Joshua 10:4

_COME UP UNTO ME, AND HELP ME, THAT WE MAY SMITE GIBEON: FOR IT HATH MADE PEACE WITH JOSHUA AND WITH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL._ No JFB commentary on this verse....

1-6 When sinners leave the service of Satan and the friendship of the world, that they make peace with God and join Israel, they must not marvel if the world hate them, if their former friends become foes. By such methods Satan discourages many who are convinced of their danger, and almost persuaded to be Christians, but fear the cross. These things should quicken us to apply to God for protection, help, and deliverance....

EXPOSITION THE BATTLE OF BETH-HORON, AND THE SUBJUGATION OF SOUTHERN PALESTINE.— JOSHUA 10:1 ADONI-ZEDEC (cf. Melchizedek in Genesis 14:18). The _name_ given to the king of Jerusalem was good enough, and no doubt was a survival of earlier and purer times. In the days of Melchizedek the name corresponded to the character. JERUSALEM. Hebrew, _Jerushalaim, _with the usual dual termination. It has been generally supposed to be the same with Salem, or rather Shalem, the city of which Melehizedek was king, and this is supported by the fact t

COME UP UNTO ME, AND HELP ME, THAT WE MAY SMITE GIBEON,.... For which he thought himself not a match, not only because it was a great city, and full of mighty men, and had other cities subject to it, but because he might reasonably judge that Joshua would come to their assistance if possible, being in league with him; he sends to these kings in an authoritative manner, as if they were in some respects subject to him; and he proposes Jerusalem as the place of their rendezvous, and which it seems lay higher than their cities, though they were in the mountainous part of the country: FOR IT HATH MADE PEACE WITH JOSHUA, AND WITH THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL; their avowed enemies, and so had separated themselves from their countrymen, and from their common interest; and therefore it was thought proper to make an example of them, that others might fear to do the same....

10. THE VICTORIOUS CONQUEST CHAPTER 10 _ 1. Adoni-zedec and his confederacy (Joshua 10:1)_ 2. The war (Joshua 10:7) 3. The miracle (Joshua 10:12) 4. The victory won (Joshua 10:16) 5. The five kings slain (Joshua 10:22) 6. Further conquests (Joshua 10:28) The name Jerusalem is mentioned here for the first time in the Bible. (Salem in...

DEFEAT AND DEATH OF THE FIVE KINGS. Here we have the account of the famous battle of Bethhoron. Five kings band themselves together against Gibeon; the Gibeonites send for help to Joshua, who comes upon the enemy suddenly and completely routs them. It is hardly necessary to say that the adjuration to the sun to stand still is purely poetical, and is to be compared with the words of Deborah's song, The stars in their courses fought against Sisera. The compiler of this book, however, took it as an actual prayer that was really granted, as is seen from the words, So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven. Mr. Stanley Cook would omit the third line and make the fourth line part of the appeal, which would then run, Sun, stand thou still at Gibeon, and thou, moon, on the valley of Aijalon, till Yahweh (not the people) hath avenged himself on his enemies. He also gives the interesting infor...

CHILDREN. sons....

_for it hath made peace_ The enterprise was directed primarily not against Joshua, but against Gibeon which had made peace with him. Comp. Joshua 9:15. When in describing the assault on Lachish the writer of the Book of Joshua tells us it was _the second day_before it succeeded, he _undesignedly_leads us to suspect that Lachish was a stronghold; and on consulting other portions of the history of the Jews we discover that suspicion to be confirmed; and on the whole a coincidence results very characteristic of truth and accuracy, and this in a narrative full of the miraculous. Blunt's _Undesigned Coincidences_, pp. 107, 108....

_The Southern Coalition Joshua 10:1-14_ Now it came to pass, when Adonizedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them; 2 That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. 3 Wherefore Adonizedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying, 4 Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel, 5 Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Ja

THE CONQUEST OF SOUTHERN CANAAN This chapter narrates the successful campaign against the five confederate chiefs of the S., who are roused by the fall of Jericho and Ai and the alliance with Gibeon, and combine under the leadership of Adonizedek of Jerusalem to retaliate upon the Gibeonites. Bringing succour, as in duty bound, to his new allies, Joshua encounters the confederate forces in Beth-horon. By divine aid he inflicts on them a signal defeat, captures and slays all five kings, and follows up his success by a prompt reduction of six Amorite strongholds in swift succession. A concluding paragraph (Joshua 10:40) describes the work of conquest so far, as summary and complete....