Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Joshua, feigning fear and flight, draws the men of Hai out from the city to pursue him; when they have gone out, he sends those hiding in ambush behind into the city now empty of citizens. Therefore turning upon the men of Hai who had gone out, he slaughters them, burns the city, and divides the spoils among his men. Second, at verse 30, he renews the people's covenant with God, and commands the blessings promised to observers of the law, and the curses threatened against its transgressors, to be proclaimed on the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, according to the commands of Moses, Deuteronomy 27.
Vulgate Text: Joshua 8:1-35
1. And the Lord said to Joshua: Do not fear and do not be afraid; take with you all the multitude of warriors, and rising up go to the city of Hai. Behold, I have given into your hand its king and its people, its city and its land. 2. And you shall do to the city of Hai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king; but the spoils and all the livestock you shall seize for yourselves: set an ambush for the city behind it. 3. And Joshua rose up, and the whole army of warriors with him, to go up to Hai; and he sent thirty thousand chosen brave men by night, 4. and commanded them saying: Set an ambush behind the city; do not withdraw too far, and all be ready. 5. But I and the rest of the multitude that is with me will advance against the city from the front. And when they come out against us, as we did before, we will flee and turn our backs; 6. until the pursuers are drawn far from the city: for they will think we are fleeing as before. 7. Therefore while we flee and they pursue, you shall rise from the ambush and lay waste the city: and the Lord your God will deliver it into your hands. 8. And when you have taken it, set it on fire, and thus you shall do all things as I have commanded. 9. And he dismissed them, and they went to the place of ambush and sat down between Bethel and Hai, to the west of the city of Hai: but Joshua that night remained in the midst of the people, 10. and rising at dawn he reviewed his companions, and went up with the elders at the front of the army, protected by the help of the warriors. 11. And when they had come and gone up opposite the city, they stood on the north side of the city, between which and them was a valley in the middle. 12. Now he had chosen five thousand men and placed them in ambush between Bethel and Hai, on the west side of the same city: 13. but all the rest of the army directed its battle line to the north, so that the last of that multitude reached the western side of the city. So Joshua went that night and stood in the middle of the valley. 14. When the king of Hai saw this, he hurried in the morning and went out with the whole army of the city, and directed his battle line toward the desert, not knowing that ambushes lay hidden behind him. 15. But Joshua and all Israel gave way, feigning fear and fleeing by the way of the wilderness. 16. But they, shouting together and encouraging one another, pursued them. And when they had withdrawn from the city, 17. and not even one man remained in the city of Hai and Bethel who did not pursue Israel (as they had rushed out, leaving the towns open), 18. the Lord said to Joshua: Raise the shield that is in your hand against the city of Hai, for I will deliver it to you. 19. And when he had raised the shield opposite the city, the ambush that lay hidden rose immediately; and going to the city, they took it and set it on fire. 20. And the men of the city who were pursuing Joshua, looking back and seeing the smoke of the city rising up to heaven, could no longer flee this way or that: especially since those who had feigned flight and were heading toward the wilderness had turned and resisted most strongly against the pursuers. 21. And Joshua and all Israel, seeing that the city had been taken and the smoke of the city was rising, turned back and struck the men of Hai. 22. And indeed those who had taken and set fire to the city, going out of the city against their enemies, began to strike the enemy in the middle. So when the adversaries were being cut down on both sides, so that no one of so great a multitude was saved, 23. they also seized the king of the city of Hai alive and brought him to Joshua. 24. Therefore when all who had pursued Israel heading to the desert had been killed, and had fallen by the sword in the same place, the children of Israel returned and struck the city. 25. And those who had fallen on that day, from man to woman, were twelve thousand persons, all of the city of Hai. 26. But Joshua did not draw back his hand which he had extended on high, holding the shield, until all the inhabitants of Hai were killed. 27. But the livestock and the plunder of the city the children of Israel divided among themselves, as the Lord had commanded Joshua. 28. He burned the city and made it a permanent mound. 29. He also hanged its king on a gibbet until evening and the setting of the sun. And Joshua commanded, and they took down his body from the cross; and they cast it at the very entrance of the city, with a great heap of stones piled over him, which remains to the present day. 30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, 31. as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, and as it is written in the book of the law of Moses: an altar of unhewn stones which iron had not touched; and he offered upon it holocausts to the Lord, and immolated peace offerings. 32. And he wrote upon the stones the Deuteronomy of the law of Moses, which he had composed before the children of Israel. 33. And all the people, and the elders, and the leaders and judges stood on both sides of the ark, in the sight of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as the native born. Half of them beside Mount Gerizim, and half beside Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded. And first indeed he blessed the people of Israel. 34. After this he read all the words of blessing and cursing, and all things that were written in the book of the law. 35. He left nothing of those things which Moses had commanded untouched, but he repeated everything before the whole multitude of Israel, the women and children and strangers who dwelt among them.
