CHAPTER 9
1. Now what came about as all the kings who were beyond the Yarden on the mountain-range, in the foothills, and on the whole coast of the Great Sea toward the front of the Levanon [range]—the Chittite, the Emorite, the Kanaanite, the Prizzite, the Chiwite, and the Y’vusite—heard
Heard what? What immediately precedes (8:35) is the reading of the Torah, so (if they had their spies among the Israelites) they heard that Israel was serious, because they were reading the instructions again. And more specifically, they heard, “Our Land is being given to these people by their deity, so that means they are coming after us too! And they will have no mercy!” (Gen. 15:17ff; Ex. 23:23ff; 23:31ff; 34:11-12; Deut. 7:1ff) And just building an altar there to YHWH was already staking a claim to the Land. When we really hear and respond to the Torah, there is no doubt that there will be war, and our enemies will know it too. We cannot hear Moshe and expect to just live in peace. Y’shua also said, “I came not to bring peace but a sword.” If no one is worried about you and preparing for battle against you, you are not really living YHWH’s commands. Those who cannot stand these words as they are really meant to be understood will always look for others to join them and come against us, but this makes identifying our enemies very easy. Remember, the tares as well as the wheat will be gathered—to be burned, in their case. Many think they are serving YHWH, but are actually only serving their own hearts.
2. [was that] they collected themselves together with one mouth to fight with Y’hoshua and with Israel.
With one mouth: figuratively, “with one accord”. But “one mouth” means they are all telling the same story. This is still how they fight—they start to talk. It was Y’hoshua they were fighting; it is the leader they hate—his “arrogance” and insistence that things be done his way because he is hearing from YHWH. If they can get rid of him, they think, the rest of the people might “listen to reason” and they could live with them. Take away the shepherd, and they can have their way with the sheep. But the “problem” is, YHWH is on his side. Each of these peoples had a personal interest in winning, but they were putting aside their differences and all focusing on “the problem at hand”. If they had only been fighting Israel, and not YHWH as well, this might have been enough in itself to defeat them. As at Bavel, they sought to use their unity to overcome YHWH’s will.
3. When the inhabitants of Giv’on heard what Y’hoshua had done to Y’rikho and to Ay,
Giv’on: only a few miles north of Yerushalayim, and not far south of Ay, they would be located only some twenty miles from where Israel was encamped. (v. 6)
4. they too acted with shrewdness and, acting as if they were envoys , took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, wine skins that were worn through, cracked open, and tightened up,
There was one exception to the unity seen in verses 1-2. One group of Chiwites had a different approach. Rather than stupidly thinking they could defeat YHWH, they came up with what is really a very smart plan. Shrewdness: with a more pejorative connotation of “cunning”, “wiliness”, or “craftiness”. Beware the Giv’onite and his story!
5. worn-out and patched shoes on their feet, and worn-out clothing on themselves, and all the bread of their provisions was dried-up and moldy,
Moldy: or crumbling; the root word means “spotted”.
6. and came to Y’hoshua in the camp at Gilgal, and told him and a man of Israel, “We have come from a distant land, so now cut a covenant with us!”
Gilgal became their “headquarters” throughout the campaign of conquest. (10:15)
7. But the man of Israel said to the Chiwites, “It could be that you live right near us; how could we cut a covenant with you?”
The Chiwites: the ethnicity of the people of Giv’on.
8. So they told Y’hoshua, “We are your servants.” And Y’hoshua said to them, “Who are you, and where do you come from?”
They appealed to Y’hoshua personally for mercy.
9. So they told him, “Your servants have come from a land very far away because of the reputation of YHWH your Elohim, because we have heard the report [about] Him and all that He did in Egypt,
They are pretending to be something they are not and pretending it is for the sake of YHWH—the magic phrase that can throw us off our guard because they know the right words to say.
10. “and all that He did to the two kings of the Emorites who [were] across the Yarden—Sichon, king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, who was in Ashtaroth.
11. “So our elders and all the inhabitants of our land spoke to us, saying, “Take in your hand provisions for the journey and go to meet them, and tell them, ‘We are your servants, so now cut a covenant with us.’
12. “This is our bread; we took it from our houses warm as our provision on the day we left to come to you, and now look [at it]; it is dry and has become moldy.
