, and all that were in the land that was given to Judah.
In verse sixty-two one of the interesting cities is Engedi, which is down by the Dead Sea. It is still existing there today. It is one of my favorite places to visit. They have fantastic dates in Engedi, and they also have a beautiful waterfall, Fern Grotto, just an absolutely gorgeous area. We got some beautiful pictures of Engedi, and we are hoping to get our film edited pretty soon, sort of a travel log of Israel, and let you see some of that beautiful, beautiful country.
Chapter 16
In chapter sixteen he describes the areas that were given then to Manasseh, and to Ephraim, the sons, or the descendants of Joseph. Now part of the tribe of Manasseh settled on the east banks of the Jordan River, but the other part settled on the west banks of the Jordan from the area of Jericho, on up through Bethel, and the area basically just north from the area of Jerusalem, and going north from there north of Judah.
So verse ten, chapter sixteen,
They drove not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and they serve under tribute ( Jos 16:10 ).
So again the failure of totally conquering the land. As we get into the book of Judges, we’ll see the cost of this disobedience of failing to totally take the land, but allowing some of the people to remain. As the scripture predicted they did become thorns in their sides, and pricks, and they became a real problem to them in time to come. We’ll cover that as we move on into Judges. But we’ll finish the book of Joshua next Sunday.
Now in some of the reading that we skipped over tonight, the listing of all those names, you can’t even find the ruins of all those cities anymore. So it’s no sense of reading all the things, when you get to those listing of names, just jump over them, else your Bible reading will become tedious indeed. So just jump over whenever you start getting a list of a lot of names.
Now I do suggest that you get a good Bible map of the division of the land to the twelve tribes. And a good map will do a lot more for you to understand the places where the twelve tribes lived than trying to read the borders of the cities that don’t even exist anymore. So just get you a good Bible map and you can study it on a good Bible map, the portion out of the land.
Now what they did is that they would draw out the area, and then they would have all the tribes’ names in a little box or something, and they’d put, say, “Okay now this area on down from Jerusalem on south”, and so forth, and say, “All right now who’s gonna have this?” They’d draw the lot and “Oh Judah”, “Okay that’s Judah’s”. So they apportioned the land by lot, by the drawing of lots. They would circumscribe an area, then draw lots and it would go to that tribe whose was drawn for that particular area.
So next week we move on to the finishing of the apportioning of the land to the various tribes, and to Joshua’s final charge to the people, and his death.
Shall we stand?
May the Lord bring you into a special consciousness of His presence, of His love, of His interest in your life. May you walk in the consciousness of God’s grace, and be led by His Spirit. May you come into a new relationship with God, a very personal relationship with God. In Jesus’ name. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
The fame and the dread of the people by this time were spreading far and wide. The kings of Canaan, conscious of their danger, formed a league against the oncoming hosts.
However, before they had time to take action, a new peril threatened Israel through the strategy of the Gibeonites. The first mistake made by the princes of Israel in this matter was that they acted alone in receiving the messengers instead of remitting what was a new set of circumstances to God for counsel and guidance.
Moreover, they had been straitly charged to make no covenant with the people of the land. Although it may be urged that they thought in making the covenant with these people they were doing so with those from a great distance, it is yet clear that they approached perilously near direct disobedience.
The deceit being discovered, the action of Joshua was immediate and decisive. He was bound by the letter of his covenant with the Gibeonites, but he condemned them to perpetual servitude, making them hewers of wood and drawers of water. It is interesting to observe that in subsequent history the binding nature of this treaty was recognized and the Gibeonites do not appear anywhere to have made any attempt to corrupt the children of Israel with idolatry.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Deceived by the Gibeonites
Jos 9:1-15
The presence of common peril forced the nations of Canaan to combine for self-preservation. Would that the various sections of the visible Church might see their way to a similar policy in view of the evil in the world!
Gibeon lay five miles north of Jerusalem. The name means built on a hill. The Church has suffered more from the wiles of the devil than from his attacks. The deceitfulness of sin is most to be dreaded. Better to meet Caiaphas than Judas, and a black devil than a white one.
How often we act without asking the counsel of God! Yet when once an oath is taken which does not absolutely conflict with morality, God holds us to it, 2Sa 21:1. By this impressive instance we are taught to wait on God before making our decisions, which are apt to become irrevocable, Psa 127:2.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
It has been well said that Satan plays with loaded dice. He knows all the weaknesses of human nature and is an expert in the black art of deception. So in the New Testament believers are exhorted to put on the whole armour of God, that [they] may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil (Eph 6:11).
We have a very striking illustration of the devils deceptive practices in this ninth chapter of Joshua. As the word went out to the other Canaanite peoples that Jericho and Ai had fallen before the victorious Israelites, the dwellers in a certain Hivite city, named Gibeon, decided that if they would avert the destruction of themselves and their city, they must act at once and that in a manner calculated to mislead Joshua and his forces regarding their identity and the location of their homeland.
So we are told in verses 3 to 6:
And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We become from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.
This was on the part of these Hivites a very clever ruse and it accomplished its purpose, for when the strange-looking ambassadors arrived at the camp of Israel in Gilgal, Joshua and his officers were deceived by their appearance and the story that they concocted. The ragged garments, the worn-out sandals, the rotting wine-skins, and the mouldy bread all seemed to authenticate the plea that these Gibeonites made.
And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, And all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.
There was something so apparently genuine about this recital, with its hypocritical pretense of having come to fear Jehovah, the God of Israel, that those who listened to it were quite carried away by it. We are told, the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel of the Lord (verse 14). This was a fatal mistake. It is always wrong to act on our own judgment instead of seeking to know the mind of God as revealed in His Word.
