Joshua 9:9-13 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Ver. 9-13. And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come, &c.— Nothing can be more artful than this answer of the Gibeonites, to the prudent and close questions put by Joshua 1. Instead of saying, without evasion, whence they came, they again reply, that they came from afar. 2. They give him to understand that they were led to undertake this long journey from a motive of respect for the God of Israel; and, affecting to celebrate the wonders of his power in Egypt, and beyond Jordan, they speak neither of the sacking of Jericho, nor of the destruction of Ai, in order to leave no room to suspect that fear and policy are the real motives of their embassy. 3. To understand them, some would suppose, that they beg of Joshua to enter into league with them, only that they might be united to a people so much more highly favoured by God than any other; and so dexterously is their discourse turned this way, that the Samaritans, in their Chronicle, say, that the Gibeonites made an offer to Joshua to embrace the religion of the Hebrews, and to submit to whatever he should enjoin them. 4. And lastly, The better to deceive Joshua and the heads of the people, they dwell upon their outward condition, where every thing, their clothes, shoes, provisions, and utensils, indicate a long and tedious journey, and bear testimony to the truth of their assertions.—After this, how are they to be excused, and how can their conduct be even justified? This, however, has been done, and the cause of the Gibeonites pleaded, by one of the greatest men of the last age. "The artifice of the Gibeonites," says Puffendorf, in his Law of Nature and Nations, "has nothing blameable in it, and, properly speaking, does not deserve the harsh name of lying. For who would impute a crime to any one, because, to screen himself from the fury of an inexorable and all-destroying enemy, he hath recourse to an innocent fiction? Besides," adds this celebrated writer, "the Israelites, strictly speaking, sustained no injury by this piece of finesse; for what is lost by not shedding the blood of a man, whom yet we can deprive of all his substance, after having so disarmed and weakened him that he is no longer able to rebel against us?" See lib. 4: cap. 2 sect. 7. But the question is, Whether we may justly give to this cunning of the Gibeonites, the appellation of an innocent fiction? Had the Israelites been robbers, who, without any command from heaven, carried their bloody arms into countries to which they had no right; and had the Gibeonites been ignorant that a wonderful providence superintended the conduct of these conquerors; then we might consider the fraud they had recourse to as innocent. But let any one read what they say to Joshua in the 9th verse. The idea which they had formed of the God of Israel, should have engaged them to use every other expedient, rather than that of eluding his justice by disguise and falsehood. They should have gone back, so far as the obscurity of that oeconomy under which they lived would permit, to the cause of that rigour which God exercised towards them. They should have acknowledged, that their crimes had drawn down upon them all those troubles wherewith their nation was oppressed; and after having clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes, in order to the obtaining pardon, should have left the rest to Providence, and have been convinced that that God, who had moved all nature and the elements to punish guilty nations, is ever able to find out some means or other to serve those who turn unto him and repent.