they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and old, torn-up and bound up wine skins, and old and patched sandals on their feet, and wore old garments. All the bread of their food supply was dry and moldy. They went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a far country. Now therefore make a covenant with us.”
The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “What if you live among us? How could we make a covenant with you?”
They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Joshua said to them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?”
They said to him, “Your servants have come from a very far country because of the name of Yahweh your God; for we have heard of his fame, all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. Our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take supplies in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them. Tell them, “We are your servants. Now make a covenant with us.” ’ This our bread we took hot for our supplies out of our houses on the day we went out to go to you; but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy. These wine skins, which we filled, were new; and behold, they are torn. These our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On v6 6. And they went to Joshua, etc. I have…
6. And they went to Joshua, etc. I have said that in strict law, a covenant of this description was null and void. For when they obtain their prayer, what is stipulated but just that they should be kept safe, provided they come from a distant and remote region of the globe? And the oftener they reiterate the same falsehood, the more do they annul a compact elicited by fraud, since its true meaning only amounts to this, that the Israelites will offer no molestation to a foreign people, living at a remote distance. This is shown to be more especially the meaning, from the fact, that the Israelites expressly exclude all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. They could not, therefore, gain anything by the fraud. Nor are they more assisted by making a fallacious pretext of the name of God, and thus throwing a kind of mist over the mind of Joshua. They pretend that they had come in the name of God; as if they were professing to give glory to God, even the God of Israel; inasmuch as there is a tacit rejection of the superstitions to which they had been accustomed. For if it is true, that they had come, moved by the faith of the miracles which had been performed in Egypt, they concede supreme power to the God of Israel, though to them a God unknown.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv4, 7, 9, 11, 12 Because they were all worn.
Because they were all worn.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–13 Jos 9:4 They did work wilily, and went and…
Jos 9:4 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;
Ver. 4. They did work wilily.] They exercised a serpentine subtilty, and dealt fraudulently, as Gen 3:1; but where was their columbine simplicity? {Mat 10:16} They strain hard to save their lives. But a man should rather die than lie.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7, 8, 9 Ambassadors, sent from a far country, as they say,…
Ambassadors, sent from a far country, as they say, Jos 9:6.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–13 And they did work wilily,.... Acted craftily, dealt in…
And they did work wilily,.... Acted craftily, dealt in much cunning and subtlety; our version leaves out a very emphatic word, "also"; they also, as well as other nations, acted a cunning part, but in a different way; they did not enter into consultations and alliances with others, how to defend themselves, but made use of a stratagem to make peace, and enter into a league with Israel; or also as the Israelites had done, either as Simeon and Levi had dealt craftily with the Shechemites, who were Hivites, Gen 34:2; so now the Gibeonites, who also were Hivites, Jos 9:7; wrought in a wily and crafty manner with them, so Jarchi; or as the Israelites had lately done in the affair of Ai:
and went and made as if they had been ambassadors: from some states in a foreign country, sent on an embassy to the people of Israel, to compliment them on their successes, and to enter into alliance with them, which they thought would be pleasing and acceptable to them; the Targum is,"they prepared food,''which they took with them for their journey; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions:
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and took old sacks upon their asses: in which they put, their provisions:
and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up: not made of glass, as ours usually are, but of the skins of beasts, as the bottles in the eastern countries commonly were; which in time grew old, and were rent and burst, and they were obliged to mend them, and bind them up, that they might hold together, and retain the liquor put into them, see Mat 9:17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 Been ambassadors - Sent from a far country.
Been ambassadors - Sent from a far country.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 Verse 4. They did work wilily] Finesse of this…
Verse 4. They did work wilily] Finesse of this kind is allowed by the conduct of all nations; and stratagems in war are all considered as legal. Nine tenths of the victories gained are attributable to stratagem; all sides practise them, and therefore none can condemn them. Much time and labour have been lost in the inquiry, "Did not the Gibeonites tell lies?" Certainly they did, and what is that to us? Does the word of God commend them for it? It does not. Are they held up to us as examples! Surely no. They did what any other nation would have done in their circumstances, and we have nothing to do with their example. Had they come to the Israelites, and simply submitted themselves without opposition and without fraud, they had certainly fared much better. Lying and hypocrisy always defeat their own purpose, and at best can succeed only for a short season. Truth and honesty never wear out.