Had Joshua and the rest remembered the instruction given them to destroy utterly the corrupt nations of Canaan, they would have been careful to make further inquiry before accepting the story of the men of Gibeon at face value. But, as we so often are inclined to do, they trusted their own judgment and so were misled completely. Verse 15 tells us:
And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
How the wily Gibeonites must have laughed in their sleeves as they noted the success of their scheme! Joshua had failed to discern their hypocrisy. When he and the princes of the congregation had made a league with these deceivers, the latter departed in high glee, to inform their fellow citizens that they were now allies of Israel and so the danger of their extirpation had passed!
May we not see in this how Satan works today? Knowing he cannot by any means affect the eternal destiny of the people of God, he uses all kinds of schemes to mislead them here on earth and to turn them aside from full obedience to the will of God. He never comes to a Christian presenting himself in his true character. He appears as an angel of light with suggestions which appeal to the natural mind, just as he came to Eve of old, who was deceived by his wiles and thus the old creation went down with a crash.
Whatever plan he suggests will be seen in its true light if tested by what God has revealed in His Word: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them (Isa 8:20). Yet those who should know better are often led astray by specious suggestions and flattering words and so enter into associations and are led to pursue plans which work havoc to their own spirituality and make them useless to others who need their help.
Perhaps there is nothing whereby Satan has lured more young Christians into paths of disobedience and lifetime wretchedness than by the snare of mixed marriages. God has plainly forbidden the unequal yoke (2Co 6:14); yet when Satan manages to get the affections engaged and the hearts of two are drawn together-the one a Christian and the other an unbeliever-it is easy to allow ones personal desires to overrule Gods plain testimony. In the hope that after all He will be better than His Word, the child of God enters into a union entailing lifelong misery. The same is true as to many other relationships : business partnerships with the ungodly, joining lodges and other societies that link saved and unsaved together, and, most insidious of all, the union of children of God and children of the devil in church fellowship!
Israel soon discovered the mistake they had made, but it was then too late to extricate themselves from the mess into which they had fallen (verses 16-18):
And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them. And the children o Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.
In an effort to alleviate the condition to some extent, it was determined that the spared Gibeonites should become servants to the Israelites, as we read in verses 19-21:
But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This will we do unto them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.
This was the best they could do under the circumstances which they had brought upon themselves, and many a believer since has sought in a similar way to bend the results of his folly to his own service, only to find that it has entailed conditions which have been perplexing and bewildering through all the years ahead.
Joshua was the spokesman for the princes. He said to the Gibeonites:
Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us? Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
Glad to have saved their lives at any cost, the Hivites accepted the situation as gracefully as they could.
And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.
In this way, the matter was closed for the time, as we read in verses 26 and 27:
And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.
How much better it would have been, both for Israel and for Gibeon, if these Canaanites had come to Joshua in all honesty and made peace with Israel by accepting the amnesty which was offered freely to all who acknowledged the claims of Jehovah, the one true and living God, even as we are told in Deu 20:10-12: When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it.
According to this Word of the Lord, had the men of Gibeon and the adjoining cities come to Joshua and frankly acknowledged the power and authority of Jehovah, seeking to make peace with Israel by complete surrender, their cities would have been spared, their lives saved, and an honorable league would have been entered into. But they chose instead to take the path of deception which led to bondage and servitude.
Today God has commissioned His servants to go to all men everywhere, preaching peace by Jesus Christ. All who receive the message in faith, who bow in repentance at the feet of the risen Saviour are justified by faith and have peace with God. For Christ has made peace by the blood of His Cross. Those thus saved are united to the Church of the living God and become in turn His messengers to carry the gospel to others.
There is no occasion for deception or hypocrisy, which can only result in greater disaster, for the hypocrites hope shall perish. But when there is frank confession of sin, God stands ready in faithfulness and justice to forgive all sin and to cleanse from all unrighteousness. None can be too vile for Christ. None need fear to come to Him for salvation, for He has said, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. Blessed are they who take Him at His Word and trust His grace!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
9. The Gibeonites
CHAPTER 9
1. The confederacy of the enemies (Jos 9:1-2)
2. The deception of the Gibeonites (Jos 9:3-13)
3. The failure (Jos 9:14-15)
4. The deception discovered (Jos 9:16-27)
Israel now comes face to face with the other inhabitants of the land. These enemies, which Israel encountered, are the types of our enemies, and the conflict of Gods earthly people is typical of our conflict. There is, however, a difference. Israels enemies were flesh and blood; ours are not. Israels conflict was in the land; ours is with the wicked spirits in the heavenly places. Israel was asked to drive them out; we are not asked to do this, but to resist the devil. Israels land rested from the conflict; we shall not rest till we are with Him, when Satan will be bruised under our feet. Read Eph 6:10-17.
The Canaanites are the types of the evil powers, with whom we have to wage our warfare. As the Canaanites opposed the possession and enjoyment of the land, so the aim of the wicked spirits is to keep us back, to hinder us in possessing and enjoying our spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.
The Gibeonites were Hivites. They came with deceptions, knowing well what was their lot. The deceptions were inspired by the father of lies.
In Ephesians 6, we are especially warned against the wiles of the devil. We are to stand against the wiles of the devil. Elsewhere we read that he transforms himself into an angel of light. The Gibeonites illustrate these wiles of the devil. Not alone had they their mouldy bread and old wineskins, as a kind of credential to back up their lies, but they talked very piously. What are these wiles of the devil? We have to turn to the so-called religious world to find them. The religious world, which speaks piously of God and Christ, is at best hypocrisy, phariseeism. Ritualism, Galatianism, manmade ordinances, belong to the wiles of the devil. Philosophies, traditions of men, delusive doctrines, cunningly devised fables, all these belong to the wiles of the devil (Colossians 2). Such systems as Christian Science, spiritism, Russellism, Bahaism, higher criticism, theosophy and others belong to the wiles of the devil. So does social-reform. These world reformers, Christian socialists, talk piously like the Gibeonites, but the devils wiles are underneath.
And these wiles of the devil are multiplying. Satan, knowing that his time is short, does all he can to keep Gods people from enjoying their blessings and from advancing in spiritual things.
