Joshua 9

Chap. IX. Ver. 3. The inhabitants of Gibeon.—This city is supposed to [have been] of Rahab is so rewarded that her life is not [lost], so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their belief, since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace. “The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan. These Hivites acknowledge the truth and judgments of God, and yet seek to escape by a league with Israel. The general denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners; yet we may not despair of mercy. If the secret council of the Almighty had not designed these men to life, Joshua could not have been deceived with their league. In the fever there is no hope.

Let us come in the old rags of our vileness to the true Joshua, (Jesus,) and make our truce with him; we may live; yea, we To return to the Gibeonites. Though by this duplicity they saved their lives, they lost their liberty. The oath of the rulers was the security of their lives; but they had made no attempt for farther conditions, or that attempt might have defeated their object. When the fraud was discovered, therefore, they were sentenced to the penalty of slavery; but their servitude, though laborious, and still more galling on account of it condemning their [male] men to the usual employ of women, was attended with this happy circumstance, that it [see a ge es] Ver. 6. Make a league with us.—Hebrew, “Cut with us a covenant.”

The Gibeonites had probably heard of the patriarchal mode of making covenants, introduced them into the service of the true God, gave them an opportunity to know his will, and eventually many were probably incorporated among the chosen nation, and became the Lord’s servants. The Israelites, on the other hand, came into the possession of their cities, and the Levites were relieved from some of their most laborious services,—“the hewing of wood, and the drawing of water.” One moral lesson, however, we must not fail to derive from the sequel—the importance of adhering to our engagements and keeping our promises inviolate. It is said of the good man, that “he sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not;”

((Psalms 15:4).) and we find that neither the importunities nor the murmurings of the Israelites could induce Joshua and the elders to violate their promise of protection; nor did they listen to any of the subterfuges that might have influenced men of little minds, or yielding integrity, with power in their hands, to revenge the deception by which they had been duped. We must not deceive because we have been deceived.

Notes on the verses

As if they had been ambassadors from a very distant country.—[The word ¢zir, an ambassador, properly denotes a hinge; because an ambassador is a person upon whom the business turns a hinge. So the Latin Cardinales, from cardo, a hinge, was the title of the prime minister of the [Emperor] Theodosius, though now applied only to the Pope’s electors and counsellors.] — Wine bottles, old, and rent, &c.—These bottles being made of skin were consequently liable to be rent, and capable of being mended; which is done, according to Chardin, by putting in a piece, or by gathering up the wounded piece in the manner of a purse; and sometimes by inserting a flat piece of wood. [— Bagster.] Ver. 5. Clowted.—(The word clowted, signifies here patched, from the Anglo-Saxon clut, a clout or rag; and not nailed, from the French clou, a nail.) and feigned themselves familiar with it + or perhaps had rites of their own somewhat similar.

See Note on (Genesis 15:10). and (Deuteronomy 29:12).; The circumstance of the Gibeonites taking this politic measure to save their lives, has been alleged to prove that the Israelites might in no case enter into any treaty with Canaanites to spare their lives; but if this were the case, it should seem that such a positive law would have invalidated any treaty that could have been made with them, since oaths are not binding to an action in itself absolutely unlawful. Tor. 14, And the men took of their victuals.—(See Margin.) The eating with an enemy was the most solemn pledge of reconciliation, and security.— ‘And asked not counsel.—To this circumstance is attributed their being thus imposed upon.

Ver. 21. Hewers of wood, &c.—Dr. Shaw, and other travellers in the East, represent these as the usual employments of women, and in this circumstance, Harmer thinks, consisted chiefly the “bitterness of their doom,” that even their military and wealthy men were degraded to the rank of women.