Old sacks-and wine bottles, old, &c.] They pretended to have come from a very distant country, and that their sacks and the goat-skins that served them for carrying their wine and water in, were worn out by the length of the journey.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 9 Jos 9:6. Unto the camp to Gilgal — Joshua’s…
Jos 9:6. Unto the camp to Gilgal — Joshua’s headquarters. And said to the men of Israel — To those that used to meet in council with Joshua, to whom it belonged to make leagues, namely, the princes of the congregation. Now therefore make a league with us — Because we are not of this people, whom, as we are informed, you are obliged utterly to destroy.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4, 6, 7 They did work wilily - literally, “they also,” or…
They did work wilily - literally, “they also,” or “they too, did work, etc.” The “also” serves, apparently, to connect the stratagem of the Gibeonites with that employed by the Israelites before Ai. It hints that the Gibeonites resolved to meet craft with craft.
Rent and bound up - i. e. the wine skins were torn and roughly repaired by tying up the edges of the tear. The more thorough and careful way, hardly feasible in a hasty journey, would have been to insert a patch.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13 Provisions. By the alteration of a single letter, Hebrew…
Provisions. By the alteration of a single letter, Hebrew means, "they feigned themselves to be ambassadors." But the Chaldean, Syriac, and Septuagint agree with the Vulgate. (Calmet) --- The Gabaonites were Hevites, though they are called by the more general name of Amhorrites, 2 Kings xxi. 2. St. Jerome says that their city stood in the tribe of Benjamin; according to Josephus, 40 or 50 stadia north of Jerusalem. (Menochius) --- They alone had the prudence to submit, (Calmet) being terrified and converted by the miracles of God. (Haydock) --- Again. In the East, goat skins with the hair inwards, are used to carry wine.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 6, 7, 9 They did work wilily--They acted with dexterous policy, seeking…
They did work wilily--They acted with dexterous policy, seeking the means of self-preservation, not by force, which they were convinced would be unavailing, but by artful diplomacy.
took old sacks upon their asses--Travellers in the East transport their luggage on beasts of burden; the poorer sort stow all their necessaries, food, clothes, utensils together, in a woollen or hair-cloth sack, laid across the shoulders of the beast they ride upon.
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wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up--Goat-skins, which are better adapted for carrying liquor of any kind fresh and good, than either earthenware, which is porous, or metallic vessels, which are soon heated by the sun. These skin bottles are liable to be rent when old and much used; and there are various ways of mending them--by inserting a new piece of leather, or by gathering together the edges of the rent and sewing them in the form of a purse, or by putting a round flat splinter of wood into the hole.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4–12 4. [
4. [
They did work wilily — Literally, Then did also they by stratagem. The also seems to refer here most naturally to what Joshua had done to Ai. As he used cunning and strategy in the capture of that city, so did also they practice strategy in making a league with Israel. Others, we think less correctly, take also (גם) as an adversative here, expressing the contrast between the action of the Gibeonites and the other Canaanites.]
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As if… ambassadors — Suing for peace. The more distant cities think only of war; the nearest, on whom the next blow must fall, seek for peace; perhaps their popular form of government also influenced them toward a pacific policy. [The Hebrew word translated, made as if they had been ambassadors, (Hithpael of ציר,) occurs nowhere else; but Keil and others defend this meaning, given in the English version. Others, however, with Gesenius, argue that “since no other trace of this form or signification exists in Hebrew or Aramaean, it is better to read, with six MSS., יֶצשׂירוthey provided themselves with food for the journey, as in Jos_9:12; which is also expressed by the ancient versions.”]
Old sacks — The traveller’s equipage in Syria, anciently and at the present day, comprises food and drink, kitchen utensils, tents, bedding, etc., all stowed away in sacks and transported on the backs of asses. Old sacks would give the impression of a long journey.
Wine bottles — These were goat-skins, nearly whole, cured in a peculiar manner. When worn through, a temporary expedient for mending them was to gather up the skin about the hole and tie it like the mouth of a bag. By this means the mending becomes very manifest.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–10 4. they did work wilily] Rather, they also did…
4. they did work wilily] Rather, they also did work wilily. They had heard what Joshua had done in the case of Jericho and Ai, and the stratagems he had employed, and now they also resolved to do something and to meet craft with craft. “Thei thouçten felli,” Wyclif.
made as if they had been] Or, as the Ancient Versions with the change of a single consonant, reading here as in Jos_9:12, render, provided themselves with victuals.
