Joshua 10:4

Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Come up . . . that we may smite Gibeon.—It is remarkable that we do not read of one direct attack upon Joshua and his army in all the wars of Canaan. The Canaanites seem to have acted strictly upon the defensive: and this fact tallies with what we read of the alarm and depression that spread among them at the passage of Jordan by Israel. And the armies which did take the field were attacked by Joshua in each instance before they had ventured to attack him. In the present instance it was thought necessary to smite Gibeon, not only to make an example of the inhabitants, but also because of its importance as a stronghold in the hands of Israel. The position of the Hivite tetrapolis was strong enough to command the country. The fact that a man of Gibeon was afterwards selected to reign over Israel, and that the tabernacle was stationed there, so that Gibeon became a sort of metropolis during the latter portion of Saul’s reign, is a significant comment upon this.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:1-6 When sinners leave the service of Satan and the friendship of the world, that they make peace with God and join Israel, they must not marvel if the world hate them, if their former friends become foes. By such methods Satan discourages many who are convinced of their danger, and almost persuaded to be Christians, but fear the cross. These things should quicken us to apply to God for protection, help, and deliverance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For Hebron, see Genesis 13:18. Jarmuth, afterward one of the cities of Judah Joshua 15:35, is probably identified with the modern Yarmuk. Lachish was also a city of Judah Joshua 15:39, and, like Jarmuth, occupied by Jews after the captivity, Nehemiah 11:39. It was fortified by Rehoboam after the revolt of the Ten tribes 2 Chronicles 11:9, and seems to have been regarded as one of the safest places of refuge 2 Kings 14:19. Through Lachish the idolatry of Israel was imported into Judah Micah 1:13, and of this sin the capture of the city by Sennacherib was the punishment 2 Kings 18:14-17; 2 Kings 19:8. Lachish is by most authorities identified with Um Lakis, lying some twenty miles west of Eleutheropolis, on the road to Gaza (and by Conder with El Hesy).

Eglon is the modern Ajlan.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3, 4. Wherefore Adoni-zedek … sent, … saying, Come up unto me, and help me—A combined attack was meditated on Gibeon, with a view not only to punish its people for their desertion of the native cause, but by its overthrow to interpose a barrier to the farther inroads of the Israelites. This confederacy among the mountaineers of Southern Palestine was formed and headed by the king of Jerusalem, because his territory was most exposed to danger, Gibeon being only six miles distant, and because he evidently possessed some degree of pre-eminence over his royal neighbors.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon,.... For which he thought himself not a match, not only because it was a great city, and full of mighty men, and had other cities subject to it, but because he might reasonably judge that Joshua would come to their assistance if possible, being in league with him; he sends to these kings in an authoritative manner, as if they were in some respects subject to him; and he proposes Jerusalem as the place of their rendezvous, and which it seems lay higher than their cities, though they were in the mountainous part of the country:

for it hath made peace with Joshua, and with the children of Israel; their avowed enemies, and so had separated themselves from their countrymen, and from their common interest; and therefore it was thought proper to make an example of them, that others might fear to do the same.

Geneva Study Bible

Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. for it hath made peace] The enterprise was directed primarily not against Joshua, but against Gibeon which had made peace with him. Comp. Joshua 9:15.

4. When in describing the assault on Lachish the writer of the Book of Joshua tells us it was the second day before it succeeded, he undesignedly leads us to suspect that Lachish was a stronghold; and on consulting other portions of the history of the Jews we discover that suspicion to be confirmed; and on the whole a coincidence results very characteristic of truth and accuracy, and this in a narrative full of the miraculous. Blunt’s Undesigned Coincidences, pp. 107, 108.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Come up unto me. Most of these kings were in the lowlands. Hence the expression "Come up" is accurate in the mouth of the king of Jerusalem, and strengthens the claim of the narrative to be regarded as authentic. That we may smite Gibeon. Or, and we will smite Gibeon. The conjunction וְ. often, but not always, signifies the purpose with which a thing is done. Here there is nothing to guide us in the decision whether the passage indicates the purpose or the result. It is in keeping with the whole history, and is one of the life-like touches with which it abounds, that the king of Jerusalem does not dare to suggest an attack upon Joshua. He can only venture upon assailing Gibeon, standing in less fear of it than of the divinely protected invaders, and hoping at least by this measure to deprive Joshua of formidable allies. "Cure anima humana Verbo Dei se sociaverit, dubitare non debet, statim se inimicos habituram, et eos, quos ante habuerit amicos, in adversa-rios vertendos" (Orig., Hom. 2 on Joshua. See also Ecclus. 2:1; 2 Timothy 3:12). "As Satan, so wicked men, cannot abide to lose any of their communitie. If a convert come home, the angels welcome him with songs, the Devils follow him with uprore and furie, his old Partners with seorne and obloquie" (Bp. Hall). Joshua 10:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The report that Joshua had taken Ai, and put it, like Jericho, under the ban, and that the Gibeonites had concluded a treaty with Israel, filled Adonizedek the king of Jerusalem with alarm, as Gibeon was a large town, like one of the king's towns, even larger than Ai, and its inhabitants were brave men. He therefore joined with the kings of Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon, to make a common attack upon Gibeon, and punish it for its alliance with the Israelites, and at the same time to put a check upon the further conquests of Israel. Adonizedek, i.e., lord of righteousness, is synonymous with Melchizedek (king of righteousness), and was a title of the Jebusite kings, as Pharaoh was of the Egyptian. Jerusalem, i.e., the founding or possession of peace, called Salem in the time of Abraham (Genesis 14:18), was the proper name of the town, which was also frequently called by the name of its Canaanitish inhabitants Jebus (Judges 19:10-11; 1 Chronicles 11:4), or "city of the Jebusite" (Ir-Jebusi, Judges 19:11), sometimes also in a contracted form, Jebusi (היבוּסי, Joshua 18:16, Joshua 18:28; Joshua 15:8; 2 Samuel 5:8).