The Gibeonites, with their pious talk, were received into the congregation of Israel, just as the professing church is receiving the world into the church. The failure was with Israel. They asked not counsel of the Lord. Had Joshua gone in the presence of the Lord, He would soon have exposed the deceptions of the Gibeonites. Here is where our failure comes in likewise. Never can Satan, with his superior knowledge and his wiles, get an advantage over us, if we hold closely to the Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit, and if we ask counsel of the Lord through His Word and in prayer. The covenant made had to stand. It would have been unrighteousness, if Israel had acted differently. How many unequal yokes there are among Gods people, entered into without having asked counsel of the Lord!
And there is generally no escape, but suffering in consequence. Israel had to stand much on account of the unholy alliance with the Gibeonites. What a man sows that he will reap. Read 2Sa 21:1-6.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
all the kings: Jos 10:2-5, Jos 10:23, Jos 10:28-39, Jos 11:1-5, Jos 11:10, Jos 11:11, Jos 12:7-24
on this: Jos 1:15, Jos 3:17, Jos 5:1, Jos 22:4, Jos 22:7, Deu 4:49
of the great: Jos 1:4, Jos 15:12, Jos 23:4, Num 34:6
Lebanon: Jos 11:17, Jos 12:7, Jos 13:5, Deu 3:25
Hittite: Jos 24:11, Gen 15:18-21, Exo 3:17, Exo 23:23, Exo 23:31, Exo 34:11, Deu 7:1
Reciprocal: Exo 3:8 – Canaanites Deu 1:1 – on this Jos 6:27 – his fame Jos 10:5 – General Jos 11:16 – hills Jos 12:8 – the Hittites Jdg 3:5 – Canaanites 1Ch 1:13 – Heth Neh 9:8 – the Canaanites
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CONQUEST OF THE SOUTH
THE COMPACT WITH THE GIBEONITES (Joshua 9)
Jos 9:1-2 are a general statement telling how the kings of the surrounding nations felt in view of Israels victories, and what they planned to do about it. The narrative then ends in order to describe the method of the Gibeonites, which differed from the others. We must again refer the student to the map in the back of his Bible for details as to the location of these nations.
Gibeon will be discovered a little to the west, perhaps southwest, of Jericho. It was of the Hivites (Jos 9:7), and seemed to represent a democracy more than a monarchical form of government (Jos 9:11).
They did work wilily and caught Joshua and his associates by guile, Jos 9:4-15. Wine bottles is in the RV wine skins, for bottles were made of the skins of animals, goats for example, and when they were old or much used they were liable to be rent.
Notice in verse 7 that the Israelites were a little on their guard. Suppose you really dwell here in Canaan, they said, we are not at liberty to enter into a covenant with you (compare Exodus 23:34; 34:12; Deu 7:2). One would have thought they would have asked counsel of the Lord, but this they disobediently failed to do (Jos 9:14).
Joshua now comes into the colloquy (Jos 9:8), but even he is guilty of the same oversight. And yet, as another suggests, if they had sought divine guidance, perhaps they would not have been forbidden to connect themselves with any Canaanites who renounced idolatry and worshipped the true God. Rahab is in point. At least no fault was found with them for making this league with the Gibeonites: while the violation of it later was punished (2 Samuel 21).
Hewers of wood and drawers of water (Jos 9:21) were the menials who performed the lowest offices in the sanctuary (called Nethinim in 1Ch 9:2 and Ezr 2:43). But notwithstanding the chastisement of the Gibeonites in this respect, their relationship to Israel brought them into the possession of great religious privileges (see Psa 84:10).
THE GREAT BATTLE WITH THE KINGS (Joshua 10)
The story now seems to return to the opening of chapter 9. The kings are exercised by the compact between Israel and Gibeon, for the latter is a strong power. To be opposed by Israel was serious, but Israel and Gibeon united were a greater menace (Jos 10:1-5).
Gibeons extremity is Joshuas opportunity (Jos 10:6-7), but he receives new encouragement from God for this, the heaviest undertaking in which he has engaged. Everything about this conflict is supernatural, which if we keep in mind will remove the strangeness of the miracle in verses 12-14. For example, observe verses 10 and 11.
Beth-horon (Jos 10:10) means the house of caves. There were two contiguous villages of that name, upper and nether. Upper Beth-horon was nearer Gibeon, about ten miles distant, and approached by a gradual ascent through a long and precipitous ravine. This was the first stage of the flight. The fugitives had crossed the high ridge of upper Beth-horon, and were in flight down the descent to Beth-horon the nether. The road between the two is so rocky that there is a path made by steps cut into the rock.
Down this path Joshua continued his rout. Here the Lord interposed, assisting by means of a storm, which burst with such fury that they were more which died with hailstones, than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
The oriental hailstorm is a terrific agent; the hailstones are masses of ice, large as walnuts, and sometimes as two fists; their size, and the violence with which they fall, make them injurious to property, and often fatal to life. The miraculous feature of this tempest, which fell on the Amorite army, was the preservation of the Israelites from its destructive ravages.
SUN AND MOON STAND STILL
In the New Testament we are taught to pray in the Holy Ghost, and that the Holy Ghost prays in us (Jud 1:20; Rom 8:26). The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man of which James speaks (5:16), would seem to be the prayer energized in the believer by the Holy Ghost himself, the prayer He prays in the man according to the will of God. May we explain Joshuas prayer in verse 12 this way?
The inspired author here breaks off the thread of his history of this miraculous victory to introduce a quotation from an ancient poem, which is parenthetical, contains a poetical description of the victory miraculously gained by the help of God, and forms an extract from the book of Jasher, i.e., the upright an anthology, or collection of national songs, in honor of renowned and pious heroes.