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old sacks upon their asses] These were probably the same as “the large bags, usually of hair, in which the Orientals pack up, for convenient transport on the backs of animals, all the baggage and commodities required for the journey. Beds, boxes, provisions, pots, packages of goods, all are carried in such bags, slung over the back of the animal, one hanging at each side. Being a good deal knocked about and exposed to the weather, these saddle-bags, as one might call them but for their size, suffer in a long journey; and hence the Gibeonites took old bags, to convey the impression that a long journey had been made. Kitto’s Bible Illustrations, 11. p. 286.
wine bottles] i.e. skin bottles, of which classical antiquity has afforded many representations. In the East the wine was preserved not in casks but in earthen jars and leathern bottles, made of the skins of goats, oxen, and buffaloes, turned inside out, washed, and rubbed over with warm mineral tar or naphtha. The wine is drawn out at one of the feet, by opening or closing the cord with which it is tied. This explains how the bottles could be “old,” “rent,” and “bound up,” and also the caution of our Lord against pouring new wine into old bottles, lest they should be burst by the wine (Mar_2:22).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4, 5, 7, 9 (4) They did work wilily.—Literally, and they also dealt…
(4) They did work wilily.—Literally, and they also dealt with subtilty. The stratagem does not seem a very profound one, or one that would have been difficult to detect. But we may remember a fact of Israel’s experience which puts it in a somewhat different light. The Israelites themselves had come from a far country, but their raiment had not “waxed old upon them,” nor did “their feet swell,” these forty years. Of bread they had no need, when there was manna, and God gave them water for their thirst. Of worn garments and stale provisions they had no experience, and therefore, when the Gibeonites presented themselves in this extraordinary garb and guise, it is not unnatural that they were not detected by the eyes of Israel.
They . . . made as if they had been ambassadors.—The verb thus translated does not occur elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. By the alteration of a letter, the Targum, LXX., and some other versions make it mean, “they gat them provision.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–11 They did work wilily. Rather, and they worked they…
They did work wilily. Rather, and they worked they also with 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, ver. 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 ryxi 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 WdYfxyo "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 ver. 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, askw en aigeiw ). 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. (cf. Job_32:19 Mat_9:17 Mar_2:22 Luk_5:37, Luk_5:38. See also Kitto"s "Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature Bound up. The usual mode of mending in the East, except when a patch is inserted, is to tie or sew up the hole.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v8 Jos_9:8. We are thy servants] This was not a…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Jos_9:8. We are thy servants] This was not a declaration of fealty, but is rather to be read as an expression of courtesy (Gen_32:4; Gen_1:18), very adroitly introduced to turn aside the pointed question, which, however, Joshua abruptly presses back upon them.
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Jos_9:10. All that He did to the two kings of the Amorites, etc.] They craftily omit all reference to the miracle at the crossing of the Jordan, and to the victories at Jericho and Ai, “because it would have been impossible for the rumour of those events to reach them, if they came, as they said, from so distant a land” (Masius).
Jos_9:14. They took of their victuals] Marg., “They received the men by reason of their victuals.” There seems no reason to suppose that the Israelites ate of the bread in token of their disposition to enter into covenant. They judged by the evidence of the dried bread, instead of asking counsel of the Lord by the Urim and Thummim (Num_27:21).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_9:8-15
AN ANCIENT ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE OF LIFE
We see in these Gibeonites and their history:—
I. An overwhelming conviction of being on the side of error, and thus, in these hours of danger, on the side of weakness. The Gibeonites did not lack courage. This very mission to Joshua was boldly conceived, boldly executed, and boldly defended. There is a singular freedom from trepidation in the telling of what, perhaps, was necessarily a clumsy story. This is manifest in their reply to the closely pressed question of the Israelites, recorded in the eighth and ninth verses. Nothing but a bold presence could have passed so poor a coinage. Even through the fear in which these men go to treat for their lives, boldness is evident. Moreover, the Gibeonites had a reputation for valour among their own countrymen: “Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities; it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty” (chap. Jos_10:2). But these Gibeonites had become convinced that might and bravery would not avail them. They had heard “what Joshua had done unto Jericho and Ai,” and putting the story of these recent triumphs and the tidings of several other marvellous events together, they were convinced that the Israelites were fighting on the side of God and of truth. Men judge their gods from a very utilitarian point of view. Just then the gods of the Gibeonites were manifestly very useless; and these cool-headed people, seeing that the help of Jehovah was something immensely different from the help of Baal or Ashtoreth, determined on a change of place, as a natural outcome of their change of faith. Let who will judge the manner of their change, for that was full of error and meanness; as to the fact, they did what myriads of people have done in all ages; they proved their former religious notions to be useless in the day of trial, and they went over to the side of power. They believed in God because of the prowess of God’s people (Jos_9:9-10; Jos_9:24). It was a poor, low, selfish faith, no doubt; make a discount for their surroundings, and their previous habits of religious thought and feeling, and they began with God as a great many people begin now—in the day of their trouble they sought the Lord. This view seems to have been common to the four cities of the Gibeonite republic: in this low measure of faith, a nation was born in a day.
