Joshua 9:8

_AND THEY SAID UNTO JOSHUA, WE ARE THY SERVANTS. AND JOSHUA SAID UNTO THEM, WHO ARE YE? AND FROM WHENCE COME YE?_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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 9:8. _WE_ ARE _THY SERVANTS._] This appears to have been the only answer they gave to the question of the Israelitish elders, and this they gave to _Joshua_, not to _them_, as they saw that Joshua was commander-in-chief of the host. _WHO_ ARE _YE? AND FROM WHENCE COME YE?_] To these questions, from such an authority, they felt themselves obliged to give an explicit answer; and they do it very artfully by a mixture of _truth, falsehood_, and _hypocrisy_....

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 SAID UNTO JOSHUA, WE [ARE] THY SERVANTS,.... Not that they meant to be subjects of his, and tributaries to him; but this they said in great humility and lowliness of mind, being willing to be or do anything he should enjoin them. Abarbinel observes, that this they proposed to Joshua singly, not to be servants to all the people, but to him only, and to have him for their head and governor: AND JOSHUA, SAID, WHO [ARE] YE? AND FROM WHENCE COME YE? by what name are ye called? and from what country do ye come? suspecting, as it should seem, that they were the inhabitants of Canaan; or however he was cautious and upon his guard, lest they should be such, and yet was not enough upon his guard to prevent imposition....

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

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._ 8. _AND THEY SAID UNTO JOSHUA, WE ARE THY SERVANTS_— Being more pressingly interrogated by Joshua, they answered with humility, that, knowing the greatness of the nation of Israel and their own inferiority, they desired nothing more than to live in amity and alliance with them; which is all that the expression, _we are thy servants,_ implies. We see others like it in the history of the Patriarchs, (Genesis 18:3; Genesis 32:20.) where they are most certainly used merely by way of compliment....

_Deceit of the Gibeonites Joshua 9:3-15_ 3 And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, 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; 5 And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy. 6 And they went to Joshua unto the camp of Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us. 7 And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Per-adventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you? 8 And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye? 9 And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servan