13. “And these wineskins that we filled up were new and, look, they have cracked open, and these clothes and sandals of ours have worn out from the great length of the journey.”
They never answered his question about where they were from, except in the vague sense of “So far away that our food became stale and our clothes wore out to get here.” Does it matter where they came from as long as they want to go where we are going? Yes, it does matter, because they were in the Land, and YHWH had given specific instructions about that.
14. So the men took of their provisions, and did not ask from the mouth of YHWH.
This is the crux of the matter—and any matter. They put something into their mouths without consulting Him, without looking to see if He had the same thing in His mouth. And at this point, Y’hoshua was YHWH’s mouthpiece. They did not want to offend these people who offered them bread, as disgusting as it appeared. They probably felt sorry for these people because they had something in common. They, too, had been traveling for a long time, yet they had been blessed with manna and clothing that did not wear out. They felt like for once they did not have to be the “bad guys”, after just having to kill men, women, children, and animals at the last places. Israel is doing the same thing with the Arabs who seem to have much in common—except the worship of YHWH. Yeshua said to beware of men, to not believe all that they appear to be on the surface before we weigh their fruit. They trusted what these people were “feeding” them. They allowed them to feed them lies. They partook of their fellowship (bread) and joy (wine). But YHWH was not eating this food. No one even seemed to notice that their story did not line up. They still had bread, but they had been traveling so long that their clothes and shoes wore out? How long does that take? Yet they had “heard about” events that had occurred only a few days before. How long does it take for a wineskin to wear out, and why would they be making more wine along the way to put into the skins? Why have they thrown their initial suspicion to the wind? What can we learn from the fact that they did not persist in asking the right questions?
15. And Y’hoshua made peace for them and cut a covenant for them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.
They all fell for it. But once the leaders had eaten the bread, the covenant was already made. They did not leave Y’hoshua much choice, since he had no loyal servant like he had been to Moshe to stand with him, and he would have had to go against all the rulers of Israel—though he really should have, if he wanted to complete the mission he had been given.
16. But it turned out that at the end of three days after they had cut a covenant with them, they heard that they were close to them and that they were living right in their midst,
They should have really told them from the start that they had to be circumcised, for then they would be part of a different covenant and they could legitimately be spared. But they did not say they wanted to be part of Israel. They wanted to stay close to where YHWH was, but on their own terms. Or they could have been permitted to make an offering to YHWH then be escorted out of the Land, but instead they went back to their home within the Land yet without becoming part of Israel-- which was the only basis by which they as Kanaanites could have been allowed to survive.
17. when the descendants of Israel had traveled and arrived at their cities on the third day. Now their cities [were] Giv’on, the K’firah, Be’eroth, and Qiryat Y’arim.
18. But the descendants of Israel did not strike them down, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by YHWH the Elohim of Israel. So the whole congregation complained about the leaders.
For the first time in 40 years, the people had a real reason to grumble! The leaders were so eager to take in anyone who came in the name of YHWH, without realizing that this was merely flattery.
19. So all the leaders said to the whole congregation, “We have sworn an oath to them by YHWH the Elohim of Israel, so now we cannot strike them.
We could not kill them now, because this would have been taking YHWH’s name in vain in the sense that the command in Exodus 20:7 really meant it. (It is not about not saying “God damn” or a prohibition of using His Name altogether.) Swearing in YHWH’s name obligates us to follow through, even if it is to our own hurt. (Num. 30:2; Lev. 5:4) They were truly unable to touch them now.
20. “We must do this to them: that is, to let them live, so that [twig-splitting] wrath will not come upon us on account of the oath that we have sworn to them.”
21. But the leaders told them, “They will survive, but they will become the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the whole congregation”, as the leaders had promised them.
They would be allowed to live, but it would not be nice for them. They would essentially be slaves. After all, they had said they were his servants. They meant it as a meaningless, ritual part of the covenant-making process, but he held them to their words.
22. So Y’hoshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you misled us, saying, ‘We are very far away from you’, yet you are living [right] in our [very] midst?
23. “So now you are put under a curse: Not one of you will fail to be the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the household of my Elohim.”
24. And they answered Y’hoshua and said, “Since it was conspicuously announced to your servants what YHWH your Elohim had commanded Moshe His servant—to give you the whole Land and to exterminate all the inhabitants of the Land from before your faces, we greatly feared for our lives because of your presence, so we did this thing.