1. To some men the mighty works of God bring conviction, while in others they provoke a yet more deliberate rebellion. The same story of Divine triumphs had gone through the whole land; as it was in Rome when Paul preached Christ, so it was in Canaan when God proclaimed Himself by many and marvellous works; “Some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.” It is ever thus, and probably ever will be. The colliery explosion, the railway accident, the ravages of disease, bring some men to meditate and to believe; others, the same providences harden. “Take heed how ye hear.”
2. In times of great danger the conviction of error is also the conviction of weakness. Only truth is always strong, and everywhere strong. When Peter asked, “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?” he preached not only to human hearts, but out of a human heart. It does us good to hear such an exultant question from Peter. Peter did not set a problem; he proclaimed an experience. Peter had set himself to seek safety behind the sword: that failed. Peter had followed afar off: that did not answer. Peter had tried to shield himself by lying, and by ungratefully shirking the responsibility of a trying connection: that led, within the same hour, to bitter tears. Peter had tried the other way. He followed embodied Goodness to Galilee, and, lo! it spake of love even to the denier, and said, “Feed my sheep.” Peter had followed that which was good at Pentecost, and three thousand were added to the Lord. Peter followed that which was good, and it led him to prison; an angel delivered him. Thus had it been all his life; error had made him weak always, truth and righteousness had been strength everywhere. It is refreshing to hear such a challenge, when it comes to us from such lips. All might has its time of failure, saving the might which goes with truth. The “wooden walls of old England” are as reeds and rushes before the armaments of to-day. A granite fortress is of no good to the man who is dying. A man’s intellectual power cannot make him strong to overcome his own fatal accident or fever. A noble imagination can do little in a prison, saving to mark with a keener sensitiveness the narrowness of the limits which confine the man. The “almighty dollar,” as our American friends say when they wish to indicate the power of riches, is no match for an outraged and offended conscience. In some emergency or other, all things are weak, saving truth; when life is in danger, nothing but truth can make a man feel secure from harm. Happy is he who long before that trial comes has learned to cry, “Thy truth shall be my shield and buckler.”
II. An irrepressible desire to preserve life, before which everything else has to give way. These men placed their safety above everything else.
1. Every man thinks life precious. “Life,” said a recent writer, “is lovely every way. Even if we look upon it as an isolated thing existing apart from the rest of nature, and using the inorganic world merely as a dead pedestal on which to sustain itself, it is still beautiful.” The tallest and sublimest mountain would be simply a gigantic upheaval of desolation, but for the life which clothes its sides. The barren face of the cliff gathers not a little of its beauty from the background of life on which it is set. The long reach of the sea shore could be no holiday resort, but for beautifying life which is behind it. If life around us is esteemed so precious, perhaps it is not wonderful that we value even more highly the life that is within us.
2. Some men will do anything, or almost anything, to preserve their lives. Satan said, “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath, will he give for his life.” As pertaining to Job, the estimate was wrong. Here was a man who could say, as many others have done, “Though He may slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” As pertaining to Satan’s own children, the estimate was right. It seems to have been nearly correct as applying to these Gibeonites. (a.) Think of their shameful disguise. Probably they were the wisest and ablest men of this royal city, and yet they could demean themselves to dress up like this in order to be suffered to live, (b.) Think of their low cunning. The attire of their minds was more “clouted” than their sandals, and their manhood more “mouldy” and “spotted” than their bread, (c.) Think of their lies. The story which they told had no beginning in truth, and no end of falsehoods. It was a garb of falsities, woven throughout, with hardly a seam of truth to hold it honestly together. (d.) Think of their wretched use of the name of God, and of their new-found faith in God. On the one side, they pleaded their belief in Him; on the other, there was no depth of meanness and hypocrisy to which they did not prove themselves willing to descend. Thus these men, in endeavouring to save their lives, sacrificed everything for which true men would have deemed it worth while to live at all.
3. Life may be purchased too dearly. Dishonour of this deliberate nature was far too much to pay for its preservation. He who has lived long enough to forget that life has any dignity, has lived too long. Milton said rightly:
“Nor love thy life, nor hate; but while thou liv’st
Live well; how long, how short, permit to Heaven.”
Every man who professes to believe in God, should be ready to say, with one of the later inhabitants of Canaan, “Because Thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.”
