The poor fellows were in a dreadful state of exhaustion.They could hardly walk.Their clothes were covered with mud and they seemed exhausted from lack of water.They carried a little food,but it was mouldy and they explained that it had been spoiled during the days and days and days they had been obliged to march before they had reached the Jewish camp.
Joshua believed this story.
He asked the men whence they came and they answered that they were from the city of Gibeon,which was so far away from the Jewish camp that the envoys had almost perished along the road.
Then they told the Jewish commander how their fellow-citizens wished to live in peace with the new arrivals and would like to conclude a treaty of amity and they pointed out how easy it would be to live in peace with people whose city was a thousand miles away.
It sounded very reasonable and Joshua fell into the trap.Too late did he discover that Gibeon was right on the route which he proposed to follow.He had promised to spare the lives of the Gibeonites.He could not break his sacred word,but in his anger he condemned the Gibeonites to be the slaves of the Jews for all time.
And so,although the Gibeonites and their children were spared,they became hewers of wood and drawers of water and had to work for the benefit of the Jews without receiving any wages.This was a sad fate,but worse was to follow as soon as the other tribes of Canaan heard what had happened.
These others were no cowards and were willing to fight for their own.Jericho and Ai had been destroyed and now a powerful city,a possible ally in the war for defence,surrendered without shooting a single arrow.It was perfectly disgraceful and it deserved severe punishment before others followed this cowardly example.
Then and there,under the leadership of Adoni Zedec,the ruler of Jerusalem,five kings made a treaty and promised each other to make common cause against the Jews and against those who should accept their rule.They called together their armies and they marched against Gibeon to punish the city for its treason.
The Gibeonites,caught between two dangers,sent messengers to Joshua and asked him to come to their assistance.
Joshua knew that this was to be the decisive battle.By forced marches he reached the neighbourhood of Gibeon long before the allies were even aware of his presence.He caught them entirely unprepared.There was no battle,for the troops of the five kings ran away.As for the kings themselves,they tried to hide in a cave and hoped that the pursuing Jews would not be in too great a hurry to find them.
But they were discovered.
A few heavy stones were hurriedly rolled against the mouth of the cave.In this way,it was turned into a prison,while the men of Joshua continued the pursuit of their enemies,to deal with the kings at their own leisure.
Meanwhile,however,the allied forces had regained some of their courage.They too,understood that they were engaged in the last great fight for freedom and independence.
They made halt and rendered desperate resistance.If they could only hold out a few hours longer,it would be night and they might be able to escape.
Joshua needed a victory then and there or all might be lost.Once more he called upon Jehovah for help.Immediately Jehovah ordered the sun to stand still upon Gibeon and he ordered the moon to stand still in the valley of Ajalon.
In this way,it remained bright daylight for another twelve hours.The Jewish troops were able to continue their attacks.They were victorious and when at last the sun went down,the children of Israel were masters of the entire land of Canaan.
Even then they did not rest.They returned to the cave where they had imprisoned the allied leaders.They took the King of Jerusalem and the King of Hebron and the King of Lachish and the King of Eglon and the King of Jarmuth and they killed them all as an example for the thirty-odd other rulers of Canaan who soon afterward surrendered upon such terms as Joshua was willing to grant.
Then Joshua rested upon his laurels.
At Shiloh,which was situated halfway between Shechem and Gilgal,he built a tabernacle that the town might become the spiritual centre of the new Jewish nation.
As for the conquered territory,it was divided among the tribes which had shared equally in the hardships of the desert and which were now equally rewarded for their valour and their endurance.
In this way did the Jews at last find a home of their own.After many centuries of city life and after the interminable journey in the desert,they could at last return to the simple ways of their ancestors,as Moses had wanted them to do.
They were no longer forced to live in the slums of Egyptian towns.Once more they were shepherds.
Each man owned a little piece of land and every family possessed a house which was its castle.
And the scattered tribes of a former age now belonged to a strong nation which recognised one common ideal,the worship of Jehovah,the Master of Heaven and of earth,who had led them out of slavery into the free independence of a powerful state.
