Joshua 8 - 9
1
And the Lord said to Joshua, f "Do not fear and do not be dismayed. Take all the fighting men with you, and arise, go up to Ai. See, g I have given into your hand the king of Ai, and his people, his city, and his land.
2
And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did h to Jericho and its king. Only i its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it."
3
So Joshua and all the fighting men arose to go up to Ai. And Joshua chose 30,000 mighty men of valor and sent them out by night.
4
And he commanded them, "Behold, j you shall lie in ambush against the city, behind it. Do not go very far from the city, but all of you remain ready.
5
And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us k just as before, we shall flee before them.
6
And they will come out after us, until we have l drawn them away from the city. For they will say, 'They are fleeing from us, just as before.' So we will flee before them.
7
Then you shall rise up from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will give it into your hand.
8
And as soon as you have taken the city, you shall set the city on fire. You shall do according to the word of the Lord. m See, I have commanded you."
9
So Joshua sent them out. And they went to the place of ambush and lay between Bethel and Ai, to the west of Ai, but Joshua spent that night among the people.
10
Joshua arose early in the morning and mustered the people and went up, he and the elders of Israel, before the people to Ai.
11
And n all the fighting men who were with him went up and drew near before the city and encamped on the north side of Ai, with a ravine between them and Ai.
12
He took about 5,000 men and set them in ambush between Bethel and Ai, to the west of the city.
13
So they stationed the forces, the main encampment that was north of the city and its rear guard west of the city. But Joshua spent that night in the valley.
14
And as soon as the king of Ai saw this, he and all his people, the men of the city, hurried and went out early to the appointed place toward o the Arabah to meet Israel in battle. p But he did not know that there was an ambush against him behind the city.
15
And Joshua and all Israel q pretended to be beaten before them and fled in the direction of the wilderness.
16
So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they r were drawn away from the city.
17
Not a man was left in Ai or Bethel who did not go out after Israel. They left the city open and pursued Israel.
18
Then the Lord said to Joshua, s "Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
19
And the men in the ambush rose quickly out of their place, and as soon as he had stretched out his hand, they ran and entered the city and captured it. And they hurried to set the city on fire.
20
So when the men of Ai looked back, behold, the smoke of the city went up to heaven, and they had no power to flee this way or that, for the people who fled to the wilderness turned back against the pursuers.
21
And when Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had captured the city, and that the smoke of the city went up, then they turned back and struck down the men of Ai.
22
And the others came out from the city against them, so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side. And Israel struck them down, until there was t left none that survived or escaped.
23
But the king of Ai they took alive, and brought him near to Joshua.
24
When Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the open wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them to the very last had fallen by the edge of the sword, all Israel returned to Ai and struck it down with the edge of the sword.
25
And all who fell that day, both men and women, were 12,000, all the people of Ai.
26
But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he u stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
27
Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he v commanded Joshua.
28
So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a w heap of ruins, as it is to this day.
29
x And he hanged the king of Ai on a tree until evening. y And at sunset Joshua commanded, and they took his body down from the tree and threw it at the entrance of the gate of the city and z raised over it a great heap of stones, which stands there to this day.
30
At that time Joshua built an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, a on Mount Ebal,
31
just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the people of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, "an altar of uncut stones, upon which no man has wielded an iron tool." And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings.
32
And there, in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on b the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written.
33
And all Israel, c sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests d who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, e just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.
34
And afterward f he read all the words of the law, g the blessing and the curse, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law.
35
There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, h and the women, and the little ones, and i the sojourners who lived among them.
Joshua 9
1
As soon as all the kings who were beyond the Jordan j in the hill country and in the lowland all along the coast k of the Great Sea toward Lebanon, l the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, heard of this,
2
they gathered together as one to fight against Joshua and Israel.
3
But when the inhabitants of m Gibeon heard what Joshua had done n to Jericho and o to Ai,
4
they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,
5
with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly.
6
And they went to Joshua in p the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us."