III. The unmistakable earnestness of some men triumphing over other men. These Gibeonites succeeded in their purpose by their real and genuine earnestness. We cannot commend their conduct in its details. Their manner of endeavouring to obtain this league was wrong. The earnestness, in itself, was good. The lord of the unjust steward commended him for doing a wise thing; he did not commend the manner in which the provision was made. The steward was commended for his wisdom in providing for the future, but not for his dishonest method. It is thus that these Gibeonites are to be commended: their aim to preserve life was right, their manner was wrong. Addressing the people of Wotton, Rowland Hill exclaimed, “Because I am in earnest, men call me an enthusiast. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill, and saw a gravel-pit fall in, and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loud, that I was heard in the town below, at a distance of near a mile. Help came and rescued two of the sufferers. No one called me an enthusiast then; and when I see eternal destruction ready to fall on my fellow men, and about to entomb them irrecoverably in eternal woe, and call aloud on them to escape, shall I be called an enthusiast now?” No man should be disconcerted by the charge of enthusiasm.
1. If we are seeking to save our own lives, we shall do nothing without earnestness. The Bible has no word of blame for the enthusiast. It reserves its reproaches for the indifferent. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.”
2. If we are seeking to save others’ lives, earnestness is equally necessary. Simeon, of Cambridge, is said to have kept the portrait of Henry Martyn in his study. Move where he would through the apartments, it seemed to keep its eyes upon him, and ever to say to him, “Be earnest, be earnest I don’t trifle, don’t trifle!” It is said that Simeon would gently bow to the speaking picture, and with a smile reply, “Yes, I will be earnest; I will, I will be in earnest; I will not trifle, for souls are perishing, and Jesus is to be glorified.” If we would not go home alone, we too must be in earnest. The life of the soul is seldom saved, perhaps never, without deep spiritual earnestness.
IV. A very low measure of faith tacitly accepted by God. Bp. Hall says: “If the secret counsel of the Almighty had not designed these men to be spared, Joshua could not have been deceived by their entreaty.” No doubt that is true. But for the fact that God had resolved to spare them, we may rest assured that something would have betrayed them. Their secret would have come to the light ere the league had been concluded. But for this conclusion we are not left to conjecture. About four hundred years afterwards Saul slew some of the Gibeonites. What came of that breach of this covenant? God sent a famine on Israel for three years; and when David enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” It is not till seven of Saul’s sons have been hanged, and the covenant made here at Gilgal has been thus honoured by Israel, that we read, “And after that God was intreated for the land.” Thus did God set His own seal to the league which the Israelites made with these Gibeonites. Perhaps there is nothing in the whole word of God more encouraging to the anxious than this incident. The case of the Ninevites is encouraging. The threat of destruction had gone out against them; yet they said, “Who can tell if the Lord will turn from His fierce anger?” In that hope they were saved. Here, the threatening was in specially emphatic terms. The Israelites were solemnly charged to make no covenant with the Canaanites. The slaughter had already begun. Then God saw these poor men believing in His power, believing in the protection He was able to afford. In that faith God saw these men come begging for their lives. He saw the meanness and deception and lying with which these men clothed themselves within and without. But God also saw their faith, and because of that faith, poor and low as it was, His meroy forbore to expose them. He suffered the eyes of Joshua and the princes to be blinded: nay, the story is so clumsy and stupid, that we are almost inclined to feel of these Israelites, that “their eyes were holden that they should not know” this deception as such. This is more encouraging than the case of the penitent thief, for against him there was the divinely appointed vow. God knew the training of these Gibeonites, and He had pity; God heard their lying, and abhorred the deception; God saw their faith, and if He made not haste to deliver, He made no movement to expose them to destruction. Through this incident God says in the Old Testament what Christ says to Jairus in the New: “Only believe.” The poor selfish faith of these idolaters is suffered to become life to those who, already, were as good as dead.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_9:3-6.—DECEPTION AND ITS ADJUNCTS.
I. Deception is by putting on appearances which are unreal and false. The garb, and utterances, and conduct of these Gibeonites, furnish a lively and somewhat prolonged illustration of this obvious assertion. The imposition described in this chapter vividly depicts several of the more prominent features which are so often common to cases of deliberate deception.
1. Assistance is often sought from dress. The man who wishes to appear what he is not clothes himself in false garments. Dress has been distinctive almost ever since it has been worn. Different nations dress each in its own way. Offices, dignities, professions, the classes of society in which men move, are all indicated by distinctive dress. The phrase “plain clothes” indicates an entire genus of clothing which is official, or professional, to classify the various species of which would probably require an amount of patient perseverance hardly so much as suspected even by the most conscientious and laborious botanist; and then the “plain clothes,” themselves, would have to be arranged into endless divisions which may be roughly indicated by the two great “families” of the sexes, and thence by such words as fabric, texture, colour, shape, quality, etc. Language is said to have needed a Babel to confuse it, and to cause it to diverge into the numerous tongues and dialects of the earth; dress has reached a similar diversity by the force of its own inherent power. The practice of dressing in false garments, to aid deception, is certainly not of modern origin, however common it may be now. Rebekah took the raiment of Esau in which to clothe Jacob, and then put upon the hands of the younger brother “the skins of the kids of the goats.” When the wife of Jeroboam wished to deceive Ahijah, she disguised herself, and “feigned to be another.” Zechariah was bidden to say concerning the prophets: “Neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive.” This easy device of the Gibeonites is one which has probably been practised almost from the beginning. He who seeks to transgress will readily find aids to transgression.
