SEV Biblia, Chapter 9:4
ellos usaron también de astucia; pues fueron y se fingieron embajadores, y tomaron sacos viejos sobre sus asnos, y cueros viejos de vino, rotos y remendados,
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Joshua 9:4
Verse 4. They did work wilily] Finesse of this kind is allowed by the conduct of all nations; and stratagems in war are all considered as legal. Nine tenths of the victories gained are attributable to stratagem; all sides practice them, and therefore none can condemn them. Much time and labour have been lost in the inquiry, "Did not the Gibeonites tell lies?" Certainly they did, and what is that to us? Does the word of God commend them for it? It does not. Are they held up to us as examples! Surely no. They did what any other nation would have done in their circumstances, and we have nothing to do with their example. Had they come to the Israelites, and simply submitted themselves without opposition and without fraud, they had certainly fared much better. Lying and hypocrisy always defeat their own purpose, and at best can succeed only for a short season. Truth and honesty never wear out.
Old sacks-and wine bottles, old, &c.] They pretended to have come from a very distant country, and that their sacks and the goat-skins that served them for carrying their wine and water in, were worn out by the length of the journey.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 4. And they did work wilily , etc.] Acted craftily, dealt in much cunning and subtlety; our version leaves out a very emphatic word, “also”; they also, as well as other nations, acted a cunning part, but in a different way; they did not enter into consultations and alliances with others, how to defend themselves, but made use of a stratagem to make peace, and enter into a league with Israel; or also as the Israelites had done, either as Simeon and Levi had dealt craftily with the Shechemites, who were Hivites, ( Genesis 34:2,13); so now the Gibeonites, who also were Hivites, ( Joshua 9:7); wrought in a wily and crafty manner with them, so Jarchi; or as the Israelites had lately done in the affair of Ai: and went and made as if they had been ambassadors : from some states in a foreign country, sent on an embassy to the people of Israel, to compliment them on their successes, and to enter into alliance with them, which they thought would be pleasing and acceptable to them; the Targum is, “they prepared food,” which they took with them for their journey; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions: and took old sacks upon their asses : in which they put, their provisions: and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up : not made of glass, as ours usually are, but of the skins of beasts, as the bottles in the eastern countries commonly were; which in time grew old, and were rent and burst, and they were obliged to mend them, and bind them up, that they might hold together, and retain the liquor put into them, (see Matthew 9:17).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 3-13 - Other people heard these tidings, and were driven thereby to make wa upon Israel; but the Gibeonites were led to make peace with them. Thu the discovery of the glory and the grace of God in the gospel, is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unt death, 2Co 2:16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. The falsehood of the Gibeonites cannot be justified. We must not do evi that good may themselves to the God of Israel, we have reason to thin Joshua would have been directed by the oracle of God to spare their lives. But when they had once said, "We are come from a far country, they were led to say it made of skins, and their clothes: one li brings on another, and that a third, and so on. The way of that sin is especially down-hill. Yet their faith and prudence are to be commended In submitting to Israel they submitted to the God of Israel, whic implied forsaking their idolatries. And how can we do better than cas ourselves upon the mercy of a God of all goodness? The way to avoi judgment is to meet it by repentance. Let us do like these Gibeonites seek peace with God in the rags of abasement, and godly sorrow; so ou sin shall not be our ruin. Let us be servants to Jesus, our blesse Joshua, and we shall live.
Original Hebrew
ויעשׂו 6213 גם 1571 המה 1992 בערמה 6195 וילכו 1980 ויצטירו 6737 ויקחו 3947 שׂקים 8242 בלים 1087 לחמוריהם 2543 ונאדות 4997 יין 3196 בלים 1087 ומבקעים 1234 ומצררים׃ 6887
