Commentaria in Josue
Chapter 9
The Gabaonites, feigning to be foreigners and from afar, craftily obtain peace from Josue and the Hebrews. Wherefore the Hebrews, having incautiously sworn to them, spare them although the fraud is discovered; but because of the deceit they assign them to cutting wood and drawing water.
1. Now when these things were heard of, all the kings beyond the Jordan, that dwelt in the mountains, and in the plains, in the places near the sea, and on the coast of the great sea, they also that dwell by Libanus, the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, the Chanaanite, the Pherezite, the Hevite, and the Jebusite, 2. gathered themselves together, to fight against Josue and Israel with one mind, and one resolution. 3. But they that dwelt in Gabaon, hearing all that Josue had done to Jericho and Hai, 4. and thinking craftily, took to them provisions, laying old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles rent and sewed up again, 5. and very old shoes, which for a show of age were clouted with patches, and old garments upon them: the loaves also, which they carried for provision by the way, were hard, and broken into pieces; 6. and they went to Josue, who then abode in the camp at Galgal, and said to him, and to all Israel with him: We are come from a far country, desiring to make peace with you. And the men of Israel answered them, and said: 7. Perhaps you dwell in the land which falls to us by lot, and we cannot make a league with you. 8. But they said to Josue: We are thy servants. Josue said to them: Who are you? and whence came you? 9. They answered: From a very far country thy servants are come, in the name of the Lord thy God. For we have heard the fame of his power, all the things that he did in Egypt, 10. and to the two kings of the Amorrhites beyond the Jordan, Sehon king of Hesebon, and Og king of Basan, who was in Astaroth. 11. And our ancients, and all the inhabitants of our country, said to us: Take with you victuals for a long journey, and go meet them, and say: We are your servants, make ye a league with us. 12. Behold, the bread which we took hot, when we set out from our houses to come to you, now is become dry, and moulded with exceeding great age; 13. these bottles of wine we filled new, now they are broken and burst: our garments and the shoes on our feet are worn out, by the very length of the long journey. 14. They took therefore of their victuals, and consulted not the mouth of the Lord. 15. And Josue made peace with them, and entering into a league promised that they should not be slain: the princes also of the multitude swore to them. 16. And three days after the league was made, they heard that they dwelt in the neighbourhood, and that they should be among them. 17. And the children of Israel removed the camp, and came into their cities on the third day, the names of which are, Gabaon, and Caphira, and Beroth, and Cariathiarim. 18. And they did not strike them, because the princes of the multitude had sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel. Then all the common people murmured against the princes. 19. And they answered them: We have sworn to them in the name of the Lord the God of Israel, and therefore we may not touch them. 20. But “This we will do to them: Let them live, that the wrath of the Lord be not stirred up against us, if we should forswear ourselves;” 21. “but so let them live as to be hewers of wood for all the multitude, and carriers of water.” While they were saying these things, 22. Josue called the Gabaonites and said to them: “Why would you deceive us by a fraud, saying: ‘We dwell very far from you,’ whereas you are in the midst of us? 23. Therefore you shall be under a curse, and there shall not fail of your race hewers of wood and carriers of water into the house of my God.” 24. They answered: “It was told us, your servants, that the Lord your God had promised Moses his servant to deliver to you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants thereof. We therefore feared exceedingly and provided for our lives, compelled by your terror, and we took this counsel. 25. And now we are in your hand: do with us what seems good and right to you.” 26. Josue therefore did as he had said, and delivered them from the hand of the children of Israel, that they might not be slain, 27. and he decreed in that day that they should be in the service of all the people and of the altar of the Lord, hewing wood and carrying water, even to this present time, in the place which the Lord should choose, since the treaty made with God at Hebal, which immediately preceded it, was set down after the destruction of Jericho and Hai:
for that is inserted only in passing; for it follows later, after the intermediate cities were taken, so that all could go on securely to Sichem and Hebal, as I have already said.
