Joshua 9 - Introduction
CHAP. IX. _THE GIBEONITES OBTAIN A LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL BY CRAFT; WHICH BEING DISCOVERED, THEY ARE CONDEMNED TO A STATE OF SLAVERY._ _Before Christ 1450._... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAP. IX. _THE GIBEONITES OBTAIN A LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL BY CRAFT; WHICH BEING DISCOVERED, THEY ARE CONDEMNED TO A STATE OF SLAVERY._ _Before Christ 1450._... [ Continue Reading ]
_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 so... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 3. _AND WHEN THE INHABITANTS OF GIBEON HEARD,_ &C.— The city of Gibeon, which was much more considerable than Ai, was, according to Eusebius and St. Jerome, the capital of the country of the Hivites. Eusebius adds, that in his time there was a village of this name four miles to the west of Be... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 5. _AND OLD SHOES, AND CLOUTED, UPON THEIR FEET,_ &C.— The Hebrew is, _shoes spotted, i.e._ of divers colours, by reason of their having been spoiled by the clay and dust; and pieced, as if worn out by the length of the journey; with clothes suited to their shoes, and their _bread dry_ and _m... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 6. _AND THEY WENT TO JOSHUA—AND SAID,_ &C.— Some interpreters are of opinion, that the deputies from the Gibeonites addressed themselves to the first they met in the camp of Gilgal; but it seems more conformable to the text to suppose, that they did not signify their business to any but Joshu... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 8. _AND THEY SAID UNTO JOSHUA, WE ARE THY SERVANTS_— Being more pressingly interrogated by Joshua, they answered with humility, that, knowing the greatness of the nation of Israel and their own inferiority, they desired nothing more than to live in amity and alliance with them; which is all t... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 9-13. _AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM, FROM A VERY FAR COUNTRY THY SERVANTS ARE COME,_ &C.— Nothing can be more artful than this answer of the Gibeonites, to the prudent and close questions put by Joshua 1. Instead of saying, without evasion, whence they came, they again reply, that they came from af... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 14. _AND THE MEN TOOK OF THEIR VICTUALS_— It has been asked in what light they thus took of it? and some pretend it was to taste with them in token of friendship, peace, and alliance, according to the ancient custom in use among almost all nations. Others think it was rather to examine whethe... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 15. _AND JOSHUA_— With the advice of the elders, who were deceived as well as himself, _made peace with them,_ &c. That is, he not only preserved their lives, (for, supposing the Gibeonites to have come from a country situate beyond the land of Canaan, nothing obliged him to put them to the s... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 16. _AND—AT THE END OF THREE DAYS—THEY HEARD THAT THEY WERE THEIR NEIGHBOURS_— Montanus's opinion of this matter is very probable. The pretended ambassadors of the Gibeonites having informed their countrymen of the success of their stratagem, rejoicings were made, the news of which could not... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 17. _AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL JOURNEYED,_ &C.— Three days after Joshua had learned the cheat of the Gibeonites, he sent out a detachment from his army to reconnoitre their country. _Gibeon_ was the capital city; _Chephirah and Beeroth_ fell with it to the tribe of Benjamin. The latter, in t... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 18. _AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SMOTE THEM NOT,_ &C.— Even though they had not thought themselves bound by their oath, (as some think they were not, since it had been obtained upon a false pretence;) yet it was for the honour of religion that they should shew themselves scrupulous not to viol... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 19. _BUT ALL THE PRINCES SAID—WE HAVE SWORN,_ &C.— But did this oath then, made lightly, and upon a false pretence, bind Joshua and the Israelites? I. Some able interpreters think it did; and their reason is, because Joshua had not been deceived by the Gibeonites in the essential point. The G... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 20. _THIS WE WILL DO TO THEM,_ &C.— "That we may not draw down upon us the wrath of God, by the violation of our oath, though rashly made; this is what we may now do with the Gibeonites. Let their lives be spared, but let them be reduced to the servile occupations of _hewers of wood and drawe... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 23. _NOW, THEREFORE, YE ARE CURSED,_ &C.— "Notwithstanding the oath which we have sworn to you, ye shall not utterly escape that sentence of malediction which the Lord of the whole earth has pronounced upon the Canaanitish nations, to which you belong." The base and vile service to which they... [ Continue Reading ]
_VER._ 27. _AND JOSHUA MADE THEM THAT DAY HEWERS,_ &C.— Thenceforward he condemned them for ever to this service, the duties of which they continued to discharge in the time of Nehemiah, under the name of Nethinims; who, as we before observed on ver. 20 are considered by some learned men as having b... [ Continue Reading ]