2. To render deception complete, other outward belongings have to be brought into harmony with the dress. The bread and the wineskins were chosen to match the character selected. The expression of the face would have to be one of languor and weariness, and weariness in the tones would be necessary to harmonise with weariness in appearance. To all this, and more, there was added direct and continuous lying. When a man deliberately begins to sin, he should understand that be is only beginning; the new character which has been chosen must be made complete and unique. The more perfect the unity, the less is the danger of exposure. Thus, very literally, he who offends in one point is likely to be guilty in all.
3. Deception sometimes requires, not only that outward things shall be unreal, but that inward graces shall also be assumed. These Gibeonites had to deal with men before whom it was convenient to assume both humility and religious fear. We cannot charge them with hypocrisy in their manifestation of godly fear; judging by the way in which they were afterwards protected by God, they should, perhaps, be credited with religious sincerity. Of one thing we may be confident: when men go as far in deceiving others as did these Gibeonites, it will need little more than the necessity to tempt them to feign religious feelings also.
4. Whatever may be the form of its manifestation, the seat of deception is ever in the heart. It is there that truth suffers distortion most severely. The outward guise of a deceiver, however fair it may be, is always ugly morally, because it is false; but the deformity of the heart is ever greater than the deformity of the act. Hearts are deceitful when the deceit never takes shape in actions, and that which we see always represents but a small part of that which is. How divine must be the patience which not only bears with what we see, but with the grosser impurities of the corrupt heart, only a few of which impurities are ever witnessed by men. Young might well regard the hiding of corruption at its source as the outcome of Divine compassion. He tells us truly:
“Heaven’s Sovereign saves all beings but Himself
That hideous sight, a naked human heart.”
Let us not forget that our inmost life is exposed to the gaze of the Lord. As among their fellows, men may say to each other, Let us
“Sleek o’er our rugged looks,
And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are;”
but no outward assumption of innocence will hide us for a moment from Him who searches us, and knows our hearts; who tries us, and knows our thoughts.
II. Deception has not only various guises, but many purposes. It lays all external things on earth under tribute for its garments: its purposes are not limited to earth, but enter heaven also. Imitating these “fathers of all modern diplomacy,” men practise deception for political objects. Sometimes they seek to deceive in order to preserve life, or to serve ambition, or even to secure so comparatively small a possession as monetary gain. But deception is also attempted even before God. Prayer goeth out of “feigned lips.” Love is not always “without dissimulation,” even when it approaches Christ; it may but draw near, like Judas, to inflict the kiss of betrayal. Even at the door of heaven, deceivers dare to stand and say: “When saw we Thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? “
III. Deception is not merely sin in the present; it is usually a pledge to sin also in the future. No one who deceives others for a guilty purpose wishes to be discovered. The very character of such imposition supposes that it shall be repeated as often as may be necessary to prevent exposure. Thus this sin deliberately proposes as much future sin as may be necessary to hide the wickedness of the past. It is not merely an advance into the territory of transgression; it is a “burning of the bridges,” to prevent any retreat into purity and integrity. The deceiver not only forfeits his truthfulness for the time being, but mortgages it for the time to come.
IV. The guilt of deception is not to be judged by the measure of its success, but rather by its purpose and method. The object of deception may be not only innocent, but praiseworthy, in which case, providing that the manner of misleading be harmless, only the purist who judges God’s law by its letter would hold it to be sinful. No one thinks of calling Joseph wicked, “because he spake roughly” unto his brethren, and took other measures to deceive them, till the time was come to make himself known. The command to place the cup in the sack of Benjamin might, to some, seem hardly justifiable; but the rough bearing and stern treatment under which Joseph chose to conceal his kinship, till he could win his brethren back to true brotherhood, can scarcely be reckoned blameworthy. Even our Lord, on one occasion, prudently concealed His intention of being present at the Feast of Tabernacles. The language in Joh_7:8, may or may not be ambiguous, in either view it was truthful; but coupling the reservation made in the language with the going up “in secret” which followed, there can be little doubt, to a fair-minded reader, that our Lord designed, for a time, to conceal His purpose. And why not? The way of truth binds no one to reveal all his intentions to every questioner. It is doubtless inexpedient that even innocent concealment should be practised often, because its frequent repetition would beget suspicion, and create an unhealthy influence; but for deception to be actually sinful, the deceiver must employ wrong methods, or contemplate some guilty purpose. In either of these cases the deceit attempted is a sin, irrespective of success or failure.