This was the obvious reason they had lied. Note that even the Chiwwites know that it is Moshe that gives the Land to Israel. (Heeding the Torah is what will get us back home—not a U.N. declaration or a powerful-enough army.) But who had told them so clearly what YHWH had told Moshe? Did they have spies in Israel’s camp, or were there people in Israel who talked too much, giving the Torah to those to whom it did not belong, thinking they were making allies when they were actually giving enemies ammunition against them? Were they spouting off when drunk—“I love you, man; too bad I have to kill you, but that’s what Y’hoshua says we have to do”? Someone has been talking, and “loose lips sink ships”. They certainly sank this one. These people fooled them into accepting them as they were, because, although the servants of Israelites also have to keep the Torah, they did not bind these people to the covenant of Israel, but cut a different covenant, thereby letting them remain somewhat as equals.
25. “So now, here we are in your hands; do as it is pleasing and proper in your eyes to do to us.”
I.e., “You’ve caught us; do whatever you think is right.” Of course, this was a smart thing to say, because it would make the Israelites want to be more merciful still.
26. And he did so to them and rescued them from the hand of the descendants of Israel, so they did not kill them.
27. Thus Y’hoshua made them the ones who cut down trees and draw water for the congregation and for the altar of YHWH to this day in whatever place He might choose.
It is better to be a slave in Israel than a king elsewhere. (Psalm 84:10) These slaves ended up being honored along with the priests and Levites, because they are the Nethinim or “donated ones” mentioned in 1 Chron. 9:2 and many times throughout Ezra and Nehemyah. I.e., they came back with Yehudah from the Babylonian captivity! So apparently they were either well-guarded or actually turned out to be loyal to the position to which they had been assigned. All the wood burned on YHWH’s altar was prepared by the Chiwwites. But from this point forward, in some measure, Israel would always be out of the will of YHWH, for there would be people left alive who were not supposed to be. They were told to “be very careful not to make a covenant with the people of the Land”, but they were moved by their ruse of a plight. These people had come so far because they had heard of us; how they must love YHWH! They could be kept busy and therefore not cause much trouble, but still there would always be a snare right in our midst. The other party had been completely deceptive; why could they not be killed? Because YHWH’s people keep their word, not matter what the other party does. What a lesson! Do not put yourself in such a bad place by acting on something you are not sure of or trusting someone you are not certain you can trust. We prefer to give the benefit of the doubt, but this time mercy failed because it was not the season for mercy. The entire conquest of the Land now had this stain on it because these people were still alive. The result was that because of the compromising position the leaders had put them in, the people also softened up and slackened in their resolve to complete the job of ridding the Land of pagan peoples. All through the book of Judges we see how they left some Kanaanites to occupy some of their tribal lands, and by the time David came along, he was still trying to get the job done. After all, they had Chiwwites working in the very tabernacle, so how big of a deal could it be to put off the completion of the job until another generation? But by then, the people were weaker still, because they had played with Chiwwite children “at school”! The job of ridding the Land of those inhabitants has never been finished—to our own day—because they bought their sob story and did not investigate well enough. If they had just pushed—but they did not want to have to be mean to EVERYbody. So the foreign influence still remains. These people probably became part of the genetic mix of Israel, with ill effects. So what does one do if he finds he has been fooled into a promise he should not keep and cannot get out of an oath he has made? Do not think we can do it with words to YHWH at Yom Kippur; the Kol Nidrey liturgy is contrary to Torah; we must deal with what we have said we would do. The only possible remedy is to go to the other party—to whom one has made the oath—and humbly ask to be released from it. It would not have worked for the Giv’onites, for this would have spelled their death, and they would not agree to that! But sometimes people will release you—and respect you all the more for being decent enough to admit you cannot find a way to follow through, rather than making excuses and disappearing, leaving them hanging. The best solution, of course, is to avoid putting oneself in that position. To do so, you must indeed be very careful! It is okay to be suspicious! Pay attention to whose bread you have been eating and whose wine you have been sharing. Do not be afraid to ask the right questions. You’ll be glad you did.
Commentary on
Y'hoshua 9:1-27
Be Very
Careful!