7
But the men of Israel said to q the Hivites, "Perhaps you live among us; then r how can we make a covenant with you?"
8
They said to Joshua, s "We are your servants." And Joshua said to them, "Who are you? And where do you come from?"
9
They said to him, t "From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God. u For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
10
v and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in w Ashtaroth.
11
So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, 'Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, "We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us."'
12
Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and crumbly.
13
These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey."
14
So the men took some of their provisions, but x did not ask counsel from the Lord.
15
And Joshua y made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.
16
At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors z and that they lived among them.
17
And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. a Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.
18
But the people of Israel did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.
19
But all the leaders said to all the congregation, "We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we may not touch them.
20
This we will do to them: let them live, lest b wrath be upon us, c because of the oath that we swore to them."
21
And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became d cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders e had said of them.
22
Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, "Why did you deceive us, saying, f 'We are very far from you,' when g you dwell among us?
23
Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, h cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."
24
They answered Joshua, "Because it was told to your servants for a certainty that the Lord your God had i commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you - so j we feared greatly for our lives because of you and did this thing.
25
And now, behold, we are in your hand. Whatever seems good and right in your sight to do to us, do it."
26
So he did this to them and delivered them out of the hand of the people of Israel, and they did not kill them.
27
But Joshua made them that day k cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, l in the place that he should choose.
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Cross References
Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Joshua 10:25
And Joshua said to them, "Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.
Deuteronomy 1:21
See, the Lord your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
Deuteronomy 7:18
You shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
Deuteronomy 31:8
It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.
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Cross References
Joshua 2:24
And they said to Joshua, "Truly the Lord has given all the land into our hands. And also, all the inhabitants of the land melt away because of us.
Joshua 6:2
And the Lord said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor.
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Cross References
Joshua 6:21
Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:27
Only the livestock and the spoil of that city Israel took as their plunder, according to the word of the Lord that he commanded Joshua.
Deuteronomy 20:14
But the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you.
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Cross References
Judges 20:29
So Israel set men in ambush around Gibeah.
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Cross References
Joshua 7:5
And the men of Ai killed about thirty-six of their men and chased them before the gate as far as Shebarim and struck them at the descent. And the hearts of the people melted and became as water.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:16
So all the people who were in the city were called together to pursue them, and as they pursued Joshua they were drawn away from the city.
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Cross References
2 Samuel 13:28
Then Absalom commanded his servants, "Mark when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say to you, 'Strike Amnon,' then kill him. Do not fear; have I not commanded you? Be courageous and be valiant.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:5
And I and all the people who are with me will approach the city. And when they come out against us just as before, we shall flee before them.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 1:1
These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab.
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Cross References
Judges 20:34
And there came against Gibeah 10,000 chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was hard, but the Benjaminites did not know that disaster was close upon them.
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Cross References
Judges 20:36
So the people of Benjamin saw that they were defeated. The men of Israel gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:6
And they will come out after us, until we have drawn them away from the city. For they will say, 'They are fleeing from us, just as before.' So we will flee before them.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:26
But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 7:2
And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:18
Then the Lord said to Joshua, "Stretch out the javelin that is in your hand toward Ai, for I will give it into your hand." And Joshua stretched out the javelin that was in his hand toward the city.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:2
And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king. Only its spoil and its livestock you shall take as plunder for yourselves. Lay an ambush against the city, behind it.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 13:16
You shall gather all its spoil into the midst of its open square and burn the city and all its spoil with fire, as a whole burnt offering to the Lord your God. It shall be a heap forever. It shall not be built again.
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Cross References
Joshua 10:26
And afterward Joshua struck them and put them to death, and he hanged them on five trees. And they hung on the trees until evening.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 21:23
His body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.
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Cross References
Joshua 7:26
And they raised over him a great heap of stones that remains to this day. Then the Lord turned from his burning anger. Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor.
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Cross References
Exodus 20:24 - 25
An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.
