Joshua 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;_ 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 haircloth sack, laid across the shoulders of the beast they ride upon. 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...

3-13 Other people heard these tidings, and were driven thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites were led to make peace with them. Thus the discovery of the glory and the grace of God in the gospel, is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unto death, 2 Corinthians 2:16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. The falsehood of the Gibeonites cannot be justified. We must not do evil that good may themselves to the God of Israel, we have reason to think Joshua would have been directed by the oracle of God to spare their lives. But when they had once said, "We are come from a far country," they were led to say it made of skins, and their clothes: one lie brings on another, and that a third, and so on. The way of that sin is especially down-hill. Yet their faith and prudence are to be commended. In submitting to Israel they submitted to the God of...

Verse Joshua 9:4. _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...

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....

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 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, Genesis 34:2; so now the Gibeonites, who also were Hivites, Joshua 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

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

THEY They too. MADE AS IF THEY HAD BEEN AMBASSADORS. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate, read "furnished themselves with provisions", as in Joshua 9:11 and Joshua 9:12. BOTTLES. skins i.e. wine-skins....

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