This chapter gives an account of the combination of the several kings of Canaan against Israel, Jos 9:1; and of the craftiness of the Gibeonites, pretending they were ambassadors from a far country, and desired to enter into a league with Israel, which they obtained, Jos 9:3; but when it was discovered who they were, it occasioned a murmuring among the people, Jos 9:16; which the princes quelled by proposing to make them hewers of wood, and drawers of water, Jos 9:19; in order to which Joshua summoned them before him, and chided them for beguiling them; and after they had made their excuse, he ordered them to the service the princes proposed, and so peace in the congregation of Israel was preserved, Jos 9:21.
Ver. 1. And it came to pass, when all the kings which [were] on this side Jordan,.... On the side Israel now were, and was that in which the land of Canaan lay, and was now governed by many kings, and all that were now remaining, even all but the kings of Jericho and Ai, who were slain: both thosein the hills, and in the valleys; that dwelt in the mountainous part of the country, and in the plains of it:and in all the coasts of the great sea, over against Lebanon; who inhabited and governed in that part of the country which lay on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, the country of Phoenicia, in which were Tyre, Sidon, and other cities, and were over against Mount Lebanon, which was on the northern part of the country; according to the Latin version, they dwelt near Lebanon; and according to the Septuagint, near Antilibanus.
It seems best, with Noldius , to render the words, "even unto Lebanon", for it designs all the sea coasts reaching to it; for all the maritime coasts did not lie over against it:the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard [thereof]; what they heard is not said, but to be understood; particularly they heard what had been done by Joshua, and the people of Israel, to Jericho and Ai: and their kings, Jos 9:3.
Some think, as Abarbinel, that they had heard of the altar Joshua had made, and of the stones he had set up, and of his reading the law to the people, by which they were to be governed; all which they understood as taking possession of the country, and looking upon it as conquered, and obliging his people to swear fealty to him.
All the nations of Canaan are mentioned but the Gergasites; which, according to the Jewish writers, are omitted, because they were but few; the Septuagint version has them in some copies. Concord. Ebr.
Part. p. 80. No.