Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you; when you dwell among us?
"’This account,’ as O. v. Gerlach says, ’is a warning to the Church of God of all ages against the cunning and dissimulation of the world, which often seeks for a peaceable recognition on the part of the kingdom of God, and even for a reception into it, whenever it may be its advantage to do so.’" [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 95.] 