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 at 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, Peradventure 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 servants are come, because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10. And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth. 11. Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. 12. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: 13. And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey. 14. And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.
Here,
I. The Gibeonites desire to make peace with Israel, being alarmed by the tidings they heard of the destruction of Jericho, v. 3. Other people heard those tidings, and were irritated thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites heard them, and were induced 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 Cor. 2. 16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. I do not remember that we read any where of a king of Gibeon. Had their government been at this time in a single person, perhaps his heart would have been too high to yield to Israel, and he would have joined with the rest of the kings against Israel. But these four united cities, mentioned v. 17. seem to have been governed by elders or senators, v. 11. who consulted the common safety more than their own personal dignity. The inhabitants of Gibeon did well for themselves. We have,
II. The method they took to compass it. They knew that all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were to be cut off, perhaps they had some spies in the congregation at Ebal, when the law was read, who observed and brought them notice of the command given to Israel, Deut 7. 1··3. that they should show no mercy to the Canaanites, give them no quarter in battle, which made them afraid of fighting them, and that they should make no covenant with them, which made them despair of gaining any advantage by treating with them: and therefore there was no way of saving their lives from the sword of Israel, unless they could, by disguising themselves, make Joshua believe that they came from some very far country, which the Israelites were not commanded to make war upon, nor forbidden to make peace with, but were particularly appointed to offer peace to, Deut. 20. 10, 15. Unless they could be admitted under this notion, they saw there was but one way with them, they must submit to the fate of Jericho and Ai. Though the neighbouring princes knew that all the men thereof were mighty, (ch. 10. 2.) and they knew it themselves, yet they durst not contend with Israel, who had an Almighty God on their side. This therefore is the only game they have to play, and they play it very artfully and successfully; never was any such thing more craftily managed.
1. They came under the character of ambassadors from a foreign state, which they thought would please the princes of Israel, and make them proud of the honour of being courted by distant countries: we find Hezekiah fond of those that came to him from a far country, Isa. 39. 3. they had not used to be thus courted.
2. They pretended to have undergone the fatigues of a very long journey, and produced what passed for an ocular demonstration of it. It should seem it was then usual for those that undertook long journies, to take with them, as we do now for long voyages, all manner of provision in kind, the country not being furnished as our's is now with houses of entertainment, for the convenience of which, when we have occasion to make use of them,, we have reason to be very thankful. Now, they here pretended that their provision, when they brought it from home, was fresh and new, but now it appeared to be old and dry, whereas it might well be presumed they had not loitered, but made the best of their way; so that from hence it must be inferred that they came, as they said they did, from a very far country, their sacks or portmanteaus were old, the wine all drank, and the bottles in which it had been, broken, their shoes and their clothes were worse than those of the Israelites in forty years, their bread mouldy, v. 4, 5. and again, v. 12, 13. Thus God's Israel have often been deceived and imposed upon with a show of antiquity. But (as Bishop Hall expresses it) errors are never the older for being patched, and so seeming old; but they that will be caught with this Gibeonitish stratagem, prove they have not consulted with God. And thus there are those who make themselves poor with the badges of want and distress, and yet have great riches, Prov. 13. 7. or at least have no need of relief, by which fraud charity is misplaced, and denied to those that are real objects of it.
3. When they were suspected, and more strictly examined from whence they came, they industriously declined telling the name of their country, till the agreement was settled; (1.) The men of Israel suspected a fraud, v. 7. "Peradventure ye dwell among us, and then we may not, we must not, make any league with you;" this might have discouraged the Gibeonites from urging the matter any further, concluding that if the peace were made, the Israelites would not think themselves obliged to keep it, having thus solemnly protested against it, in case they dwelt among them; but knowing that there was no hope at all if they stood it out, they bravely ventured a submission; "Who knows but the people of Israel may save us alive, though thus inveigled into a promise, and if we tell them at last, we shall but die." (2.) Joshua put the questions to them, Who are ye? and from whence come