V. Deception is often but for a short time, and, in any case, must end with eternity. This piece of craft on the part of these Hivites was fully exposed but a few days later. If not earlier, all deception will be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ. What is more, the heart’s sense of its own guilt, in every sinful act of the kind, will have to be acknowledged. Then, even as was felt at the time of transgression, the person who sent down word that he was “not at home,” will confess that he lied; and every equivocation, not needing to await the verdict of the Judge, will be pronounced innocent or guilty by each man’s own conscience. A pure life needs little restraint from law, and will not concern itself much with mere questions of casuistry; an impure heart will always be on the safer side when it interprets the letter of Divine truth so as to limit its liberty in the direction of worldliness. He who abstains from “all appearance of evil,” will be in little danger of having to condemn himself in eternity for the thing which he allowed himself in time.
Jos_9:7-9.—THE MISERY AND MEANNESS WHICH WAIT ON IMPOSITION.
I. Impostors are in constant danger Of detection. The Inquisition in Spain is said to have contained many refined instruments of torture. Imposition is continually provoking enquiry; and, to the guilty, the inquisition of Truth must be as severe an ordeal as the Inquisition of the Romish Church.
II. Impostors are repeatedly tempted to fresh iniquity. “Peradventure ye dwell among us.” … “Who are ye?” etc. Thus the way of sin is ever down hill.
III. Impostors are continually subject to fresh humiliations. “We are thy servants.” “Because of the name of the Lord thy God” are we come. Beneath the lowest depth of degradation to which he has descended, the liar is ever finding “a lower still.”
IV. Impostors render even their sincerest words liable to suspicion. This concern about God was probably real; the string of falsities by which the expression of it was surrounded, make it appear the most monstrous imposition of all.
Jos_9:8.—THE ABUSE OF THE COURTESIES OF LIFE.
The words, “We are thy servants,” seem used here to turn aside the question in the previous verse. Consider:
I. Courtesy as the expression of truth.
II. Courtesy as used to hide the truth.
III. Courtesy as a means to secure an end.
“The Trick of the Gibeonites:—
“I. Shrewdly thought out. II. Cunningly carried out. III. 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.”—[Lange.]
“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.”—[Gsrlach.]
“Nothing is found fitter to deceive God’s people than a counterfeit copy of age. Here are old sacks, old bottles, old shoes, old garments, old bread. It is no new policy, that Satan would beguile us with a vain colour of antiquity, clothing falsehood in rags.… If we be caught with this Gibeonite stratagem, it is a sign we have not consulted God.
“There is no wisdom in staying till a judgment come home to us: the only way to avoid it is to meet it half-way.”—[Bp. Hall.]
Jos_9:9-11. THE FAME OF GOD.
The Gospels make repeated mention of “the fame of Jesus,” which “went abroad into all the land,” in the days of the Saviour’s ministry. Only in two instances does this word appear to be applied to God in the Old Testament. On one occasion the expression comes from the leader of God’s people. Moses makes the fame of God, in bringing the Israelites out of Egypt, a plea for Divine mercy to them in the wilderness (Num_14:15-16). On the other occasion, it is these idolatrous Hivites who say, We have heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt. Consider:—
I. The fame of God in its cause.
1. The works of the Lord had been many and marvellous.
2. Divine power had been steadily and consistently directed against idolatry and sin. God’s hand had been lifted against sin, (a) when committed by the Egyptians, (b) when seen in His own people, (c) when indulged in by the Canaanites.
3. The mercy of the Lord had continuously spared and forgiven the penitent. It mattered not whether the suppliants were His own people, or those who were guilty as Rahab; sincere penitence was sure to be followed by Divine mercy.
4. The Lord had safely shielded from their enemies all who had walked in His fear. No malice or might of men had ever been able to harm His people, so long as they were obedient. Thus, even in these ancient days, was the fame of the Lord spread abroad through all that region.
II. The fame of God in its influence.
1. It filled with fear all who were not manifestly under Divine protection. Rahab or Achan, the Gibeonites or the Canaanites, it mattered not; to be without God’s covenanted mercy, was to have a heart that “melted and became as water.”
2. The mere fame of God, while sufficient to work fear, did not, in itself, move men to holiness. These Gibeonites come with prayer, but also with lying. The fountain, troubled by fear, and not yet purified by love, sent forth, at the same place, both sweet water and bitter.
