Joshua 9:12

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. 25 And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. 26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not. 27 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. The matter is here settled between Joshua and the Gibeonites, and an explanation of the league agreed upon. We may suppose that now, not the messengers who were first sent, but the elders of Gibeon, and of the cities that were dependent upon it, were themselves present and treated with, that the matter might be fully compromised. I. Joshua reproves them for their fraud, v. 22. And they excuse it as well as they can, v. 24. 1. Joshua gives the reproof very mildly: Wherefore have you beguiled us? He does not load them with any ill names, does not give them any harsh provoking language, does not call them, as they deserved to be called, base liars, but only asks them, Why have you beguiled us?

9:3-13 Other people heard these tidings, and were driven thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites were led to make peace with them. Thus the discovery of the glory and the grace of God in the gospel, is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unto death, 2Co 2:16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. The falsehood of the Gibeonites cannot be justified. We must not do evil that good may themselves to the God of Israel, we have reason to think Joshua would have been directed by the oracle of God to spare their lives. But when they had once said, We are come from a far country, they were led to say it made of skins, and their clothes: one lie brings on another, and that a third, and so on. The way of that sin is especially down-hill. Yet their faith and prudence are to be commended. In submitting to Israel they submitted to the God of Israel, which implied forsaking their idolatries. And how can we do better than cast ourselves upon the mercy of a God of all goodness? The way to avoid judgment is to meet it by repentance. Let us do like these Gibeonites, seek peace with God in the rags of abasement, and godly sorrow; so our sin shall not be our ruin. Let us be servants to Jesus, our blessed Joshua, and we shall live.

This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses,.... These are not the words of the elders to the messengers they sent, continued, but of the ambassadors to the Israelites, pointing to the bread they brought with them, which they pretended was newly baked and took hot out of the oven: on the day we came forth to go unto you, but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: See Gill on Joshua 9:5; which they gave as a demonstration and proof that they were come from a far country, as they had asserted.

9. From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the Lord thy God—They pretended to be actuated by religious motives in seeking to be allied with His people. But their studied address is worthy of notice in appealing to instances of God's miraculous doings at a distance, while they pass by those done in Canaan, as if the report of these had not yet reached their ears.

When these tidings reached them, they were sent off by the elders (the leaders of the republic) and the inhabitants of the land to meet the Israelites, that they might offer them their service, and form an alliance with them. In confirmation of this, they point to their dried provisions, and their torn and mended skins and clothes.

DB. ii. 32b; EB. ii. 2015). [103] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings. of the Canaanite , &c.] Such rhetorical lists of the nations of Canaan whom the Israelites were to dispossess are frequent, esp. in the Hexateuch, in JE and Deuteronomic writers; see (in JE) Genesis 15:19-21 (where ten are named); Exodus 3:17 ; Exodus 13:5 ; Exodus 23:23 ; Exodus 23:28 ; Exodus 33:2 ; Exodus 34:11 ; Deuteronomy 7:1 (seven), Exodus 20:17 ; Joshua 3:10 ; Joshua 9:1 ; Joshua 11:3 ; Joshua 12:8 ; Joshua 24:11 (all D2[104]); Jdg 3:5 ; 1 Kings 9:20 . [104] Deuteronomic passages in Josh., Jud., Kings. the Canaanite ] more particularly, it seems (see Numbers 13:29 ), the inhabitants of the sea-coast, and of the Jordan-valley: but the term is often used, esp. by J (e.g. Genesis 12:6 ), in a wider sense, of the pre-Israelitish population of Canaan generally (see further the writer’s note on Deuteronomy 1:6 , p. 11 f., and Canaan in EB. ). the Hittite ] The ‘Hittites,’1[105] as inscriptions now abundantly shew, were a great nation, whose home was N. of Phoenicia and Lebanon, Kadesh on the Orontes being one of their principal cities (see Hittites in EB. and DB. ; or, more briefly, the writer’s note on Genesis 10:15 ; and cf. 1 Kings 10:29 ; 1 Kings 11:1 , 2 Kings 7:6 ): but these Hittites were never conquered by the Israelites, and so cannot be referred to here.

Verse 71. - Golan was one of the three cities of refuge east of the Jordan ( Joshua 20:8 ), the other two being Bezer, of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead, of the tribe of Gad. Ashtaroth , in its previous history, had been closely connected with Og King of Bashan ( Deuteronomy 1:4 ; Joshua 9:9, 10 ; Joshua 12:4, 5 ; Joshua 13:12 ). It is called Beeshterah in Joshua 21:27 . 1 Chronicles 6:71

And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? And they said to him, From a very far country are thy servants come, because of the name of Jehovah 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 the king of Heshbon, and to Og the king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. And our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, Take victuals in your hand for the way, and go to meet them, and say to them, We are your servants, and now make a covenant with us. This our bread we took warm for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; and now, behold, it is dry, and is become mouldy. And these flasks of wine which we filled new, behold, they are rent; and these our garments and our sandals are become old by reason of the very long journey. And the men took of their victuals, but they did not inquire at the mouth of Jehovah. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the princes of the assembly swore unto them. And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt in their midst.

The Jdvocatejhip . when rhey.die, as he in Canaan did, that dcceas'd before the Year of Jubilee: Bat as certainly as he that died in Canaan before the JabUee did yer rp; ccive arain his Inheritance, by the hand of his rt* lative Sun'iver, when the Jubilee catnc, fo cerlainly ftia'l he thai dieih, and thai feemecb in hi) tl) in^ to come Ihort of the Celeftial Inheritance now, be yet admitted, at his rifing again^ to the repofleSion .of his Old Inheritance arihcDayof Judgment, But now here's rpomfora Cawllet to objei^, and to plead againfl the Children, faying Thtj have forfeited their fart of Paradife by tbt'iT Si}i,vh.it Hlj^ljt thta fhali they have te the f^rngdm cf Heaven ? Ni^k let the Lord fiand up t flead,fisi ■ he is AJ.ocatc for the Children. Yea, let them j p'ead the fuffidencyof their tirft Title to the I Kingdom, and that it is not their doings can fell j the Land for ever. The reafon why the Children of Ifrael couid not fell the Land for ever, was bccaufe the Lord, their Head, rcferv'-d to hioifelf a Right therein ; The Land {hall not be fold fvt ever, for the Land ii mine. Snppofe two or three Children have a lawful Title to fuch an Eftate, but they arc all prefufe and prodigal, and there's a Brother alfo that has by Law a chief Right to the fame Eftate ; this Brother may hinder the Eftate from being fold forcvcr.becaufe 'tis hisftiheriranci,inA he may.when the limitied time that his Brethren had fold their 5/>rfi-e therein is our, ^f he will, rcftore it to 'em agen