The language of a poem is not to be literally interpreted, and therefore, when the sun and moon are personified, and represented as standing still, the explanation is that the light of the sun and moon was supernaturally prolonged by the laws of refraction and reflection that ordinarily cause the sun to appear above the horizon, when it is in reality below it. Gibeon (a hill) was now at the back of the Israelites, and the height would soon have intercepted the rays of the setting sun. The valley of Ajalon (stags) was before them, and so near that it was sometimes called the valley of Gibeon (Isa 28:21).
It would seem from verse 14 that the command of Joshua was in reality a prayer to God for this miracle; and that, although the prayers of men like Moses often prevailed with God, never was there so astonishing a display of divine power in behalf of his people as in answer to the prayer of Joshua. Verse 15 is the end of the quotation from Jasher; and it is necessary to notice this, as the fact described in it is recorded in due course, and the same words, by the sacred historian, verse 43.
QUESTIONS
1. What geographical relation did Gibeon bear to .Jericho?
2. How does Jos 9:11 indicate that Gibeon may not have been a petty kingdom like the other cities?
3. Are you familiar with the story in 2 Samuel 21?
4. Name the supernatural phenomena occurring at the battle of Beth- horon.
5. Can you quote Rom 8:26?
6. What do you know about the book of Jasher?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
Trouble with the Gibeonites
Jos 9:1-27 ; Jos 10:1-43 ; Jos 11:1-23
A weapon often used against God’s people is deception. Kings from the three major regions of Israel, the hill country, lowlands and sea coast, decided to make an alliance and go up against Israel. While others were preparing to do battle, the Gibeonites were scheming to save their lives and gain protection from other enemies as well. They resolved to send ambassadors dressed in old clothes, patched shoes, with old sacks upon their beasts of burden, old wine skins that had been bound up and bread that was dry and mouldy. This made them appear to have come from a great distance though Gibeon was only about six miles northwest of Jerusalem ( Jos 9:1-5 ).
When they arrived at the camp of Israel, they introduced themselves to Joshua and the men of Israel as being from a distant land and asked them to agree to a treaty. Concerned with violating the Lord’s will ( Exo 23:31-33 ; Exo 34:11-16 ), the men asked how they could make a covenant with them if they were from the surrounding region, so Joshua asked who they were and where they came from. They lied by saying they had come from a far country and had heard of the fame of the God of Israel as he helped them cross the Red Sea and defeat the two Amorite kings. Notice that they carefully omitted the more recent crossing of Jordan, defeat of Jericho and Ai since these likely could not have been reported a great distance off as yet. They offered their bread and wineskins as proof of the distance they had come.
Instead of consulting with God through the use of the Urim and Thummin of the high priest ( Num 27:21 ), Joshua and the princes took of the Gibeonites’ provisions and made a treaty with them. It should be noted that all treaties were not forbidden, as the laws governing warfare with nations outside of Canaan well illustrates ( Deu 20:11 ). Within three days, Israel learned the four cities the Gibeonites represented were all within a ten mile radius of Jerusalem. The people murmured, perhaps because they were greedy for the spoil of these cities as some authors have suggested. However, the princes would not compound their error by violating their covenant with Gibeon. Instead, Joshua made the Gibeonites bearers of water and hewers of wood for use in the sanctuary of God ( Jos 9:6-27 ).
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Jos 9:1-2. In all the coasts of the great sea, &c. Some versions render this, And those along all the coasts of the great sea, and those about Lebanon. Heard thereof That is, of the taking of Jericho and Ai, for what immediately precedes, namely, about writing the law on stones in mount Ebal, did not concern these nations. They gathered themselves together to fight, &c. They entered into a league to do this. Though they were many kings of different nations, and doubtless of different interests, often at variance with each other, yet they are all determined to unite against Israel. O that Israel would learn this of Canaanites, to sacrifice private interests to the public good, and to lay aside all animosities among themselves, that they may cordially unite against the common enemy!
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jos 9:1-2. All the kingsto fight with Joshua. They realized the ancient proverb, Quem Deus vult perdere, primum dementat. He whom God destroys is first mad.
Jos 9:4. Wine bottles, old and rent, and bound up. Bruce, our Abyssinian traveller, calls these girbashes. They are made of strong leather, and so sewed as not to ooze. Glass was not discovered till fifty years before the christian era.With regard to the moral character of this mission, the remark of our Saviour applies pertinently: The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.
Jos 9:14. Asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. It was an ancient maxim of heathen priests, that nothing of importance was to be undertaken without consulting the gods. Joshua, in the throng of war, had omitted it in this case.
Jos 9:17. Gibeon, and the three dependent cities seem to have been under one wise king. Gibeon was but a stage west-south-west of Jerusalem.
Jos 9:20. Let them livebecause of the oath. They enjoyed their cities, but having deceived the Israelites, a proportion of them did the laborious service of the sanctuary. But the phrase, hewers of wood, designates a prohibition of bearing arms. Here is a laudable example to christians, and particularly so to christian courts, concerning the faith of treaties. Here also the papists are at issue among themselves. Some of the fathers, and after them Cardinal Cajetan, maintain that this covenant was binding on Joshua, because, as Calvin judiciously says, it was made in the name of the Lord of the whole earth, and he cites Davids words. Psa 15:4. Against Calvin, Tirinus the Jesuit contends, that it was not binding, because it was obtained by imposture. The jesuit has in his eye the favourite doctrine of Rome, that no faith is to be kept with heretics! So Rome is Rome still.
REFLECTIONS.
From the artifice of the four cities which surprized Joshua and the elders of Israel into a league, we see that the Canaanites were not destroyed in total ignorance. They perfectly understood that God was with the Israelites; they also understood the extent of their commission, to destroy the seven nations only. They were fully persuaded that an oath of the Lords people would be inviolably observed, though it was given in ignorance, and even to a deceitful people. Surely it is not for the want of light that the wicked perish, but for want of fidelity to it.
