THE CUNNING OF THE GIBEONITES. JOSHUA WARS AGAINST THE CANAANITES. THE MEN OF THE TWO AND A HALF TRIBES RETURN TO THE LAND OF GILEAD. JOSHUA SPEAKS TO THE PEOPLE TELLING THEM TO SERVE THE LORD; HE DIES.
WHEN the kings who lived in Canaan heard how Joshua had destroyed Ai, they gathered together to make war against him. But the people of a city called Gibeon acted more cunningly. They did not want to make war against Joshua, for they knew that the Lord would give him the victory. Therefore they sent messengers to him, who put on very old clothes and worn-out shoes, and carried dry and mouldy bread with them, to pretend they had come from another country, and had been a long time on the journey. And they came to Joshua in the camp and said to him, We have come from a country far off from Canaan, for we heard of your God and of all the great things he has done for you; therefore all our people sent us to ask that you would make a covenant with them, and be their friends.
Then Joshua and the children of Israel did not ask the Lord what they should do, as they ought to have asked him; they promised at once to be friends with the people of Gibeon. But after three days they heard that those men had not come from a far country at all, for they lived near by, in Canaan, and were among the wicked nations whom the children of Israel were commanded to destroy. And Joshua called the men of Gibeon to him, and asked them why they had deceived him. They answered that they were afraid for their lives, for they had heard how the people of Canaan were to be destroyed and their land given to the children of Israel. So the children of Israel did not put the people of Gibeon to death, because they had promised, before the Lord, to let them live. But Joshua said they should be bondsmen, or slaves, and work for the priests and the Levites, in cutting the wood and carrying the water, which would be needed at the tabernacle.
And the king of a city, called Jerusalem, was angry with the people of Gibeon for making friends with the children of Israel. Therefore he and four other kings of the land, gathered their armies together and came to the city of Gibeon, to fight against it. Then the men of Gibeon sent to Joshua, saying, Come up to us quickly and help us, for the kings that live in the mountains are gathered together against us. So Joshua and all the men of war went out against the five kings. And the Lord made the kings and their armies afraid of the children of Israel, and they fled from them. As they fled, the Lord cast down great hail-stones upon them, out of heaven, so that more died from the hail-stones than the children of Israel killed with the sword.
But while the men of Israel followed after them, the sun was going down and night was coming on, and Joshua feared that his enemies would escape in the darkness. Therefore he spoke to the sun, commanding it not to go down, and to the moon, commanding it to rise no higher in the sky. And the sun stood still, and did not go down for many hours after the time that it went down on other days. So that day was longer than any other day. There was no day like it, either before or after it, when the Lord, at Joshua's prayer, made the sun and the moon stand still, that the children of Israel might keep on pursuing their enemies. The five kings, when their armies fled, hid in a cave, and it was told Joshua. Then he spoke to the people, saying, Roll great stones in the mouth of the cave; and set men by it to watch it, but do you go on following your enemies.
After the battle was over and the people had come back to Joshua in the camp, he said to them, Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me. And they did so. Then Joshua said to the men of Israel, Fear not, but be strong and brave; for as the Lord has done to these kings, so will he do to all your enemies against whom you shall have to fight. And Joshua put the five kings to death as the Lord had commanded: in the evening, as the sun was going down, they took their dead bodies and cast them into the cave where they had hidden. And the men of Israel laid great stones in the cave's mouth again, to shut it up.
After this, Joshua gained the victory over twenty-four more kings, and yet there was much land left for the men of Israel to take in Canaan. For these kings did not rule over whole countries, like the kings that are living now; they ruled over cities only, or small portions of the land.
And Joshua had grown old; he could not any longer lead the men of Israel out to war as he used to do. And all the people came to the city of Shiloh, to set up the tabernacle. They had carried it, as we have been told, all the way from mount Sinai, taking it down when they journeyed and setting it up when they made their camp. But now they had come into Canaan to stay and journey no more. And they brought the tabernacle to Shiloh, which was in the middle of the land, and set it up to let it stand there; because that was the place which the Lord had chosen for it.
Now, as we have read, the men of the two and a half tribes who left their wives and little children in Gilead, had come over Jordan with the rest of the men of Israel, to help them fight against their enemies and take the land of Canaan. But, since they came over, the men of Israel had taken only a part of Canaan. The reason was they had grown tired of going out to war, and chose rather to rest and be quiet. But the Lord was not pleased with them for this, for it seemed as though they did not care to have all that good land which he was willing to give them. And the Lord spoke to Joshua about it, and said, that a large part of the land which he had given to the people was not yet taken from the Canaanites.
Then Joshua spoke to all the people, and asked how long it should be, before they would go out against the heathen nations that were still living in Canaan. And he asked them to choose men whom he could send out as spies. Then they chose twenty-one men, and Joshua sent them through that part of the land which the children of Israel had not yet taken. He told them to go and see the land, and to write down in a book the description of it, and afterward to come back to him in Shiloh.
