Joshua 9:6

6. unto the camp at Gilgal] Where was this Gilgal? (i) According to some it was the Gilgal, of which we have already heard (Jos_5:10), in the Jordan valley, whither Joshua had returned after his successful expedition against Ai, in order thence to undertake fresh enterprises, and where the women, children, and property were left under a sufficient guard, while he was absent with the host (ii) Others think it is impossible to suppose that Joshua marched back from Shechem to the banks of Jordan (Jos_9:6, Jos_10:6-7; Jos_10:9), and, again, that he did so a second time, after the battles in the north to make the final apportionment of the land among the people, and that the spot is that alluded to in Deu_11:30, as being situated “beside the oaks of Moreh,” i.e. near the site of Abraham’s first altar (Gen_12:6-7). If this is so, it would correspond with the modern Jilgiliah, a few miles from Bethel.

a far country] Far beyond the boundaries of Palestine.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos 9:6 And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.

Ver. 6. We be come from a far country.] And therefore you may safely make a league with us. {Deu 20:11} Here was fair tale, but not a word of truth, Nusquam tuta fides.

“ Sit licit in partes circumspectissimus omnes,

Nemo tamen vulpes nemo cavere potest. ”

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jos 9:6. Unto the camp to Gilgal — Joshua’s headquarters. And said to the men of Israel — To those that used to meet in council with Joshua, to whom it belonged to make leagues, namely, the princes of the congregation. Now therefore make a league with us — Because we are not of this people, whom, as we are informed, you are obliged utterly to destroy.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal--Arrived at the Israelitish headquarters, the strangers obtained an interview with Joshua and the elders, to whom they opened their business.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Make ye a league with us.] כרתו לנו ברית kirethu lanu berith, cut, or divide, the covenant sacrifice with us. From this it appears that heathenism at this time had its sacrifices, and covenants were ratified by sacrificing to and invoking the objects of their adoration.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. And they went to Joshua, etc. I have said that in strict law, a covenant of this description was null and void. For when they obtain their prayer, what is stipulated but just that they should be kept safe, provided they come from a distant and remote region of the globe? And the oftener they reiterate the same falsehood, the more do they annul a compact elicited by fraud, since its true meaning only amounts to this, that the Israelites will offer no molestation to a foreign people, living at a remote distance. This is shown to be more especially the meaning, from the fact, that the Israelites expressly exclude all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan. They could not, therefore, gain anything by the fraud. Nor are they more assisted by making a fallacious pretext of the name of God, and thus throwing a kind of mist over the mind of Joshua. They pretend that they had come in the name of God; as if they were professing to give glory to God, even the God of Israel; inasmuch as there is a tacit rejection of the superstitions to which they had been accustomed. For if it is true, that they had come, moved by the faith of the miracles which had been performed in Egypt, they concede supreme power to the God of Israel, though to them a God unknown.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

And they went to Joshua, unto the camp at Gilgal,.... From whence it appears, that after Jericho and Ai were destroyed, the army of Israel returned to their encampment at Gilgal, Jos 5:10; and here they were when the Gibeonites applied to them:

and said unto him, and to the men of Israel; not to the whole body of the people, but either to the seventy elders, the great council, who were with Joshua, or the princes of the congregation, after mentioned, who are said to swear to them; and so some render the words, "to the chief men of Israel" (l); the word "Ish" here used sometimes denotes an eminent person or persons, see Isa 2:9,

we be come from a far country; this lie they told, that they might not be thought to be inhabitants of Canaan, and be destroyed as those of Jericho and Ai were; and as the rest of the inhabitants would be, of which they had intelligence, as the design of the Israelites, and what their orders were; according to Jerom (m), Gibeon was but four miles from Bethel, unless he means Gibeah; however, it could not be at a much greater distance; and as Gilgal was a mile and a quarter from Jericho, where the Gibeonites now were, and Ai but three miles from Jericho, and Bethel a mile from thence, and Gibeon four miles from Bethel, they were come but little more than nine miles. Bunting (n) makes it twelve miles from Gilgal to Gibeon:

now therefore make yea league with us; offensive and defensive, to help and assist each other against a common enemy.