Verse 1: Do not fear; take all the warriors
1. Take with you all the multitude of fighters — so that you may attack Hai with all your forces, and from there the remaining cities of Canaan, and so that you may add courage to the Hebrews who were dismayed by the disaster of their comrades, lest they think they were defeated on account of their small number, and finally so that you may make them all sharers in the plunder and spoils of the men of Hai.
Verse 2: Do to Hai as you did to Jericho
2. And you shall do to the city of Hai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king — so that you burn all the houses of the city and kill all the citizens together with the king, as you did in Jericho.
Verse 3: Thirty thousand men sent by night
3. And he chose thirty thousand valiant men and sent them by night.
4. And he commanded them saying: Set an ambush behind the city. — You will say: In verse 12 it is said that Joshua placed only five thousand men in ambush, so how are thirty thousand assigned to the ambush here? I respond with Abulensis that this ambush was in total thirty thousand, as stated here, but from these only five thousand were designated who, when the men of Hai had gone out of the city to pursue the Hebrews, would enter the city from behind and set it on fire: and the remaining twenty-five thousand were assigned to this purpose, that they might join laterally with Joshua when he was already fighting openly against the men of Hai, and that they might be of assistance to the five thousand in ambush who were to invade the city, if those ambushes were detected or attacked; whence he commanded them saying:
And do not withdraw too far, and all of you be ready — to defend the ambush of five thousand if they are attacked, or if that does not happen, to fight with me against the men of Hai. Finally, so that you may surround the men of Hai on all sides, and intercept and kill those fleeing, lest anyone escape.
Verse 5: We shall flee and turn our backs
5. And when they come out against us, as we did before (truly fleeing), we shall flee and turn our backs — simulating flight.
6. Until the pursuers are drawn far from the city. — So this flight was only material, not formal, as the previous one had been on account of the slaughter inflicted by the men of Hai. "We shall flee," therefore, that is, "we shall turn our backs," and run backward, as if terrified and fearing to be slain as before. Therefore this was a simulation of flight rather than actual flight. And this stratagem is familiar to soldiers in battles. For they simulate flight in order to draw the enemy out of the city, and having drawn them out, to surround and cut them down.
Here Saint Augustine asks whether this simulation is lawful. For it seems to be a lie, which is always base and unlawful. I respond that it is lawful, because, as Cajetan rightly notes, a lie is not as easily committed by deeds as by words: for words were properly established to signify the concepts of the mind, not deeds; whence words have a determinate and precise signification, which if it contradicts the concept of the mind, is a lie; but deeds have a broad and indeterminate, indeed often doubtful and ambiguous signification. Therefore even if they seem to contradict the concept of the mind, in reality they do not contradict it, and consequently do not contain a lie. For he fled, that is, he retreated, not to signify that he feared the men of Hai and therefore fled, but to draw them out of the city to pursue him, and to surround and slay the pursuers. Therefore there is no lie in this flight, because by the common use and estimation of men it indicates and signifies not flight but only a simulation of flight. Famous is Plato's saying: "Enemies are conquered more by industry and art than by force," the former belonging to the commander, the latter to the soldiers.
Hear Leo the Emperor in the Tactics, chapter 20, section 185: "All ambushes have more violent onsets than other attacks; those however which are made from behind are by far the most violent." And in section 53: "In all parts of life except in war, we command you to be without guile; but there, and in those imperial counsels, cunning helps, where you are going to deceive the enemy by it." According to the saying: "Who asks whether it be guile or valor against an enemy?"
