Joshua 9

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The Gibeonites' deception

¹ Now when all the kings who were beyond the Jordan heard of it, in the hill country and in the lowland and all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, ² they gathered together with one accord to fight against Joshua and Israel.

³ But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, ⁴ they too acted with cunning, and went and disguised themselves as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, ⁵ and old, patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. ⁶ And they went to Joshua at the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us." ⁷ But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you are living among us; how then can we make a covenant with you?" ⁸ They said to Joshua, "We are your servants." And Joshua said to them, "Who are you, and where do you come from?" ⁹ They said to him, "From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of Yahweh your Elohim; for we have heard the report of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. ¹¹ So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, 'Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them: We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.' ¹² This bread of ours we took hot from our houses as our provision on the day we set out to come to you; but now, see, it is dry and moldy. ¹³ And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these garments and sandals of ours are worn out because of the very long journey."

¹⁴ So the men took some of their provisions, but they did not ask counsel from the mouth of Yahweh. ¹⁵ And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live; and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

The oath kept

¹⁶ And at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they were living among them. ¹⁷ Then the children of Israel set out and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. ¹⁸ But the children of Israel did not strike them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the leaders. ¹⁹ But all the leaders said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the Elohim of Israel, and now we may not touch them. ²⁰ This we will do to them: we will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them." ²¹ And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, as the leaders had said to them.

²² Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, "Why have you deceived us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' when you are living among us? ²³ Now therefore you are cursed, and there shall never cease to be slaves from among you, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my Elohim." ²⁴ And they answered Joshua and said, "Because it was clearly told to your servants that Yahweh your Elohim commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, we were greatly afraid for our lives because of you, and we have done this thing. ²⁵ And now, see, we are in your hand; do to us as it seems good and right in your eyes to do to us." ²⁶ So he did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, and they did not kill them. ²⁷ And that day Joshua made them cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, in the place which He would choose.

Notes

• 9:4 "They too" may look back to the ruse Israel had just used at Ai (8:2-8): now Israel is the one deceived. "Disguised themselves as envoys" follows the Hebrew vayyitstayyaru, from tsir, "messenger"; some Hebrew manuscripts, the ancient Greek translation and other early versions read vayyitstayyadu, "they took provisions," the word that appears in verse 12.
• 9:7 The men of Israel knew the Torah's line: no covenant with the peoples of the land (Exodus 23:32; Deuteronomy 7:2), but peace could be offered to cities "very far from you" (Deuteronomy 20:15). The Gibeonites were Hivites, one of the seven nations, so their whole disguise is built to put them on the far side of that line.
• 9:10 The envoys speak of Egypt and of Sihon and Og, news that could have traveled far by then, but they say nothing of Jericho and Ai, the victories that had moved them to come (verse 3). Mentioning them would have given away how near they lived.
• 9:14 To "ask the mouth of Yahweh" was to seek His decision, which Joshua was to receive through the high priest by the Urim (Numbers 27:21). Taking some of the visitors' food may have been a test of their story, or a meal that sealed the agreement; either way, they trusted what they could see and did not ask God.
• 9:19 The oath was won by a lie, yet it had been sworn by Yahweh's name, and to break it would profane that name (Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2). The psalmist praises the one who "swears to his own hurt and does not change" (Psalm 15:4). Long afterward, because Saul had put Gibeonites to death, Israel suffered three years of famine in David's days for the broken oath (2 Samuel 21:1-2).
• 9:27 "Cutters of wood and drawers of water" were the humblest servants of the camp; Moses had already named such workers among the strangers who stood in the covenant (Deuteronomy 29:11). The Gibeonites, spared by an oath, now served at the altar of Yahweh, and their town Gibeon later held the tabernacle and its altar of burnt offering (1 Chronicles 16:39-40; 1 Kings 3:4). "The place which He would choose" is Deuteronomy's phrase for the place of God's dwelling (Deuteronomy 12:5).

Joshua 8 · Joshua 10

Open in the study app