Joshua 9:18

_AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SMOTE THEM NOT, BECAUSE THE PRINCES OF THE CONGREGATION HAD SWORN UNTO THEM BY THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL. AND ALL THE CONGREGATION MURMURED AGAINST THE PRINCES._ The children of Israel smote them not. The moral character of the Gibeonites' stratagem was bad. The princes of the congregation did not vindicate either the expediency or the lawfulness of the connection they had formed, but they felt the solemn obligations of their oath; and, although the popular clamour was loud against them, caused by disappointment, perhaps, at losing the spoils of Gibeon, but especially by displeasure at the apparent breach of the divine commandment, they determined, to adhere to their pledge, because they had "sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel." The people demanded the dissolution of the league, but the princes would not comply. The oath was in their eyes a momentous fact...

14-21 The Israelites, having examined the provisions of the Gibeonites, hastily concluded that they confirmed their account. We make more haste than good speed, when we stay not to take God with us, and do not consult him by the word and prayer. The fraud was soon found out. A lying tongue is but for a moment. Had the oath been in itself unlawful, it would not have been binding; for no obligation can render it our duty to commit a sin. But it was not unlawful to spare the Canaanites who submitted, and left idolatry, desiring only that their lives might be spared. A citizen of Zion swears to his own hurt, and changes not, Psalms 15:4. Joshua and the princes, when they found that they had been deceived, did not apply to Eleazar the high priest to be freed from their engagement, much less did they pretend that no faith is to be kept with those to whom they had sworn. Let this convince us h...

Verse Joshua 9:18. _ALL THE CONGREGATION MURMURED_] Merely because they were deprived of the _spoils_ of the Gibeonites. They had now got under the full influence of a predatory spirit; God saw their proneness to this, and therefore, at particular times, totally interdicted the spoils of conquered cities, as in the case of Jericho....

EXPOSITION THE GIBEONITES.— JOSHUA 9:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN ALL THE KINGS. According to the explanation given above (Joshua 6:5, Joshua 6:15) of the particle כwith the infinitive, this must mean immediately. We must therefore suppose that the distance at which they lived from the scene of the events had prevented them from comprehending their astounding character so clearly as those who lived in the immediate neighbourhood (see Joshua 2:11; Joshua 5:1;...

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SMOTE THEM NOT,.... The inhabitants of the four cities, when they came to them, though they found it to be a true report that was brought them of their being neighbours, and that they were imposed upon by them: BECAUSE THE PRINCES OF THE CONGREGATION HAD SWORN UNTO THEM BY THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL; by the Word of the Lord God of Israel, as the Targum, and therefore they restrained the people from smiting and plundering them; for it was not the oath of the princes the people so much regarded, or had such an influence on them as to abstain from seizing on them, but the princes, by reason of their oath, would not suffer them to touch them: AND ALL THE CONGREGATION MURMURED AGAINST THE PRINCES; not only for taking such an oath, but chiefly because they restrained them from smiting the Gibeonites, and taking their substance for a prey; their eager desire of revenge,...

9. THE GIBEONITES CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The confederacy of the enemies (Joshua 9:1)_ 2. The deception of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:3) 3. The failure (Joshua 9:14) 4. The deception discovered (Joshua 9:16) Israel now comes face to face with the other inhabitants of the land. These enemies, which Israel encountered, are the types of our enemies, and the conflict of God's earthly people is typical of our conflict. There is, however, a difference. Israel's enemies were flesh and blood; ours are not. Israel's conflict was in the land; ours is with the wicked spirits in the heavenly places. Israel was asked to drive the

JOSHUA 9. THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES. This account, though composite, is straightforward enough if Joshua 9:17 be omitted. These verses _give_ an account by the priestly writer in which the princes of the congregation take the leading part, and make a treaty which immediately afterwards is made again by Joshua Joshua 9:22 is plainly the continuation of Joshua 9:16. That a treaty was made with the Gibeonites at an early date is a historical fact, but that treaty was very far from making them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Temple (Joshua 9:23; Joshua 9:2

MADE. LEAGUE. solemnised. covenant....

The Embassy of the Gibeonites 3. _of Gibeon_ This city was the head of the four towns occupied by the Hivites, the other three being Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim (Joshua 9:17). It appears to have been a sort of independent republic, since we hear of elders there (Joshua 9:11), but not of a king, and is said to have been a great city _like_a royal city (Joshua 10:2), i.e. of the same size and importance as those which the kings of the country made their capitals. The name itself signifies "pertaining to a hill," i.e. built on a hill, and describes the site, which is, by the direct route, about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, on two of the rounded hills peculiar to this neighbourhood. Placed at the head of the pass

_VER._ 18. _AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL SMOTE THEM NOT,_ &C.— Even though they had not thought themselves bound by their oath, (as some think they were not, since it had been obtained upon a false pretence;) yet it was for the honour of religion that they should shew themselves scrupulous not to violate an engagement which had been entered into in the name of Jehovah. Nothing could be more proper than this prudent delicacy, to give the Gibeonites great ideas of the majesty of the true God, a majesty which would have been degraded in the sight of the Canaanites by a different conduct. Such was the respect of the ancient Hebrews for oaths, that even when they might have found plausible pretences for breaking them, they made it an indispensable duty to keep them faithfully. "Then," to use the words of a celebrated Roman historian, "men were not arrived at that pitch of indifference and conte...