Joshua 10:1

Joshua 10:1-6. Confederacy of the Five Kings against Gibeon

1. Now it came to pass The surrender of such a place as Gibeon would naturally fill the kings of southern Canaan with alarm. "It was, so to speak, treason within their own camp." The invaders had obtained a strong position in the very heart of the country, while the possession of the passes from Gibeon would expose the whole south of Canaan to their incursions. The retaking and punishment of Gibeon was the first object of the chieftains of the south.

Adoni-zedek i.e. "Lord of righteousness" It is no longer Melchizedek, "My king righteousness." The alteration of the name marks a change of dynasties.

king of Jerusalem "the habitation of peace," or "the possession of peace."

(i) This world-famous city was (a) sometimes called after its original inhabitants "Jebus" (Judges 19:10-11; 1 Chronicles 11:4); (b) sometimes "the city of the Jebusites" (Judges 19:11), or "Jebusi" (Joshua 18:16; Joshua 18:28; 1 Samuel 5:8); (c) sometimes "Salem" = "peace" (Genesis 14:18; Psalms 76:2); (d) once "the city of Judah" (2 Chronicles 25:28); (e) finally "Jerusalem" (Joshua 10:1; Joshua 12:10; Judges 1:7, &c.).

(ii) It stands in latitude 31° 46′ 39″ North, and longitude 35° 14′ 42″ East of Greenwich, and Isaiah 32 miles distant from the sea, and 18 from the Jordan; 20 from Hebron, and 36 from Samaria.

(iii) Its situation is in several respects singular. Its elevation is remarkable, but is occasioned not from its being on the summit of one of the numerous hills of Judæa, but on the edge of one of the highest table-lands of the country. From every side, except the south, the ascent to it is perpetual, and it must always have presented the appearance, beyond any important city that has ever existed on the earth, of a "mountain city, enthroned on a mountain fortress."

(iv) But besides being thus elevated more than 2500 feet above the level of the sea, it was separated by deep and precipitous ravines from the rocky plateau of which it formed a part. These slopes surround it on the southern, south-eastern, and western sides, and out of them the city rose "like the walls of a fortress out of its ditches." Hence its early strength and subsequent greatness. See Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 172; Ritter's Geography of Palestine, iii. 1 33, iv. 3; Robinson's Bibl. Res. 1:258 260.