III. The fame of God in its issues.
1. Some heard of it, and they were hardened, and presently perished.
2. Some heard of it, and sought and found life.
3. Those who were saved found deliverance, not only for themselves, but for their defenceless children.
4. It is to be hoped that many whose lives were thus spared were afterwards saved spiritually.
IV. The fame of God in its relation to God’s people.
1. They should do nothing by which the Divine fame is marred.
2. They should continually make that fame known.
Jos_9:14-15.—ASKING COUNSEL OF THE LORD.
Through omitting to consult God by Urim and Thummim, Joshua and the princes of the congregation too hastily covenanted to spare the lives of these Gibeonites. What the Divine answer would have been, we are not told, and conjectures are useless. Possibly the Gibeonites would still have been spared; for although God had forbidden His people to make any covenant with the inhabitants of the land, He had not forfeited His own prerogative of mercy. These Hivites might still have been saved, as Rahab and her family had been saved. But although Joshua’s oath may not have altered the issue, Joshua and the princes did wrong to swear that oath. God designed that Jacob should be preferred before Esau, but although the elder was to serve the younger, the conduct of Rebekah and Jacob was nevertheless blameable. God does not need our transgression of His commandments, in order to maintain either the truth of His promise, or the mercy of His character.
These verses teach us three principal truths:—
I. He who walks in his own light must not wonder if the light prove to be darkness. Pliny said, “No man is wise at all times.” Hare writes, “The intellect of the wise is like glass: it admits the light of heaven, and reflects it.” Nature itself teaches us, on every hand, that we need light from the Author of Light.
1. The apparent plainness of the way should not prevent us in enquiring of God. The Israelites took it for granted that the case made out by these Gibeonites was clear. Scripture does not often give examples of men who acted in error through omitting to pray; it prefers, instead of this, to shew us how many have triumphed through prayer. Perhaps in the stronger light of the life to come we shall see that not only has our true wisdom been in answer to prayer, but our serious errors have all occurred for the want of prayer.
2. The past success of our career should lead us continually to Him from whom all success comes. The repeated triumphs of the Israelites had unconsciously given them a sense of importance. Had they been filled with the spirit of dependence, they would not have needed to be reminded of the desirability of appealing to God; as it was, probably it did not so much as occur to them that this was necessary.
II. He who asks counsel of God may look for direction from God. The reproof which the history gives, teaches us that if Joshua had sought the Lord, he would certainly have been answered.
1. The encouragements given to the Israelites to ask Divine counsel were many and plain, (a) The method of seeking Divine guidance was fully and clearly pointed out (cf. Exo_28:30; Num_27:18-21). The blessing of the Urim and Thummim had been specially pronounced by Moses on the tribe of Levi as its choicest heritage. The Septuagint renders these two words by expressions signifying “manifestation” and “truth.” However obscure the subject of the Urim and Thummim may be to us, we must not forget that it was comparatively clear to the Israelites, (b) The history of prayer, as it pertained to Israel, was no less encouraging. In the captivity of Egypt, on the borders of the Red Sea, and during the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, the people had many times proved in their own experience the blessedness of waiting on the Lord.
2. The encouragements given to men now to ask counsel of God are far more numerous than they were of old. We have the light cast upon prayer by the example of Christ, by the promises of the New Testament, and by the experience of godly men in all ages. We have the light cast upon the character of God by the life of Christ. To us every generation of men, and every page of Scripture, join in saying, “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.”
III. He who is guided by God may expect to be preserved from the errors which are natural and common to men. Had Joshua but enquired of the Lord, he would not have been betrayed into this mistake. The rebuke given in the narrative, because of the error which was committed, is given on the assumption that had Joshua consulted God, the error would not have been possible. Our darkness is a consequence of our opinion that we see; our true light results from that sense of ignorance which drives us to ask guidance from our Father in heaven.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6, 9, 11 men of Israel
men of Israel
This refers to the entire nation of Israel. (See: Synecdoche)
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the Hivites
This is another name for the Gibeonites. (See: How to Translate Names)
Perhaps you live near us. How can we make a covenant with you?
Joshua is emphasizing that the people of Israel have to follow the command of Yahweh above all else. AT: "If you do live near us, we cannot make a covenant with you." (See: Rhetorical Question)
translationWords
Joshua
Gilgal
Israel
covenant
Hivite
servant
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4, 7, 9, 11 9:4-6 Long-distance travel was difficult, dirty, and dangerous in…
9:4-6 Long-distance travel was difficult, dirty, and dangerous in those days. If they were to carry off their deception, the Gibeonite supplies, clothes, and even food had to look the part.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.