And the men went as Joshua told them, and walked through the land, and they wrote down in a book the description of it, and brought the book to Joshua in Shiloh. Then Joshua cast lots for the different tribes, so that the Lord might show what part of the land each tribe should have. And after the Lord had shown them this, Joshua told the men of Israel to go and drive out the heathen nations and take the land for their own; and Joshua promised that the Lord would help them.
And the Lord told the people to choose those cities which were to be cities of refuge, where any person who had killed another by accident, might flee and be safe from punishment; and the people chose six cities in different parts of the land.
We have read that the priests and Levites were not to have fields given them, in which to sow grain and plant vineyards, like the men of the other tribes, because God had chosen them to stay at the tabernacle and attend to his worship there. Yet God had said they should have cities to live in. And now the priests and Levites came to Joshua and the chief men of Israel, saying, The Lord commanded that cities should be given us. Then Joshua, and the people, gave them forty-eight cities in Canaan, where they should bring their wives and their children, and have their homes.
Now the men of the two and and a half tribes had stayed with the children of Israel ever since they crossed over Jordan, and had gone out to war with them against many heathen nations in Canaan. Therefore the men of Israel had given the men of the two and a half tribes, a share of the cattle, of the gold and silver, and of all the spoil which they had taken from those heathen nations. In this way the men of the two and a half tribes had gotten much riches. And now Joshua called these men to him and spoke kindly to them, saying, You have obeyed me in all that I said to you; for you have not left your brethren to go out to war alone, but have stayed with them and helped them many days. Now therefore take with you all the riches you have gotten, and go back to your homes on the other side Jordan. But be very careful after you shall come there, to obey all the commandments which Moses gave you, and to love and serve the Lord your God, with all your heart and with all your soul.
So Joshua sent the men of the two and a half tribes away, and they started to go back to their homes on the other side Jordan. But when they came to the bank of the river, they stopped and built a great altar, shaped like the altar of burnt offering at the tabernacle in Shiloh. Now, as we have read, God had commanded the children of Israel, to offer up their sacrifices on no other altar but that which was at the tabernacle. Therefore when the men of the other tribes heard what the men of the two and a half tribes had done, they were angry and gathered together to go out to war against them.
But first they sent Phinehas, the high priest, and ten of the princes with him, to go to the men of the two and a half tribes, and ask why they had done this thing. So Phinehas and the princes came and spoke to them, saying, All the men of Israel have sent us to ask why you have built another altar, to offer up sacrifices on, when the Lord has forbidden us to offer up sacrifices except on his altar at Shiloh? Do you not remember how he sent a great plague upon us, when some of the people disobeyed him, and went to the idols' feasts with the Midianites and the Moabites? Do you not remember, also, how he punished us when Achan took and hid the silver and gold in the city of Jericho, which the Lord had commanded the people not to take? Why then will you, too, disobey the Lord, by offering up sacrifices on this altar that you have built? For if you do so, he will not only punish you, but he will surely send his punishment upon us all.
Then the men of the two and a half tribes answered Phinehas and the ten princes, saying, The Lord our God, the Lord our God, he knows that we do not mean to sin against him; and the men of Israel shall know it too, when they hear why we have built this altar. For we have not built it to offer up sacrifices on at all, but because we are afraid that after you and we are dead, and your children shall see our children living on the other side Jordan, they will say that our children do not belong to the tribes of Israel, and that they shall not come to worship in Shiloh. Therefore we have built this altar, so that our children may answer your children, saying, Look and see the pattern of the altar which our fathers built when they came here, how it is shaped like the altar at Shiloh. This proves that they belonged to the children of Israel, and that we have a right to come to Shiloh, and worship your God there.
When Phinehas and the ten princes heard what the men of the two and a half tribes said, they went back and told it to the men of Israel. Then the men of Israel were glad, and they thanked the Lord, because their brethren of the two and a half tribes had not disobeyed him; and they did not want any more to go out to war against them.
After these things, Joshua spoke to the people and said that he was going to die. And he called them all to him, and told them how good the Lord had been to them, in driving out their enemies, and in giving them cities, and fields, and vineyards, and a land of their own to live in. He has done all this for you, Joshua said, now therefore fear the Lord and serve him. Yet if you will not serve him, then, you may choose for yourselves the idols that you would rather serve; but as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord. The people answered, God forbid that we should leave the Lord to serve idols. For it was he who brought us up out of Egypt, and gave us this land; therefore will we also serve the Lord, for he is our God.
Then Joshua took a great stone, and set it up under an oak that stood by the tabernacle in Shiloh. That stone, he said, should be for a witness, to remind them of the promise they had made there, to serve the Lord. When he had done talking with them, the people went away, every man to his own home.
After this Joshua, the servant of the Lord, died, being a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the part of the land that had been given him for his own, on the side of the hill Gaash. The dead body of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, which was the place where Joseph went to find his brethren, when his father sent him out to them, wearing his coat of many colors, nearly three hundred years before.