Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
The victorious advance of the Israelites in the land induced the kings of Canaan to
form a common league for the purpose of resisting them. But, as frequently happens,
the many kings and lords of the towns and provinces of Canaan were not all united,
so as to make a common and vigorous attack. Before the league had been entered
into, the inhabitants of Gibeon, one of the largest towns in the central part of Canaan,
together with the smaller neighbouring towns that were dependent upon it, attempted
to anticipate the danger which threatened them by means of a stratagem, and to enter
into a friendly alliance with the Israelites. And they succeeded, inasmuch as Joshua
and the elders of the congregation of Israel fell into the snare that was laid for them
by the ambassadors of the Gibeonites, who came to the camp at Gilgal, and made the
desired treaty with them, without inquiring of the Lord. "This account," as O. v.
Gerlach says, "is a warning to the Church of God of all ages against the cunning and
dissimulation of the world, which often seeks for a peaceable recognition on the part
of the kingdom of God, and even for a reception into it, whenever it may be its
advantage to do so."
Joshua 9:1-2
And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills,
and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the
Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite,
heard thereof;
Verse 1-2. Vv. 1, 2 form the introduction to chs. 9-11, and correspond to the
introduction in Josh 5:1. The news of
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