ment at home, and especially one that recognized the authority of the true God, it would be more of an object to have them as allies. They ate together, and that sealed the contract. In those eastern countries, it has been customary from time immemorial, to seal contracts by eating. Important engagements are made, while seated at a splendid entertainment, gotten up by one of the parties. The great oversight with the Hebrews, in this transaction, was, that they did not ask counsel of Jehovah. JOS. IX. 16. And it came to pass, at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them. 17. And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim. 18. And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the Lord God of Is rael. And all the congregation murmured against the princes. 19. But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us? 23. Now therefore ye are cursed; and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the house of my God. 24. And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. 25. And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. 26. And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, and they slew them not. 20. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. 21. And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood, and drawers of water, unto all the congregation: as the princes had promised them. 22. And Joshua called for them, The princes feared to break their oath, though it had 27. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose. been obtained by fraud. The Hebrews had great respect for precedents. And it is highly probable that the princes had in mind the case of Isaac, whose blessing was obtained by fraud and falsehood; but who would not reverse his decision. "I have blessed him," said he, "yea, and he shall be blessed." But the princes would grant the Gibeonites no favor, but simply their lives. The Gibeonites were not reduced to absolute slavery, like captives of the sword; but they were made servants of a specific kind. The religious services of the tabernacle and the temple required considerable wood and water. And among the provisions for these services, that Moses had made, though very complete, there was none for these two items. This may have been one reason for assigning these duties to the Gibeonites. 66 The bitterness of the doom of the Gibeonites does not seem to have consisted in the laboriousness of the service enjoined them; for it was usual for women and children to perform what was required of them; but its degrading them from the characteristic employment of men, that of bearing arms, and condemning them and their posterity forever to the employment of females." Harmer. Dr. Clark did not believe, with many commentators, that Joshua was commanded to destroy all the Canaanites indiscriminately and unconditionally; for he says of the Gibeonites, "They did not profit by their falsity; had they come in fairly, sought peace and renounced their idolatry, they would have had life on honorable terms." If it be said that the Gibeonites recognized the true God; and yet Joshua did not favor them on any such ground, but simply on the ground of the distance of their country from Canaan, we reply, that the heathen often confessed Jehovah as God, while they held to their own gods besides. The confession that Jehovah was God, was not sufficient. Giving up the false gods, and their corrupt and obscene worship, must be added to the ac knowledgment of Jehovah, Had the Gibeonites complied with these conditions in full, there can be no reasonable doubt that Joshua would have spared them and received them into fellowship. But they did not do this. They meant to retain their religion and worship; and this was one circumstance, no doubt, that made their punishment the more severe. They not only lost their own religious rites; but they were bound forever to the services of a religion from which they sought to escape. "It was certainly told thy servants. The Gibeonites report what they had heard; and it appears that they had not been misinformed. They slew them not. The people generally felt that they deserved death. The public sentiment was opposed to showing them any mercy. But the authority of the men in power prevailed over the popular will. The ar rangement with the Gibeonites extended to their posterity; and hence we find them among the Hebrews for several generations. Their right to life was generally respected. Saul, for disregarding it, was severely punished. SECTION VIII. -THE FIVE KINGS. JOS. X. 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. 1. Now it came to pass, when | Lachish, and unto Debir king of Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem, Eglon, saying, 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 Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and anto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of 5. Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusa lem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it. 6. And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants: come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us; for all the kings of the Amorites, that dwell in the mountains, are gathered together against us. 7. So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour. 8. And the Lord said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee. 9. Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, and went up from Gilgal all night. 10. And the Lord discomfitted them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon; and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah. 11. And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: they were more which died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. 12 Then spake Joshua to the Lord, in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon. 13. And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. 14. And there was no day like that before it, or after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the Lord fought for Israel. The king of Jerusalem takes the lead in this general uprising; though the name Jerusalem appears not to have been given to the place, till a later day. It was evidently an important place, as far back as the invasion of Joshua. And from the later history, we learn that it was a very strong place, and difficult to take. "The inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them:"- that is, a delegation was among them. Gibeon was a great city. It was great, compared with the other cities belonging to the Gibeonites, which were four in number; or great, compared with other cities, in that region of country. Though the people of Canaan were seven tribes, they appear to have been divided up into more than that number of petty governments. Every little town and city had a king; though many of these were subject to other kings, who had gained an ascendency over them. See Gen. xiv. It is highly probable that the king of Jerusalem had some kind of authority over the kings that he summons to the field against the Israelites. The immediate object for which they were summoned was to fight against Gibeon, because the latter had made peace with Joshua. The kings are called Amorites. But they were not of the tribe of the Amorites. The term is here used in its largest sense. The king of Jerusalem was an Amorite; but it is certain that he was not of the tribe of Amorites, for he was a Jebusite. They dwelt in the mountains. The country from Jerusalem to Hebron, and even beyond these limits, was designated as the "mountains." at Whether the league formed with the Gibeonites placed the Hebrews under any direct obligation to defend them; or whether going against the confederated kings, Gibeon, was merely in the way of Joshua's purpose, we can not say. He loses no time, but starts immediately with his army, and marches all night, through the wildest and roughest region in Palestine, a distance of nearly twenty miles; where he encounters the enemy and slays great numbers of them around the walls of Gibeon, and puts the rest to flight. He went with the divine assurance that he should be successful; and this gave him success. Gibeon was not far from the Hebrew camp, as we are informed in the previous chapter; (ix. 16,) and a rapid night's march would bring Joshua and his army to the place. The distance we have said was about twenty miles. We may suppose, if we will, that the roughness of the country made it necessary that two days, or a day and two nights, be occupied in the march. It is evident that the battle commenced in the early part of the day. The Lord cast down great stones from heaven. This expression is qualified in the next sentence, by the statement, that these stones were hail-stones. This makes the event a natural one, and not supernatural. The intensi |