ON THE SHORE OF THE GREAT SEA, that is, the Mediterranean Sea, which was great in comparison with the sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, whose shores are in Judea. Moreover, near the Mediterranean dwelt the Tyrians, Sidonians and other Phenicians, who were Chanaanites by nation and race, and likewise the Philistines, who, having driven out the Chanaanites, had occupied their cities. Therefore all these regions were delivered to the Hebrews, although in fact they did not occupy them through their own negligence.
was a great and powerful city, and had inhabitants a journey of about two hours toward the west, it was situated in the tribe of Benjamin on a mountain; whence it was called Gabaon, that is, mountain or hill. Hear Adrichomius in his Description of the Holy Land, page 17: “Gabaon was once the metropolis and royal city of the Hevites, who sprang from Heveus, son of Chanaan; it is distant from Jerusalem about fifty stadia, situated on Mount Silo, as Brocardus is witness. And there also a very great high place is said to have been. It had under it the cities Caphira, Beroth and Cariathiarim; afterwards it was assigned to the Levites, sons of Aaron. But now, says Jerome, a village of the same name is shown at the fourth milestone from Bethel toward the eastern side, near Rama and Remmon, where Solomon offered victims. Its inhabitants, the Gabaonites, clothed in worn garments bearing the marks of age, came as suppliants to Josue at Galgala in guile, and craftily made a covenant; when the fraud was discovered they were bound in perpetual servitude as water-carriers and wood-cutters of the temple, and were called Nathineans, that is, given or granted to serve the temple;
and when Saul afterwards wished to destroy them, the whole land was afflicted with famine for three years on that account. Here Solomon, in the tabernacle of Moses (for it was there, over the altar, with a thousand victims) asked wisdom of God and obtained it,” 3 Kings 3:9.
4. AND CRAFTILY THINKING.—In Hebrew, they also did it in craftiness, or cunning and cunning prudence, that is, craftily and prudently thinking how they might provide for themselves, as the other Amorrhites were doing; but these entered into counsels of war, whence they were conquered and slain; whereas the Gabaonites, being wiser, by feigning a more distant dwelling, sought and obtained life from the Hebrews. For they saw that, though warlike and very strong, they could not resist, since God fought for the Hebrews. Therefore in this matter they did not sin, but acted piously and prudently. For they saw that they could not escape destruction unless by this pretence they became suppliants to the Hebrews; and although they mixed in some lies, nevertheless they believed in good faith that in an extremity of such great necessity it was lawful to lie, as Plato once thought, and Cassian, and other wise men.
THEY TOOK WITH THEM PROVISIONS.—So also the Chaldean translates, and the Septuagint too, if in their text, as Masius would have it from the Syriac, one reads episitisanto, and not epoiesanto in the sense instituerunt, that is, “they appointed,” as the Complutensians read; so also the Hebrew, if for the one letter one reads another, namely hitstaiadu, for hitstaiaru. For the root tsayid (seda) signifies food or provisions. But Masius, Cajetan and the other recent writers, because they read it with a resh, hitstaiaru, translate “they acted as ambassadors,” or “they pretended to be ambassadors”; for tsir signifies an ambassador, whence in Hitpael hitstayer signifies to act as an ambassador or to pretend. So Marinus in his Lexicon.
SACKS (full of provisions and other things necessary for the journey) OLD, PUTTING THEM UPON ASSES.—Thus it is to be read with the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Romans and the rest. An error therefore crept into the Septuagint, which for onon, that is, asses, has omon, that is, shoulders.
5. AND SHOES, VERY OLD, WHICH, AS A SIGN OF THEIR ANTIQUITY, WERE PATCHED WITH PIECES.—“Patched,” that is, mended with various scraps. For the Hebrew talu signifies a fleece of various colours sewn together out of divers little pieces, as St. Francis used to say that patched clothes and shoes were signs of poverty, and therefore commended them to his followers. Hence Masius translates, “whose soles were patched with scraps.” THE LOAVES ALSO, ETC., WERE HARD, AND BROKEN IN PIECES.—In Hebrew the loaves are called nikkudim, that is, “of points,” namely such as, through dryness, were crumbled, or could easily be crumbled, into pieces and crumbs like points. Hence Arias translates, “dotted loaves”; Vatablus, “mouldy”; the Septuagint, “covered with mould and eaten away”; Masius, “spotted with mould,” for mould has spots like points; the Chaldean, “crumbled”; others, “burnt,” from dakad, that is, to burn.