The Israelites could strike a covenant with the Gabaonites (by the previous question, 8); yet we see them reprehended in the text (v. 14), when it is said: “and they consulted not the mouth of the Lord.” Then Joshua in some way acknowledges the fault, and the other Princes of the multitude, when they preserve the Gabaonites only on this [ground], that they had promised them safety by oath (v. 18); and this one [thing] they answer to the murmuring multitude (v. 19). Thirdly: finally, because — as if a covenant ought not to have been struck with them — Joshua and the other princes impose on them a penalty and perpetual servitude.
Yet I say, first: if the Gabaonites had been as foreign, and as remote from the Canaanites, as they wished to seem, the covenant would have been rightly struck with them by the Israelites, because nothing else was covenanted than that they be allowed to live. But this the Israelites could promise to all remote nations not provoking [attacking] them — much more, to [those] asking [for it].
Secondly: If the Gabaonites had been recognized [as] as near as they were, and indeed [as] of the seven Cana-
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[and indeed of the seven] peoples of the Canaanites, the same pact could have been entered with them — because, as was said (qq. 7 and 8), they professed [that] they wished thenceforth to be worshipers of the true God, and gave themselves wholly into the power and dominion of the Jews, so that they called themselves their servants.
Thirdly. Yet the Israelites conducted themselves in various [ways] imprudently and faultily in the striking of that same covenant. First: That, in a matter of such moment, at this beginning of the wars, at this entrance upon that religion, the Princes did not consult the Lord. For either it was clear to them [that] Canaanites falling away from idolatry could be spared, or it was not clear. If it was clear, [yet] it would have been good to consult the oracle of the Lord, so that there might be the same opinion for all, even the common folk, and no occasion of murmuring given to them — which [murmuring] arose from this, that they thought [that], these [Gabaonites] being preserved, the inheritance and wealth promised to them was being diminished. If it was not clear, much more ought they to have roused [asked] the Lord [as to] what must be done. Secondly: That they believed them so rashly — not inquiring more diligently what their nation was, where situated, of what forces, of what worship; nor desisting until they had understood [these things]; not applying [even] a little of the Geographic science which was present in some [of them] by discipline and some use, or could be present by a certain natural judgment; not questioning those who had been spies anywhere; not inquiring anything of the Canaanites who were already in the camp; not conjecturing anything from their language; not even examining sufficiently those arguments by which those legates tried to prove [that] the journey had been a long one for them. For it was easy to think [that] all these could be done by guile and fraud, as indeed they were being done: namely, that old and mouldy loaves, worn and broken sacks and skins, could be brought out from a nearby place; garments frayed and torn; shoes mended and re-sewn with many patches — as Abulensis abundantly shows (q. 8). Thirdly: That they seemed to be taken and delighted too much by some praise of theirs, when they saw legates sent to them, for the sake of peace and covenant, from regions so distant and remote. Fourthly: That they applied too much speed to a business of such moment, delaying nothing — not even, as it seems, for one day. For otherwise rumor would have informed the whole camp, and Rahab and her household could have heard something [of it]. Deservedly, therefore, were the Princes reprehended by the Lord; deservedly they themselves acknowledge their fault; deservedly they afflict with a penalty and servitude those by whom they had been deceived and circumvented — concerning which again below.