According to the testimony of the ‘Holy Bible', the LORD tells a number of lies; and teaches his princes, principalities, prophets kings, judges, priests, and people to do likewise. In Exodus 23, while the Israelites were ‘serving’ the LORD at mount Hor, Moses says the LORD told him a particularly deviant fib.
At mount Hor (in Exodus 23), while the LORD was allegedly reciting for Moses the statutes which subsequently became a part of the canon of national legal precedents referred to as “Moses' law“, the LORD informed Moses that he'd assigned an “Angel” to see the children of Israel the rest of the way to the promised land. This ‘change- of- guard’ seems to in fact take place in chapter 34 of Exodus (verses 6 - 8)– while the children of Israel remained at mount Hor, being instructed in the service of the LORD–; after Moses, desirous of seeing the LORD’s “glory [33:18, ibid.],” is forewarned of the LORD, “thou shalt see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen;” (which means, “Kiss my ass, and taste my blow- by. I’m gone.”) in the final word of chapter 33.
Meanwhile, in Exodus 23, the LORD– in setting Moses' heart at ease about his upcoming leave- taking– tells Moses: "28 I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. 29 I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. 30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land [Exodus 23:28 - 30]."
Notice: the LORD says “I will” three times in the above passage from Exodus 23, “from before thee” three times, “before thee” once; and mentions “the Hivite” at the top of his “hornets” target list. The book of Joshua tells a different story about “the Hivite” and the “hornets.”
Joshua 9 is a rehearsal of the Israelites' first encounter with the Hivites of Abraham’s promised land. This first encounter with the Hivites is their third encounter with the inhabitants of the land on the west side of Jordan. Only Jericho and Bethel- Ai are said to have been encountered before the Hivites on the west side of the river (which is to say: after Moses’ demise, on the other side). In this encounter, the inhabitants of “Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim [verse 17]” come “wilily [verse 4]” to Joshua and the children of Israel (in Gilgal) to scam a peace treaty out of their new neighbors.
The children of confusion (Israel) make the peace- and- protection compact with the Hivites. Subsequently, the next military contest Josh and the Jewry have to peel themselves away from Gilgal to march- off to is against “Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem... Piram king of Jarmuth... Japhia king of Lachish, and… Debir king of Eglon [Joshua 10:1]” who have marched upon Gibeon in the opening salvo against the Hivites of the cities listed in Joshua 9:17 (above), in punishment of their peace- making with the Jews.
The rescue of these four cities of the Hivites from the four avenging kings, their neighbors (on ‘the day the sun stood still [Joshua 10:13]’), is the third such in numerous military contests in the Hebrew conquest of Canaan. Where are the “hornets” the LORD promised Moses he would use to, first and foremost, drive out the Hivites from before the children of Israel?
Isn't this peace pact with the Hivites precisely the sort of compromise which the hornets promised Moses by the LORD (Exodus 23:28 - 30, above) were supposed to keep the Jews from blundering into? After all, in the same narrative in which the LORD promises to send hornets before them, he says “Thou shalt make no covenant with [the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite], nor with their gods [Exodus 23:32].” Nonetheless, in Judges 2, the LORD blames and condemns the Hebrews for this faux pas.
In the second chapter of Judges, “an angel of the LORD [went] up from Gilgal to Bochim, and said… I said… ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land [(as per Exodus 23:32)]… but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare unto you [Judges 2:1 - 3].”
But, again: where are the “hornets” the LORD promised, in Exodus 23:28 - 30? There is no word in any of the passages applicable to the Hivites’ beguilement of the Israelites in Gilgal about the LORD in any way discouraging the Hivites from their ‘wiley’ cause. In fact, the narrative of Joshua 9 reads more like the LORD used the Hivites as his hornets in chasing the Jews out of the land “by little and little.” Did the LORD not lie when he promised to provide the hornets?
Never let it be said, however, that the LORD isn't devious when he lies. In the thirty- first verse of Exodus 23, the LORD says something which could be received (by Moses and the Hebrews) as a commission to be the “hornets” promised by the LORD, three verses earlier.
As previously mentioned: in Exodus 23:28 - 30, the LORD said “I will” and “from before thee” three times each, respectively. Nonetheless, in verse 31, the LORD says, "...for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee [Exodus 23:31c & d]": putting the onus of being the “hornets” so promised on the Hebrews themselves.
Given the alchemy which goes for spirituality in the LORD’s general manner of speaking, there's no reason the men who are the sheep of the LORD’s pasture (Psalms 11:3, et. al.) can't be the hornets of the same, or the dung of his orchard (Luke 13:8, et. al.), for that matter. The only problem is: how are men supposed to go before themselves to harass an enemy which seeks them out as friends?
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