Religion is often made use of as a pretence, where secular interest is only intended. The Gibeonites pretended great regard for God, and desired to join his people to become servants of him who had such power and wrought such miracles; but they only wanted to save their lives, and secure their possessions. This is too common a case. Men talk much of God and religion, to augment their secular interests: but God cannot be deceived, though men may. He desireth truth in the inward parts; and the hypocrisy of the heart is an abomination unto him.
Let us learn to avoid rash judgments. The Israelites hastily made a league, without consulting the Lord, which might easily have been done; and then they would have acted wisely and safely. Let us guard against too hasty a temper, especially in such solemn affairs as vows and engagements. Remembering Solomons advice, Be not rash with thy mouth, or hasty to utter any thing before God, in the way of vows or promises. Consult his word by diligent search, his providence by earnest prayer. Bishop Hall, and after him Mr. Henry, caution us from this story against taking up any sentiments rashly, because they have the appearance of antiquity. Many good men have done this, and been strangely obstinate: but errors are never the better for being patched and seemingly old. When persons judge of men or things rashly, it is a sign that they have not deliberated, nor duly weighed the evidence and reasons for them, nor consulted God. Let it teach us in all our ways to acknowledge him, and he will direct our paths.
Let us learn to reverence an oath, and to keep close to our solemn engagements. We ought to stand by our word, and be punctual to our bargain, though it should be to our loss. The Israelites did so, they observed their oath, and it was well they did; for the Lord punished the breach, as we find in 2Sa 21:1. There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. It is an undoubted maxim, that men lose more by making God their enemy, than they can possibly gain by any fraudulent methods. Therefore, let integrity and uprightness guide and preserve us; remembering it is the character of one that shall inhabit Gods holy hill, that he walketh uprightly, speaketh the truth in his heart; and though he sweareth to his own hurt, yet he changeth not. Psalms 15.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joshua 9. The Stratagem of the Gibeonites.This account, though composite, is straightforward enough if Jos 9:17-21 be omitted. These verses give an account by the priestly writer in which the princes of the congregation take the leading part, and make a treaty which immediately afterwards is made again by Joshua Jos 9:22 is plainly the continuation of Jos 9:16. That a treaty was made with the Gibeonites at an early date is a historical fact, but that treaty was very far from making them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Temple (Jos 9:23; Jos 9:27), which, of course, did not yet exist. We read in 2 Samuel 21 that a three years famine which occurred was considered to be a punishment on Israel for an attempt made by Saul to extirpate the Gibeonites in spite of the existence of an alliance. This looks as if the Gibeonites were independent allies. If so, they were not reduced until the time of Solomon, when with the rest of the Canaanites they were made to furnish labourers for Solomons building operations (see 1Ki 9:21 ff.) including, of course, the Templethe house of Yahweh. The words hewer of wood and drawer of water in Deu 29:10 show that the phrase simply means menial labourers, and it is with this meaning that the words were used in the earlier narrative. The Priestly writer is responsible for turning it into the definite meaning of Temple servants.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
DECEIVED BY THE GIBEONITES
(vs.1-27)
The calm deliberation with which the Lord was acting gave time for the forces of the enemy to be marshaled against Israel. Six nations, the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perezites, Hivites and Jebusites, on hearing of Israel’s invasion across the Jordan, gathered together to join forces in opposition to this alarming threat (vs.1-2). Human military strategy would have urged Israel to attack quickly, so as to prevent any united resistance against them, but God is wiser than men. He allowed time for the nations to unite against His people, so that He might show His superior power by defeating them together in a very short time.
But Satan knows well how to work by deceit as well as by outward opposition. The inhabitants of Gibeon evidently discerned that they would not be able to defeat Israel, so they sent men posing as ambassadors from a far country, having old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, old and patched sandals, wearing old garments, and with dry and moldy food (vs.3-4).
Coming to Joshua they flatly lied to him in saying they came from a far country, asking him to make a covenant with them (v.6). The men of Israel suspected that this might be deception (v.7), but the Gibeonites told Joshua, “We are your servants.” Notice that they did not speak like Rahab did, acknowledging the God of Israel as the true God, and when Joshua pressed them as to who they were and where they came from, they did not answer this specifically, but said again they were from a very far country. Then they brought in God’s name, saying they had heard of His fame and of His victories in Egypt and over Sihon and Og (vs.9-10). Actually, the reports had only awakened fear in their hearts, not faith, as in Rahab’s case.
What the Gibeonites said sounded plausible, and it may be that their reference to Israel’s God had a deciding effect with Joshua, but he and Israel made the fatal mistake of receiving them on their own word without asking counsel from the Lord (v.14). They made and confirmed a covenant with them by an oath (v.15). If we think Israel was not to blame since they were deceived, then let us think again: if they had taken the matter to God, would they have been deceived? No! If we are in proper communion with the Lord, we shall not be deceived, for the Lord is not deceived.
Three days following this Israel found that these people lived close to them (v.16), and as Israel journeyed they came to their four cities, But these cities had to be spared because of the oath Israel had made to them. This led the congregation to complain against the rulers, for this was contrary to what God had commanded (v.18)
Could they rescind the covenant now on the basis of having been deceived? Absolutely not! Why? Because, though others may act falsely, this never gives a Christian the right to act falsely in return. They had given their word. God would not allow them to go back on it in spite of the problems that might follow. Later on King Saul, “in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah” killed some of the Gibeonites (2Sa 21:1-2), and God sent a famine on Israel in the days of David because of this. Saul thus chose a foolish way of trying to correct the failure of his forefathers. What a lesson to teach us the importance of bowing to the governmental results of our failures, rather then to proudly think we can correct them!
However, there must be some discipline meted out because of the deception. The Gibeonites had said they were Israel’s servants, therefore the rulers of Israel said, “let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation” (v.21). They must be kept in total subservience to Israel. Joshua then gave them this message, telling them that, in spite of their being spared, they were under a curse for their deception and would never be freed from slavery (vs.22-23).
