Yoshua 9

The kings join forces

¹When all the kings west of the Jordan heard of this, the kings in the hill country, in the western foothills and all along the coast of the Great Sea as far as Lebanon, the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, ²they joined forces to make war on Joshua and Israel with one purpose.

The cunning of the Gibeonites

³But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, ⁴they also turned to cunning. They set out posing as envoys, with worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and tied up,^{a 5}with old, patched sandals on their feet and worn-out clothes on their backs. All the bread they had brought for food was dry and crumbling.^{b 6}So they came to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and told him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a far-off country. Now make a treaty with us.” ⁷But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us. How then could we make a treaty with you?” ⁸They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” Joshua asked them, “Who are you? Where do you come from?” ⁹They answered, “Your servants have come from a very distant country because of the fame of the LORD your God. We have heard the reports about him and all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰and everything he did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan: Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, whose city was Ashtaroth. ¹¹So our elders and everyone who lives in our country told us, ‘Take food with you for the journey. Go and meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. Now make a treaty with us.”’ ¹²This bread of ours was still warm when we took it from our homes as food for the road, the day we set out to come to you. Look at it now: it is dry and crumbling. ¹³These wineskins were new when we filled them, and see how they have cracked. And these clothes and sandals of ours have worn out on the long, long road.” ¹⁴The men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not seek the word of the LORD. ¹⁵So Joshua made peace with them and made a treaty with them to spare their lives, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them. ¹⁶Three days after they had made the treaty with them, the Israelites heard that these people were their neighbors and were living among them. ¹⁷So the Israelites set out and came to their towns on the third day. Their towns were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. ¹⁸But the Israelites did not strike them down, since the congregation’s leaders had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. And the entire congregation grumbled against them. ¹⁹But all the leaders said to the whole congregation, “We swore an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, so now we may not touch them. ²⁰This is what we will do with them: we will let them live, so that no wrath comes on us because of the oath we swore to them.” ²¹The leaders told them, “Let them live.” So they became woodcutters and water carriers for the whole congregation, as the leaders had said. ²²Then Joshua summoned them and said, “Why did you deceive us by telling us, ‘We live very far away from you,’ when in fact you live right among us? ²³So now you are under a curse: you will never cease to be slaves, cutting wood and drawing water for the house of my God.” ²⁴They answered Joshua, “Your servants were told for certain that the LORD your God had ordered Moses, his servant, to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its people before you. So we were terrified for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. ²⁵Now look, we are in your hands. Treat us in whatever way you think good and right.” ²⁶So Joshua did this for them: he rescued them from the power of the Israelites, so that they did not put them to death. ²⁷That day Joshua made them woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar of the LORD at the place he would choose, and so they are to this day.