their visit, they said, they had come from a far country, to make a league with the Israelites.

९९ Peradventure ye dwell among us," was the reply-in our very neighborhood, and in the country which the Lord hath given us as our own- and how shall we make a league with you,' since we are expressly forbidden to form one, of any kind, with the inhabitants of the land.

"We are thy servants," said the Hivites, addressing Joshua, ready to become thy tributaries, and to comply with any conditions thou mayest see fit to impose, if thou wilt but take us and our people under thy protection.

On Joshua's demanding peremptorily, who they were, and whence they came, they replied: "From a very far country thy servants are come, because of the name of the Lord thy God: for we have heard of the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt: and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was in Ashtaroth. Wherefore our elders, and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the

day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: and these bottles of wine which we filled, were new, and behold they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey."

In making this statement, the Gibeonites took a course which was wholly unjustifiable. They ought to have come to the Israelites with an honest avowal of who they were, as well as of the object of their mission. They would, in that case, have as effectually propitiated the goodwill which they sought, as by the utterance of falsehoods, and probably more so. They would have shown that confidence could be placed in them; and this would have been worth a great deal to them in their subsequent intercourse with the Israelites.

The maintenance of a character of undeviating adherence to truth, is valuable almost beyond calculation, even in the concerns of this worldhow much more so in the light of eternity.

CHAPTER X.

The league with the Gibeonites. Their city is attacked, and Joshua, with the Israelites, goes to its defence. The assailants are routed.

The appearance of the provisions which the Gibeonites brought with them, together with the other circumstances of their condition, succeeded, at length, in procuring them a favorable reception from the Israelites. It was granted without seeking counsel of the Lord. This was a great breach of duty. The divine direction ought to have been obtained in the matter, by applying to the high priest; to whom it would, doubtless, have been given, on his consulting the Urim and Thummim in the way which was prescribed.

The result was, that Joshua entered into a friendly league with the Gibeonites, by which their lives and property were made secure ; while the princes of the congregation confirmed the transaction by a solemn oath. This being done, the ambassadors returned home, to communicate the joyful intelligence to their countrymen.

Three days after this, the Israelites, to their great surprise, found out the imposition which

had been practised upon them, and that the Gibeonites dwelt but a short distance from Gilgal. This discovery seems to have led Joshua to direct his course to their territory, where he arrived with the Israelites, on the third day of their march, and came in the neighborhood of the four principal cities, Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim. This last place was, afterwards, highly distinguished by being the residence of the ark of the covenant, during twenty years, in the reigns of Saul and David.

The great body of the Israelites were, now, much displeased at the course which their rulers had pursued, and murmured against them because they had made the league which they did with such a deceitful people. They seem to have been eager to attack the cities of the Gibeonites; probably intent upon getting the spoils which the conquest would afford, and maintaining that as the engagement not to molest them was obtained by fraud, it was not binding. But the rulers would not consent to this. They considered themselves, and, indeed, all the people, under a most solemn obligation to spare the Gibeonites, an obligation which must on no account be violated. We have sworn unto them," said they, "by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon

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us, because of the oath which we sware unto them. Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood, and drawers of water, unto all the congregation" that is, be employed in the most menial offices in the service of the sanctuary, for the benefit of the whole body of the Israelites, and in the place of those who would, otherwise, have been obliged to perform them.

Some of the principal men among the Gibeonites being, then, summoned to appear before Joshua, he thus addressed them: "Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, we are very far from you; when ye dwell among us ? Now therefore ye are cursed"—you and your posterity must suffer this severe penalty for your conduct"there shall none of yon be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."

The reply of the Gibeonites was humble and submissive. "Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing. And now, behold, we are in thy hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do."

Joshua would not suffer them to be molested