(l) "primoribus viris Israelis", Junius & Tremellius; so Piscator. (m) De loc. Heb. fol. 92. A. (n) Travels, p. 96.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Camp at Gilgal - While Joshua was engaged in more distant enterprises, the women, children, and property of the Israelites were left with a sufficient guard at this place, where they had been established immediately after crossing the Jordan Jos 5:9.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Gilgal; the place of their head-quarters. To the men of Israel, to wit, those who used to meet in council with Joshua, to whom it belonged to make leagues, as it here follows, even the princes of the congregation; not the common people, as appears both from Jos 9:15,18,19,21, and from common usage of all ambassadors, who generally deliver their message to and treat with princes, not people. And the Hebrew word iseh, here used, sometimes notes men of eminency and dignity.

Now therefore, because we are not of this people, whom, as we are informed, you are obliged utterly to destroy; that which appeared sufficiently, by the Israelites’ practice in destroying the Amorites beyond Jordan, and the people of Jericho and At, without any allowance for sex or age; and by common rumour, and the report of the Israelites and other persons who dwelt among them, or had converse with them, as Rahab and all her kindred; and by the nature of the thing, because they were to possess that whole land, and were not to mix themselves with the people of it.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

[6.

The camp at Gilgal — In the absence of any hint that this was altogether a different place from the Gilgal near Jericho, where Joshua first pitched his camp, it seems rather arbitrary and unnecessary, with Keil and Van de Velde, to maintain that this Gilgal must be identified with the modern Jiljilia, in the mountains of Ephraim. If, after the capture of Ai, or after the memorial service at Mount Ebal, Joshua had pitched his camp in a new spot, and especially at another place bearing the name Gilgal, it is inexplicably strange that no mention is anywhere made of a fact so noticeable and important. Further, the expressions in Jos_10:7; Jos_10:9 — Joshua ascended and went up from Gilgal — most naturally indicate the ascent from the Jordan valley to the interior of Palestine, (see note on Jos_8:10,) and show that the writer still had in mind the Gilgal near Jericho; for to understand the expressions in a military sense is hardly admissible. Keil’s only weighty argument is, that it would have been folly in Joshua, after having penetrated into the heart of the country, to go back again to the eastern border, and leave the Canaanites at liberty to move at pleasure through the conquered territory. But this whole argument rests on the assumption that Joshua would, of course, endeavour to keep the conquered Canaanites in subjection by the presence of his camp and army in the centre of the land, or else by establishing garrisons in the conquered districts — a thing which we have no evidence was ever done during the wars of the conquest. Keil’s argument is therefore altogether insufficient, and rests solely on a critic’s assumption of what Joshua ought to have done.]