They answered Joshua that they knew that God had told Moses to destroy the people of the land and this deception was the only means they could think of to be preserved from death, for they were filled with fear (v.24). If it had been faith that brought them, they would have found the God of Israel full of compassion, as He was with Rahab, but God knew that these nations had given themselves up to idolatry and unbelief.
However, they did not by any means resist Joshua’s words and declared themselves ready to submit to whatever Joshua thought right. This is similar to what will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation. There will be those from foreign nations who will hear of Christ in His great conquests. Psa 18:43-45 tells us, “A people I have not known shall serve Me. As soon as they hear of Me they obey Me; the foreigners submit to Me. The foreigners fade away, and come frightened from their hideouts.” These people will not be serving the Lord Jesus because of love for Him, but because of fear, and they will be kept under strict control. Joshua knew this had to be done as regards the Gibeonites.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
9:1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which {a} [were] on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the {b} great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard [thereof];
(a) In respect to the plain of Moab.
(b) The main sea called the Mediterranean.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
5. The treaty with the Gibeonites ch. 9
The residents of the town of Gibeon decided that if they could not defeat the Israelites they would join them. This has been a strategy that enemies of believers have employed for centuries (cf. Num 25:1-2).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Israel is the probable antecedent of "it" in Jos 9:1 rather than the renewal of the covenant at Shechem. Israel’s success led several Canaanite kings to ally against God’s people. While this alliance was taking shape the Gibeonites initiated a different tactic. Until now in Joshua, Israel had chosen its military targets, but now others defined their military objectives.
"The following chapters introduce the transition from a victorious people of God whose occupation of the land could have been the relatively simple matter of defeating those already discouraged to an unending history of battle, bloodshed, and idolatry that would haunt Israel throughout its history. As in the opening chapters of Genesis, so also in the opening chapters of Israel’s dwelling in the Promised Land, a single transgression has cosmic ramifications." [Note: Hess, p. 176.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES.
Jos 9:1-27.
WE now resume the thread of the story interrupted by the narrative of the transaction at Ebal and Gerizim. We learn from the testimony of Rahab of Jericho, as uttered to the spies (Jos 2:9), that the terror of Israel had caused the hearts of the inhabitants of the country to faint, and that the fame of all that had been done for them by Jehovah had quite paralysed them. But when the host of Israel actually entered Western Palestine, and began their conquest by the destruction of Jericho and Ai, the inhabitants seem to have plucked up courage, and begun to consider what could be done in self-defence. It is very probable that they found considerable encouragement from what happened at Ai. There it had been seen that Israel was not invincible. Insignificant though Ai was, its people had been able to repel with great success the first attack of the Israelites. And though they had been destroyed in the second, this was achieved only by the combined influence of stratagem and an overwhelming force. The supernatural power under which Jericho had fallen had not been shown at Ai, and might not come into play in the future. There was therefore yet a chance for the Canaanites, if they should combine and act in concert. Steps were therefore taken for such a union. The kings or chiefs who occupied the hills, or central plateau of the country; those of the valleys, interspersed between the mountains; and those occupying the Shephelah, or maritime plains of Philistia, Sharon, and Phoenicia; – all the nations comprised under the well-known names Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, entered into a league of defence, and prepared to confront Joshua and the Israelites with a determined resistance. The news of the confederacy would bring a tremor over some timid hearts in the camp of Israel, but would cause no serious anxiety to Joshua and all the men of faith, who, like him, felt assured that the Lord was with them.
There was one native community, however, that determined to follow another course. The Gibeonites were a branch of the Hivite race, inhabiting the town of Gibeon, and some other prominent towns in the great central plateau of the country. Gibeon is undoubtedly represented now by the village of El Jib, situated about half-way between Jerusalem and Bethel, four or five miles distant from each. Dr. Robertson describes El Jib as situated in a beautiful plain of considerable extent, on an oblong hill or ridge, composed of layers of limestone, rising as if by regular steps out of the plain. In the days of Joshua, it was a place of great importance, a royal city, and it had under its jurisdiction the towns of Beeroth, Chephirah, and Kirjath-jearim. Its inhabitants were in no humour to fight with Joshua. They had faith enough to understand what would be the inevitable result of that, and therein they were right, and the confederate kings were wrong. On the other hand, they were not prepared to make an honest and unconditional surrender. They probably knew that the orders under which Joshua was acting called on him to destroy all the people of the land, and they had no assurance that, being of the doomed nations, open submission would secure their lives. They resolved therefore to proceed by stratagem. A detachment was appointed to wait on Joshua at his camp at Gilgal, as if they were ambassadors from a distant country, and represent to him in pious tone that they had come from afar, “because of the name of the Lord his God, having heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon King of Heshbon, and to Og King of Bashan.” They came with the desire to show respect to the people whose God was so powerful, and to be allowed, though far off, to live at peace with them. Then they presented their credentials, as it were; showing the old sacks, the shrivelled bottles, the musty bread they had brought with them, and the clouts upon their feet and ragged garments which attested the great length of their journey. ”Those old Gibeonites,” says the “Land and the Book,” “did indeed ‘work wilily’ with Joshua. Nothing could be better calculated to deceive than their devices. I have often thought that their ambassadors, as described in the narrative, furnish one of the finest groups imaginable for a painter; with their old sacks on their poor asses; their wine bottles of goat skin, patched and shrivelled up in the sun, old, rent, and bound up; old shoes and clouted upon their feet; old garments, ragged and bedraggled, with bread dry and mouldy, – the very picture of an over-travelled and wearied caravan from a great distance. It is impossible to transfer to paper the ludicrous appearance of such a company. No wonder that, having tasted their mouldy victuals, and looked upon their soiled and travel-worn costume, Joshua and the elders were deceived, especially as they did not wait to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord.”