(Note: In our English version, we have the Hebrew word itself simply transposed in Joshua 18:16, Joshua 18:28; whilst it is rendered "the Jebusite" in Joshua 15:8, and "the Jebusites" in 2 Samuel 5:8. - Tr.)

On the division of the land it was allotted to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28); but being situated upon the border of Judah (Joshua 15:8), it was conquered, and burned by the sons of Judah after the death of Joshua (Judges 1:8). It was very soon taken again and rebuilt by the Jebusites, whom the sons of Judah were unable to destroy (Joshua 15:63; Judges 19:10-12), so that both Benjaminites and Judahites lived there along with the Jebusites (Judges 1:21; Joshua 15:63); and the upper town especially, upon the summit of Mount Zion, remained as a fortification in the possession of the Jebusites, until David conquered it (2 Samuel 5:6.), made it the capital of his kingdom, and called it by his own name, "the city of David," after which the old name of Jebus fell into disuse. Hebron, the town of Arba the Anakite (Joshua 14:15, etc.; see at Genesis 23:2), was twenty-two Roman miles south of Jerusalem, in a deep and narrow valley upon the mountains of Judah, a town of the greatest antiquity (Numbers 13:22), now called el Khalil, i.e., the friend (of God), with reference to Abraham's sojourn there. The ruins of an ancient heathen temple are still to be seen there, as well as the Haram, built of colossal blocks, which contains, according to Mohammedan tradition, the burial-place of the patriarchs (see at Genesis 23:17). Jarmuth, in the lowlands of Judah (Joshua 15:35; Nehemiah 11:29), according to the Onom. (s. v. Jermus) a hamlet, Jermucha (Ἰερμοχωῶς), ten Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Jerusalem, is the modern Jarmuk, a village on a lofty hill, with the remains of walls and cisterns of a very ancient date, the name of which, according to Van de Velde (Mem. pp. 115-6), is pronounced Tell 'Armuth by the Arabs (see Rob. Pal. ii. p. 344). Lachish, in the lowlands of Judah (Joshua 15:39), was fortified by Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:9), and besieged by Sennacherib and Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 18:14; 2 Kings 19:8; Jeremiah 34:7), and was still inhabited by Jews after the return from the captivity (Nehemiah 11:30). It is probably to be found in Um Lakis, an old place upon a low round hill, covered with heaps of small round stones thrown together in great confusion, containing relics of marble columns; it is about an hour and a quarter to the west of Ajlun, and seven hours to the west of Eleutheropolis.

(Note: It is true that Robinson dispute the identity of Um Lakis with the ancient Lachish (Pal. ii. p. 388), but "not on any reasonable ground" (Van de Velde, Mem. p. 320). The statement in the Onom. (s. v. Lochis), that it was seven Roman miles to the south of Eleutheropolis, cannot prove much, as it may easily contain an error in the number, and Robinson does not admit its authority even in the case of Eglon (Pal. ii. p. 392). Still less can Knobel's conjecture be correct, that it is to be found in the old place called Sukkarijeh, two hours and a half to the south-west of Beit Jibrin (Eleutheropolis), as Sukkarijeh is on the east of Ajlun, whereas, according to Joshua 10:31-36, Lachish is to be sought for on the west of Eglon.)

Eglon: also in the lowlands of Judah (Joshua 15:39). The present name is Ajln, a heap of ruins, about three-quarters of an hour to the east of Um Lakis (see Rob. Pal. ii. p. 392, and Van de Velde, Mem. p. 308). In the Onom. (s. v. Eglon) it is erroneously identified with Odollam; whereas the situation of Agla, "at the tenth stone, as you go from Eleutheropolis to Gaza" (Onom. s. v. Βηθαλαΐ́μ, Bethagla), suits Eglon exactly.