[758] תרועה Clangor, Vociferatio. Hebræi duplicem clangorem esse statuunt alterumque vocari תקיעה alterum תרועת quorum ille æquabilis est vox, hic citus concisusque fragor, ille ad convocandos cætus, hic ad accendendos millitum animos facit.
[759] חמושים
In the last place, we are to consider how they were to deal in besieging a Town; for the conceiving whereof, note these two propositions.
1. They were to offer peace unto all Forreigners, and Canaanites, Deut. 20. 10. And this is clearly signified Josh. 11. 19. There was not a City that made peace with the Children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon, all other they took in battel. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts. Yet here Moab and Ammon are excepted; Israel must not seek their peace, Deut. 23. 6.
2. They were to make covenant with none of the seven Nations, Deut. 7. 2. Exod. 23. 32. & 34. 14. With Forreigners they might, Josh. 9. 17. peradventure you dwell among us, and how shall we make a covenant with you? Not, how shall we make peace with you?
Some may question, what the difference was between making peace, and making a covenant? I answer, two fold. 1. The making of peace was a naked stipulation, or promise, mutually made for the laying aside of all hostile affections towards each other; whereby life on both sides might be secured. Making a covenant, was a solemn binding of each other, to performance of this mutual promise by outward ceremonies,[760] of cutting a beast in twain, and passing between the parts thereof, Jer. 34. 18. as if they would say; Thus let it be done to him, and thus let his body be cut in two, who shall break this covenant? Secondly, peace was not concluded by the Israelites, but only upon these terms, That the People should become tributary unto them, Deut. 20. 11. The making of a covenant was upon equal terms, without any condition either of tribute or service, as is gatherable from the Covenant made by Joshua with the Gibeonites, where there is no mention of any condition at all, Josh. 9.
[760] Hæc est causa cur Hebræi Fœdus facere dicant כרות הברית (i.) Dividere, aut dissecare fœdus, quemadmodum apud Latinos, dicitur percutere fœdus, quæ locutio fluxit ab antiquo fœderis faciendi more: Sacerdos enim feriebat porcum silice, dicens, Sic à Jove feriatur is, qui sanctum hoc fregerit fœdus, ut ego hunc porcum ferio. Livius. Decad. 1. l. 1. p. 17.
This difference seemeth to me warrantable, and serveth to reconcile many places of Scripture, as where God saith, Offer peace to all, and make a covenant with none. Secondly, It sheweth the fraud of the Gibeonites to be greater than is commonly conceived, for they sought not peace simply, but a covenant. Make a league with us, Josh. 9. 6. Thirdly, It salveth that common Objection made in defence of unadvised Oaths, to prove them obligatory, though unlawful. The Argument is framed thus; The covenant which Joshua made with the Gibeonites unadvisedly, was unlawful: but that was observed by him, and the breach thereof, when Saul slew the Gibeonites, punished by God, 2 Sam. 21. 1. Therefore, &c. I say it salveth that Objection: because if we diligently observe Joshua’s practise, we shall find unadvised Oaths to be so far, and only so far binding, as they agree with God’s words. God’s word required the Gibeonites should have their lives secured, because they accepted peace; Thus far therefore the covenant was still of force. God’s word required, that the Canaanites, after the acceptation of peace, should become tributary; here the covenant was not of force, and therefore Joshuah made them hewers of wood, and drawers of water, which is a kind of tribute in the language of the Scripture, a tribute of the body, though not of the purse: in which sense the Ægyptian Task-Masters are in the Original called Tribute-masters, Exod. 1. 11.