It was just the completeness of the disguise that threw Joshua and the men of Israel off their guard. For at first the idea did occur to them that the strangers might be neighbours, and therefore of the nations that they were called on to destroy. On closer inspection, however, that seemed out of the question; indeed, the supposition was so utterly preposterous that it was deemed hardly fitting to bring the matter before the Lord. It is as plain as day, Joshua and the elders would reason; the evidence of what they say is beyond question; theirs is no case of perplexity requiring us to go to God; we may surely exercise our common sense and make a league with these far-travelled men. In a short time they will be back in their own country, far beyond our boundaries, and the only effect of their visit and of our league will be a fresh tribute to the name and power of Jehovah, a fresh testimony to His presence with us, and a fresh pledge that He will bear us to success in the enterprise in which we are engaged. And when the confederate kings that are now leaguing against us hear that this distant people have come to us to propitiate our favour, they will be struck by a new terror and will be the more easily subdued.
We see in all this the simple, unsuspecting spirit of men who have spent their lives in the wilderness. As for the Gibeonites, there was a combination of good and bad in their spirit. They remind us in a measure of the woman with the issue of blood. In her there was certainly faith; but along with the faith, extraordinary superstition. In the Gibeonites there was faith – a belief that Israel was under the protection of a remarkable Divine power, under a Divine promise the truth of which even Balaam had very recently acknowledged – “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.” Undoubtedly a religious feeling lay at the bottom of the proceeding. A great divine Being was seen to be involved, who was on Israel’s side and against his enemies, and it would not do to trifle with Him. But in their way of securing exemption from the effects of His displeasure, the grossest superstition appeared. They were to gain their object by deceit. They were to get Him to favour them above their neighbours through an elaborate system of fraud, through a tissue of lies, through unmitigated falsehood. What a strange conception of God! What blindness to His highest attributes, – His holiness and His truth! What amazing infatuation to suppose that they could secure His blessing through acts fitted to provoke His utmost displeasure! What a miserable God men fashion to themselves when they simply invest Him with almighty power, or perhaps suppose Him to be moved by whims and prejudices and favouritisms like frail man, but omit to clothe Him with His highest glory – forget that “justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne, mercy and truth go before His face.”
The conduct of the men was the more strange that it was impossible that they should not be speedily found out. And it was quite possible that, when found out, they would be dealt with more severely than ever. True, indeed, Joshua, when he did detect their plot, did not so act; he acted on a high, perhaps a mistaken sense of honour; but they had no right to count on that. Timidity is a poor adviser. All it can do is to turn the next corner. True faith, resting on eternal truth, acts for eternity. True faith is often blind, but in the deepest darkness it knows that it is on the right track, and under the guidance of the eternal light. Blind faith is very different from blind fear. Faith holds on in full expectation of deliverance; fear trembles and stumbles, in perpetual dread of exposure and humiliation.
“A lying tongue is but for a moment;” and the Gibeonite fraud lived just three days. Then it was discovered by Joshua that the Gibeonites lived in the immediate neighbourhood. But before that, he had made peace with them, and entered into a league to let them live, and the princes of the congregation had confirmed it by an oath. Nothing could have been more provoking than to discover that they had been duped and swindled. It is always a very bitter experience to find that our confidence has been misplaced. Men whom we thought trustworthy, and whom we commended to others as trustworthy, have turned out knaves. It is hard to bear, for we have committed ourselves to our friends in the matter. What would Joshua and his people think now of the supposed tribute to the God of Israel, and the impression expected to be made on the confederate kings? Before all the inhabitants of Canaan he and his people were befooled, humiliated. Not a man in all the country but would be making merry at their expense. Yet even that was not the worst of it. They had been guilty of over-confidence, and of neglect of means that were in their hands; they had neglected to get counsel of their God. They had trusted in their own hearts when they ought to have sought guidance from above. The trouble was their own creation; they were alone to blame.
We cannot but respect the way in which Joshua and the princes acted when they discovered the fraud. It might have been competent to repudiate the league on the ground that it was agreed to by them under false pretences. It was made on the representation that the Gibeonites had come from a far country, and when that was seen to be utterly untrue there would have been an honourable ground for repudiating the transaction. But Joshua did not avail himself of this loophole. He and the princes had such respect for the sanctity of an oath that, even when they discovered that they had been grossly deceived, they would not resile from it. It seems to have been the princes that took up this ground, and they did so in opposition to the congregation (Jos 9:18). The fact that the name of the Lord God of Israel had been invoked in the oath sworn to the Gibeonites constrained them to abide by the transaction. It is a good sign of their spirit that they were so jealous of the honour of their God, and of the sanctity of their oath. They came out of the transaction with more honour than we should have expected. Personal interests were subordinated to higher considerations. They carried out that great canon of true religion – first and foremost giving ”glory to God in the highest.”
But though the lives of the Gibeonites were spared, that was all. They were to be reduced to a kind of slavery – to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and the altar of God.” The expression has become a household word to denote a life of drudgery, but perhaps we fail to recognise the full significance of the terms. “I was forcibly reminded of this,” says the author of ”The Land and the Book,” “by long files of women and children (near El Jib) carrying on their heads heavy bundles of wood. . . . It is the severest kind of drudgery, and my compassion has often been enlisted in behalf of the poor women and children, who daily bring loads of wood to Jerusalem from these very mountains of the Gibeonites. To carry water, also, is very laborious and fatiguing. The fountains are far off, in deep waters with steep banks, and a thousand times have I seen the feeble and the young staggering up long and weary ways with large jars of water on their heads. It is the work of slaves, and of the very poor, whose condition is still worse. Among the pathetic lamentations of Jeremiah there is nothing more affecting than this: ‘They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood’ (Lam 5:13). Grinding at the hand-mill is a low, menial work, assigned to female slaves, and therefore utterly humiliating to the young men of Israel. And the delicate children of Zion falling under the loads of hard, rough wood, along the mountain paths! Alas! ‘for these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.'”