The reason is that here no injustice intervenes, nor is faith given to the enemy broken, but the matter is conducted with military shrewdness and prudence. Wherefore Xenophon says in his Hipparchus: "Nothing is more useful in war than stratagems." Antigonus, when asked how enemies should be attacked, said: "Either by guile or by force; either openly or by ambush." Lysander said: "If in battles the lion's skin is not enough, certainly the fox's skin must be put on." Agesilaus, as reported by Plutarch, used to say: "To deceive enemies in war is not only just and very glorious, but also pleasant and profitable." Nevertheless a battle and victory are more noble if fought in open combat and the enemy is overcome. Whence when a certain general urged Alexander the Great to use the opportunity of night against Darius, he said: "Far be it! It is not mine to seek stolen victories."
Verse 9: Joshua remained in the midst of the people
9. Joshua remained in the midst of the people. — Therefore let the king be in the midst of his kingdom, as the center in a circle, so that he may equally survey, care for, direct and administer all things around him, just as the heart is in the middle of the body, and the sun is in the middle of the world. See Julius Frontinus in the four books he wrote On Stratagems; and in Book 2, chapter 5, he recounts many examples of ambushes.
Tomyris, queen of the Scythians, by simulating fear drew Cyrus, commander of the Persians, who was fighting on equal terms, to narrow passages known to her soldiers, and there, suddenly turning her forces, aided by the nature of the place, she defeated him. The Egyptians, about to fight on plains to which marshes were adjacent, covered them with seaweed, and having engaged in battle, simulating flight, they diverted the enemy into the ambush, who, riding too swiftly through unknown places, became stuck in the mud and were surrounded. Maharbal laced wine with mandrake, which induces sleep; then in the dead of night, leaving behind certain supplies and all the tainted wine, he simulated flight: and when the barbarians had eagerly drunk the drugged wine and lay stretched out like dead men, he returned and captured and slaughtered them. Hannibal, knowing that both camps lacked firewood, deliberately left many herds of cattle within the rampart; and the Romans, having seized this as plunder, loaded themselves with unwholesome food. Hannibal, having led back his army by night, greatly harassed them while they were off guard and weighed down with half-cooked meat. All these are very similar to these ambushes of Joshua, and are stratagems of great commanders.
Verse 10: He reviewed his companions
10. He reviewed his companions — both to arrange from them a battle line by centuries of soldiers to fight against the men of Hai; and so that from the number counted it would be clear afterward whether anyone had fallen in the coming battle, and how many they were; and finally so that he might send ahead a few companies of soldiers, but order the greater part of the army to follow at some distance, lest they be seen by the men of Hai. For if the men of Hai had seen the whole army of the Hebrews, which was six hundred thousand, they would have been dismayed and would not have dared to go out of the city: but seeing the small number of those who were sent ahead, they dared to attack them, as they had done before.
Verse 12: Five thousand men in ambush
12. Now he had chosen five thousand men and placed them in ambush between Bethel and Hai. — In the order and for the purpose which I mentioned at verse 3, namely to invade and occupy the city when it had been emptied of its citizens who had gone out.
Verse 13: The rearmost reached the western side
13. But all the rest of the army directed its battle line to the north (of the city of Hai), so that the last of that multitude reached the western side of the city. — Instead of "last" (novissimi), the Hebrew has akebu, which the Chaldean, Masius, Pagninus and Vatablus translate as "ambushes." For the root ekeb signifies "heel"; thence akab is "to supplant, to ambush, to deceive": whence Jacob means the same as "supplanter." But our Translator, the Septuagint, Arias and others better translate it as "the last" or "the rearmost." The sense therefore is: Joshua directed the battle line of his army toward the northern part of the city of Hai, but in such a way that the last squadron spread out toward the western part of the city where the ambushes lay hidden, so that they might join the ambush forces and, if necessary, be able to bring help.
So Joshua went that night (with the whole remaining army) and stood in the middle of the valley. — This verse seems to conflict with verse 9, where it says: "But Joshua that night remained in the midst of the people." But they do not conflict. For this is a recapitulation. The order of events was this: Joshua by night, having sent ahead the ambushes, followed them with the whole people on the same night to the middle of the valley that was between him and the city of Hai; but in such a way that the greater part of his army was not so conspicuous, and was concealed by a hill, ditches, wagons or woods, lest the men of Hai, seeing so great a multitude, be terrified and not dare to go out of the city. Therefore Joshua remained that night in the midst of the people, but toward the end of the night, that is at dawn, with a few chosen companions he advanced toward the city, to lure the men of Hai outside. The men of Hai therefore, seeing him with only a few, immediately burst out of the city against him, and surrounded by the multitude of Hebrews gradually revealing itself, all were slain to a man.