From a far country — They had heard that all the Canaanites had been doomed to extermination. See Jos_9:24. To avoid such a fate they represented that they dwelt beyond the limits of Canaan. By this means they hoped to negotiate a treaty of peace, and even an alliance with the invincible invader. That such a treaty with nations beyond the limits of Canaan was lawful, see Deu_20:10-11.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the camp at Gilgal. Many commentators, among whom we may number Vandevelde and the recent Palestine Exploration Expedition, suppose that the Gilgal mentioned here is another Gilgal, and certainly the supposition derives great force from the fact that there is a place the modern name of which is Jiljilia, situated near the oaks of Moreh, whose situation would be far more central, and would fall in better with the rest of the history, (see notes on Jos_8:30) than the original Gilgal. That such a second Gilgal is known to Jewish history would appear from Deu_11:30, where its situation is clearly pointed out as that of the modern Jiljilia, near the oaks of Moreh, and near the Arabah (champaign, Authorised Version), which runs in that direction. Jiljulieh, in the plain of Sharon, is supposed by Vandevelde and the Palestine explorers (see "Quarterly Statement," Jan., 1879) to be a third Gilgal, and Jerome, in his "Onomasticon," has identified it. (see note on Jos_12:23) The Gilgal in 1Sa_13:4-12 seems to require a central position like that of Jiljilia, rather than a place near the fords of Jordan. As Ewald reminds us, the earlier Gilgal lay out of the road from Jericho to Bethel. (see also 2Ki_2:1-6) The only argument against such a second Gilgal is the improbability of a removal of the camp without any mention of such removal by the historian (see Hengstenberg, "Geschichte des Reiches Gottes," p. 207), and the improbability of there having been a second Gilgal as the place of encampment of the Israelites. It is possible, however, that the second great place of encampment received the memorable name of the first, from the keen sense that the Israelitish encampment was the abode of a people from which the "reproach of Egypt" was forever rolled away. Another explanation is suggested by a comparison of Jos_15:7 with Jos_18:17 (see note on the former passage). The second Gilgal, if it really existed, was well suited for its purpose. "It was in the centre of the country, situated upon a steep hill, with a good table land at the top, and commanded a most extensive prospect of the large plain in the west, and also towards the north and east" (Keil) precisely the place which an able general would be likely to select. Though "in a high position" (Vandevelde), it was "lower than Gibeon," and was "an hour west of Sinjil on the Jerusalem Shechem road." Its situation enabled Joshua to strike a decisive blow without delay. (Jos_10:7, Jos_10:9) It is clear that this suggestion entirely obviates the difficulty of the concluding verses of ch. 8. And as the name implies a circular form as well as motion, and early camps were usually circular, it may have been the ordinary name for an encampment among the Hebrews.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The camp at Gilgal - The place of their head-quarters. Men of Israel - To those who used to meet in council with Joshua, to whom it belonged to make leagues, even the princes of the congregation. Now therefore - Because we are not of this people, whom, as we are informed, you are obliged utterly to destroy.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Having made these preparations, they went to the Israelitish camp at Gilgal (Jiljilia), introduced themselves to the men of Israel (אישׁ, in a collective sense, the plural being but little used, and only occurring in Pro 8:4; Isa 53:3, and Psa 141:4) as having come from a distant land, and asked them to make a league with them. But the Israelites hesitated, and said to the Hivites, i.e., the Gibeonites who were Hivites, that they might perhaps be living in the midst of them (the Israelites), i.e., in the land of Canaan, which the Israelites already looked upon as their own; and if so, how could they make a league with them? This hesitation on their part was founded upon the express command of God, that they were not to make any league with the tribes of Canaan (Exo 23:32; Exo 34:12; Num 33:55; Deu 7:2, etc.). In reply to this the Gibeonites simply said, "We are thy servants" (Jos 9:8), i.e., we are at thy service, which, according to the obsequious language common in the East, was nothing more than a phrase intended to secure the favour of Joshua, and by no means implied a readiness on their part to submit to the Israelites and pay them tribute, as Rosenmller, Knobel, and others suppose; for, as Grotius correctly observes, what they wished for was "a friendly alliance, by which both their territory and also full liberty would be secured to themselves." The Keri ויּאמר (Jos 9:7) is nothing more than a critical conjecture, occasioned not so much by the singular אישׁ, which is frequently construed in the historical writings as a collective noun with a plural verb, as by the singular suffix attached to בּקרבּי, which is to be explained on the ground that only one of the Israelites (viz., Joshua) was speaking as the mouthpiece of all the rest. The plural ויּאמרוּ is used, because Joshua spoke in the name of the people.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

men of Israel

This refers to the entire nation of Israel. (See: Synecdoche)

the Hivites

This is another name for the Gibeonites. (See: How to Translate Names)

Perhaps you live near us. How can we make a covenant with you?

Joshua is emphasizing that the people of Israel have to follow the command of Yahweh above all else. AT: "If you do live near us, we cannot make a covenant with you." (See: Rhetorical Question)

translationWords

Joshua

Gilgal

Israel

covenant

Hivite

servant

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.