Deuteronomy 27:4 - 6
And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 27:2 - 4
And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 31:12
Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 31:9
Then Moses wrote this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and to all the elders of Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:25
Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 11:29
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Deuteronomy 27:11 - 13
That day Moses charged the people, saying.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 31:11
When all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing.
Nehemiah 8:2 - 3
So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.
Nehemiah 13:1
On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 30:19
I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.
Deuteronomy 28:2 - 68
And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 31:12
Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:33
And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 1:7
Turn and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negeb and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
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Cross References
Numbers 34:6
For the western border, you shall have the Great Sea and its coast. This shall be your western border.
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Cross References
Joshua 3:10
And Joshua said, "Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites.
Joshua 12:8
In the hill country, in the lowland, in the Arabah, in the slopes, in the wilderness, and in the Negeb, the land of the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites):
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Cross References
Joshua 10:2
He feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great c...
Joshua 10:10
And the Lord threw them into a panic before Isr...
Joshua 10:12
At that time Joshua spoke to the Lord in the da...
2 Samuel 21:1 - 2
Now there was a famine in the days of David for...
1 Kings 3:4 - 5
And the king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there,...
1 Kings 9:2
The Lord appeared to Solomon a second time, as ...
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Cross References
Joshua 6:21
Then they devoted all in the city to destruction, both men and women, young and old, oxen, sheep, and donkeys, with the edge of the sword.
Joshua 6:24
And they burned the city with fire, and everything in it. Only the silver and gold, and the vessels of bronze and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord.
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Cross References
Joshua 8:26
But Joshua did not draw back his hand with which he stretched out the javelin until he had devoted all the inhabitants of Ai to destruction.
Joshua 8:28
So Joshua burned Ai and made it forever a heap of ruins, as it is to this day.
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Cross References
Joshua 5:10
While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho.
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Cross References
Joshua 11:19
There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle.
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Cross References
Exodus 23:32
You shall make no covenant with them and their gods.
Deuteronomy 7:2
And when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them.
Judges 2:2
And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done?
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Cross References
Joshua 9:11
So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, 'Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, "We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us."
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 20:15
Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not cities of the nations here.
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Cross References
Joshua 2:10
For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.
Joshua 6:27
So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame was in all the land.
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Cross References
Numbers 21:21 - 35
Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying.
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Cross References
Joshua 12:4
And Og king of Bashan, one of the remnant of the Rephaim, who lived at Ashtaroth and at Edrei
Deuteronomy 1:4
After he had defeated Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei.
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Cross References
Numbers 27:21
And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the Lord. At his word they shall go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation.
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Cross References
Joshua 11:19
There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:22
Joshua summoned them, and he said to them, "Why did you deceive us, saying, 'We are very far from you,' when you dwell among us?
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Cross References
Joshua 18:25 - 28
Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth.
Ezra 2:25
The sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743.
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Cross References
Numbers 1:53
But the Levites shall camp around the tabernacle of the testimony, so that there may be no wrath on the congregation of the people of Israel. And the Levites shall keep guard over the tabernacle of the testimony.
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Cross References
2 Samuel 21:2
So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:23
Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall never be anything but servants, cutters of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
Joshua 9:27
But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
Deuteronomy 29:11
Your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:15
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.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:6
And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.
Joshua 9:9
They said to him, "From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:16
At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:21
And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." So they became cutters of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation, just as the leaders had said of them.
Joshua 9:27
But Joshua made them that day cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place that he should choose.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 7:1 - 2
When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves.
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Cross References
Exodus 15:14
The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
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Cross References
Joshua 9:21
And the leaders said to them, "Let them live." ...
Joshua 9:23
Now therefore you are cursed, and some of you s...
1 Chronicles 9:2
Now the first to dwell again in their possessio...
Ezra 2:43
The temple servants: the sons of Ziha, the sons...
Ezra 8:20
Besides 220 of the temple servants, whom David ...
Nehemiah 7:60
All the temple servants and the sons of Solomon...
Nehemiah 11:3
These are the chiefs of the province who lived ...
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 12:5
But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.