Let the military commander learn here from Joshua to be watchful and early-rising, and let him hear Leo the Emperor in the Tactics, chapter 2, section 4: "It is fitting to be sober and vigilant, so that in the greatest preparation of battle lines his mind may keep watch, as it were. For at night when the mind of the commander most rests, often a decision is changed by turning it over, often confirmed by reflection."
Verse 14: The king of Hai went out toward the desert
14. Toward the desert — that is, toward the battle line of Joshua, which was coming from the northern part of the city, where there was also desert; or, as others translate, an open plain: for the Hebrew word araba signifies both. The Hebrews add lammoed, that is, "at the appointed time," namely at that hour which had been designated by the king for the sortie.
Verse 15: Joshua feigned fear
15. But Joshua and all Israel gave way, feigning fear — that is, flight from fear, as if they pretended to be afraid of being killed by the men of Hai, as they had previously been slain by them. In Hebrew it is innageu, that is, "they were struck," that is, they simulated being struck, or they conducted themselves as if they were being struck and put to flight. For thus the Hebrews often explain their verbs as "to seem" or "to appear."
16. But they, shouting together and encouraging one another, pursued them. — Literally the Hebrew says: "and all the people in the city were called out or summoned to pursue them," as if to say: the men of Hai, having gone out of the city and seeing the Hebrews flee, by their shouting summoned all who had remained in the city to pursue them, so that no one remained in the city.
Verse 17: Not one man remained in Hai
17. And not even one man remained in the city of Hai and Bethel. — See here the rashness and stupidity of the men of Hai, arising from overconfidence in their prior victory. For they should have left some men to guard the city and closed its gates, lest the Hebrews occupy it through ambush; but blinded by God who wished to deliver them to the Hebrews, they did neither.
Verse 18: Raise the shield against Hai
18. The Lord said to Joshua: Raise the shield that is in your hand against the city of Hai. — Instead of "shield," the Hebrew has kidon, which Josephus also, Symmachus and Theodotion translate as "shield." But the Septuagint, the Chaldean and more recent translators render it as "breastplate," or "weapon," or "spear," or "standard." It is likely that Joshua raised the shield on a spear into the air, so that it could be seen by the ambush forces he had positioned behind the city: and that this was the signal given to them by Joshua (although Scripture does not express it), by which they were alerted to invade the city from behind once it had been emptied of its citizens who had gone out.
Second, this elevation of the shield by Joshua was a sign of the present help, power, and vengeance of God, just as also the elevation of the hands of Moses against Amalek, while Joshua fought against him; whence he also called the altar he erected in victory: "The Lord is my exaltation," or "The Lord is my banner," Exodus 17:12 and following. Hence Joshua held the shield raised on high until all the men of Hai were slain, as is stated in verse 26.
Allegorically, Origen says: Joshua or Jesus extends his hands toward Hai, that is, toward the world devastated by the devil, and devoted to devastation (for this is what Hai signifies in Hebrew) and destruction on account of sins by God, when Jesus Christ nailed His hands to the cross and held them nailed there until all victory against the devil and the world was consummated.
Hear Saint Augustine, sermon 93 On the Seasons, allegorically applying the extension of Moses' hands against Amalek to the extension of Christ's hands on the cross against the devil: "Pay attention, brothers: Moses indeed raises his hands, yet does not extend them. For whom then was it reserved to extend his hands, if not for our Lord Jesus Christ, who stretched out on the cross, about to embrace the whole world, spread wide the arms of His piety? Moses therefore raised his hands; and although he did not spread them, yet by that elevation he showed the mystery of the cross."
Moreover, fittingly the shield on a spear represents the cross of Christ, because the cross is for us both shield and spear: for it supplies all arms both defensive and offensive. For it is a shield for us to repel all temptations of the flesh and the devil. It is a spear to pierce and subdue the flesh.
Verse 19: They set it on fire
19. They set it on fire — casting fire into some of the houses of the men of Hai, so that they might raise smoke, which would be a signal to Joshua and the Hebrews that the city had already been taken by them. For afterward Joshua again ordered the whole city to be burned, verse 28.