Respecting the after history of Gibeon and the Gibeonites we find some notices in the Old Testament, but none in the New. At one time there was a sanctuary at Gibeon, even after the ark had been removed to Mount Zion; for it was at Gibeon that Solomon offered his great sacrifice of a thousand burnt offerings, and had that remarkable dream in which, in reply to the Divine offer of a choice of gifts, he chose wisdom in preference to any other (1Ki 3:4-5). But the most remarkable reappearance of the Gibeonites in history is in the reigns of Saul and David. For some unknown reason, and probably quite unjustly, Saul had put some of them to death. And in the reign of David, probably the early part of it, when a succession of famines desolated the land, and inquiry was made as to the cause, the reply of the oracle was: “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” And it was to avenge this unjust slaughter that seven descendants of Saul were put to death, on that occasion when Rizpah, the mother of two of them, showed such remarkable affection by guarding their dead bodies from the beasts and birds of prey. It is possible that even after the Babylonian captivity some Gibeonites survived under their old name, because it is said in Nehemiah that among the others who repaired the wall of Jerusalem were “Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah” (Neh 3:7). Only it is uncertain whether Melatiah was of the old Gibeonite stock, or an Israelite who had Gibeon for his city. While the old Gibeonites did survive they seem to have had a miserable lot, and the question might have been often asked by them – Did our fraud bring us any real good? Is life worth living?
Does anything resembling this fraud of the Gibeonites ever take place among ourselves? In answer, let us ask first of all, what is the meaning of pious frauds? Are they not transactions where fraud is resorted to in order to accomplish what are supposed to be religious ends? Granting that the fraud of the Gibeonites was not for a religious but for a secular object – their deliverance from the sword of Joshua – still they professed, in practising it, to be doing honour to God. It is the part of superstition at once to lower the intellectual and the moral attributes of God. It often represents that the most frivolous acts, the uttering of mysterious words, or the performance of senseless acts have such a power over God as to bring about certain desired results. More frequently it holds that cruelty, falsehood, injustice, and other crimes, if brought to bear on religious or ecclesiastical ends, are pleasing in God’s sight. Is there anything more truly odious than this severance of religion from morality and humanity, – this representation that fraud and other immoral acts have value before God? How can anything be a real religious gain to a man, how can it be otherwise than disastrous in the last degree, if it develops a fraudulent spirit, if it perverts his moral nature, if it deepens and intensifies the moral disorder of his heart? If men saw “The beauty of holiness,” “the beauty of the Lord,” they could never bring their minds to such miserable distortions. It is pure blasphemy to suppose that God could thus demean Himself. It is self-degradation to imagine that anything that can be gained by oneself through such means, could make up for what is lost, or for the guilt incurred by such wickedness.
And this suggests a wider thought – the fearful miscalculation men make whensoever they resort to fraud in the hope of reaping benefit by means of it. Yet what practice is more common? The question is, Does it really pay? Does it pay, for instance, to cheat at cards? Have we not seen recently what swift and terrible retribution that may bring, making us feel for the culprit as we might have felt for Cain. Does it pay the merchant to cheat as to the quality of his goods? Does it not leak out that he is not to be trusted, and does not that suspicion lose more to him in the long run than it gains? Does it pay the preacher to preach another man’s sermon as his own? Or, to vary the illustration? When one has entrapped a maiden under false promises, and then forsakes her; or when he conceals the fact that he is already married to another; or when he controls himself for a time, to conceal from her his ill temper, or his profligate habits, or his thirst for strong drink, does it pay in the end? The question is not, Does he succeed in his immediate object? but, How does the matter end? Is it a comfortable thought to any man that he has broken a trustful heart, that he has brought misery to a happy home, that he has filled some one’s life with lamentation and mourning and woe? We are not thinking only of the future life, when so many wrongs will be brought to light, and so many men and women will have to curse the infatuation that made fraud their friend and evil their good. We think of the present happiness of those who live in an atmosphere of fraud, and worship daily at its shrine. Can such disordered souls know aught of real peace and solid joy? In the case of some of them, are there not occasional moments of sober feeling, when they think what their life was given them for, and contrast their selfish and heartless devices with the career of those who deal truly and live to do good? Bitter, very bitter is the feeling which the contrast raises. It is bitter to think how unfit one is for the society of honest men; how the master one is serving is the father of lies; and how, even when the master does grant one a momentary success, it is at the sacrifice of all self-respect and conscious purity, and with a dark foreboding of wrath in the life to come.
All Eastern nations get the character of being deceitful; but indeed the weed may be said to flourish in every soil where it has not been rooted out by living Christianity. But if it be peculiarly characteristic of Eastern nations, is it not remarkable how constantly it is rebuked in the Bible, even though that book sprang from an Eastern soil? No doubt the record of the Bible abounds with instances of deceit, but its voice is always against them. And its instances are always instructive. Satan gained nothing by deceiving our first parents. Jacob was well punished for deceiving Isaac. David’s misleading of the high priest when he fled from Saul involved ultimately the slaughter of the whole priestly household. Ananias and Sapphira had an awful experience when they lied unto the Holy Ghost. All through the Bible it is seen that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are His delight. And when our blessed Lord comes to show us the perfect life, how free He is from the slightest taint or vestige of deceit! How beautifully transparent is His whole life and character! No little child with his honest smile and open face was ever more guileless. In the light of that perfect example, who among us does not blush for our errors – for our many endeavours to conceal what we have done, to appear better than we were, to seem to be pleasing God when we were pleasing ourselves, or to be aiming at God’s glory when we were really consulting for our own interests? Is it possible for us ever to be worthy of such a Lord? First, surely, we must go to His cross, and, bewailing all our unworthiness, seek acceptance through His finished work. And then draw from His fulness, even grace for grace; obtain through the indwelling of His Spirit that elixir of life which will send a purer life-blood through our souls, and assimilate us to Him of whom His faithful apostle wrote: “He did not sin, neither was guile found in His mouth.”