First. The conquered enemy fled: they were cut down by a great slaughter, and almost consumed to the point of annihilation; but those who were able to escape entered fortified cities (verse 20). For they were all from the neighboring [places], both cities and locations, as appeared above (question 1 and following).
Secondly. But their five Kings, while they took counsel for themselves by flight, hid themselves in a certain cave or cavern near the city of Maceda (verse 16). But by Joshua’s order its mouth was blocked with huge stones, so that no exit might lie open for them; and lest they should be snatched away by their own [men] — a band being formed and the stones removed — many guards were set [over them], whom our text calls “industrious” — either from someone’s marginal annotation (since the Hebrew and Greek call them only “men”), or from some force of the Hebrew word, which sometimes signifies “a man” and “a strong man,” and from the combined circumstance of this passage. But afterward, by the order of the same Joshua, they were drawn out from there, [and] led to him (verses 22, 23), [and] trodden under the feet of the princes (verse 24). And this — in the conquered — [was] a token of extreme servitude and ignominy; in the conquerors, of the highest victory and dominion, as both ancient statues and histories indicate. Whence, in Psalm 90[/91:13]: “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample the lion and the dragon.” And God willed this to be done not for the sake of cruelty, but of justice and wisdom. Of justice, indeed, that He might inflict deserved punishments on the impious; and of wisdom, that He might give courage to the Israelites, and raise [them] to a great hope of certainly obtaining the divine promises. For hence [comes] that exhortation (verse 25): “Do not fear, nor be dismayed; take courage, and be strong: for thus shall the Lord do to all your enemies, against whom you fight.” And from this Thomas of Cantimpré (book 2, chapter 53) proves — or rather admonishes — that all vices are to be trodden under by us. But afterward the same Kings were struck and killed by the same Joshua — not by sword or wound, but, as is added, by the gibbet [cross] and the noose. For the five Kings were hanged upon five trees or stakes, as was said above (chapter 8, question 10) concerning the King of Ai. But at length, the Sun having now set, they were taken down from the gibbet (verses 26, 27) — for the cause handed down in the same [commentary], chapter 8, question 11; and their corpses were carried back into the former cave, with huge stones rolled and heaped up against its mouth — not now lest they should get out, but lest they should ever be drawn out by any [of their own people] to more honorable tombs, or by others to greater insult, and [so] be left entirely unburied. [This was done] also for a perpetual monument of so great a matter, [a cave] which, by the clause added to the text (verse 27), is reported to have remained up to its [writer’s] own time. See above, chapter 8, question 12.
(col. 1042)