Verse 20: The smoke of the city rising to heaven
20. Seeing the smoke of the city rising up to heaven. — "To heaven," that is, very high. This is hyperbole.
They could no longer flee this way and that. — For they had behind them their own city of Hai already set on fire by the enemy, on their left another part of the thirty-thousand-man ambush, but in front and on their right the entire remaining army of the Israelites, who from the east to the south had been spreading out and simulating flight a short while before; but now, having turned around and attacking them, they surrounded them on all sides, which was Joshua's plan, so that no enemy would escape.
The Hebrew has: "there was not for them to flee yadayim," that is "hands," that is "place": so Masius and Pagninus; or "ability": so the Chaldean and Vatablus. For yadayim signifies both, namely both place and strength or ability.
Verse 27: The plunder divided
27. The children of Israel divided among themselves the plunder of the city. — In Jericho all the plunder was burned, because God had designated it as anathema to strike terror into the other cities. But in Hai God gave the plunder to the Hebrews, to enrich them in their poverty and encourage them for the battles to come.
Verse 28: He made it a permanent mound
28. He burned the city and made it a permanent mound. — In Hebrew, Joshua shook out Hai and reduced it to a perpetual heap and to desolation unto this day. For "permanent" the Hebrew has olam, which word often does not signify "eternal" or "perpetual," but a long time that is nevertheless interrupted by some notable change of circumstances. So Hai, here laid waste by Joshua according to its name (meaning "ruin"), was again after a thousand years rebuilt and inhabited in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, chapter 11, verse 31, when indeed a new age and a new era seemed to have begun after the Babylonian captivity.
In Hai therefore was fulfilled that saying of Isaiah 24:10: "The city of vanity is broken down, all joy is forsaken, the gladness of the earth is carried away."
Verse 29: The king hanged on a gibbet
29. He also hanged its king on a gibbet. — The Septuagint says, on a double tree. For on a cross and gibbet there must be two pieces of wood, one upright and the other crosswise, either in the shape of a cross, or in the shape of the Greek letter tau, or the Hebrew letter tav, which Origen here, in Homily 8, interprets allegorically as the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ, he says, was double, that is, it consisted of a double and twofold meaning: because visibly Christ was crucified on the cross, but invisibly the devil himself was, according to Colossians 2: "The handwriting that was against us He took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross, and despoiling principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in the wood of the cross." The cross therefore was the trophy over the devil, on which he himself was crucified and triumphed over. Hence Paul said: "Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world," Galatians 6. For we are crucified to the world when the prince of this world comes and finds nothing in us; and the world is crucified to us when we do not receive the desires of sin. So far Origen.
Moreover Josephus in his usual manner narrates all these things for show, so as to be more pleasing to the ears of Vespasian and the Romans, and to serve the fame and honor of his own nation, namely the Jews, among them. Whence he has many things discordant with Sacred Scripture, indeed contrary to it, as when he says that the Hebrews captured and preserved the children, women and slaves of the city of Hai, whereas Scripture explicitly states, in chapter 8, verse 25, that all its inhabitants from man to woman were killed.
Verse 30: Joshua built an altar on Mount Ebal
30. Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal. — "Then," namely around that time when, with Jericho and Hai defeated, Joshua could safely proceed with the Hebrews to Shechem, to the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal, so that now possessing the land promised by God, they might confirm the covenant formerly made with God through Moses on Mount Sinai, and this in the same place where the patriarch Abraham, having first left Chaldea, his homeland, at God's calling, had entered Canaan, he had erected an altar to God, Genesis chapter 12, verse 7. Moreover, that these mountains Gerizim and Ebal are situated near Shechem, not near Jericho, as Eusebius or Jerome would have it, is expressly taught by Josephus, Book 4 of the Antiquities, last chapter, Saint Jerome in the Epitaph of Saint Paula, Adrichomius and others.
Verse 33: He blessed the people
33. And first he blessed. — Our Translator clearly separates and divides what in the Hebrew is mixed together in this way: "As the Lord commanded Moses for blessing the people of Israel." Supply: "so did Joshua according to the form of blessing prescribed by God," Numbers 6.
34. After this he read — that is, he ordered it to be read by the Levites. For thus God had commanded through Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 27, where I explained the entire rite of blessing and cursing; therefore I shall not repeat it here.