Joshua 9

The Gibeonite Deception

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.

  1. 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.
  2. Cross References
    Numbers 34:6
    For the western border, you shall have the Great Sea and its coast. This shall be your western border.
  3. 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):
  4. 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 ...
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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?
  10. 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."
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. Cross References
    Numbers 21:21 - 35
    Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, saying.
  14. 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.
  15. 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.
  16. 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.
  17. 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?
  18. Cross References
    Joshua 18:25 - 28
    Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth.
    Ezra 2:25
    The sons of Kiriath-arim, Chephirah, and Beeroth, 743.
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. 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.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
  26. 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.
  27. Cross References
    Exodus 15:14
    The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
  28. 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 ...
  29. 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.
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