Joshua 9:1-27
1 And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
2 That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.a
3 And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai,
4 They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
5 And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy.
6 And they went to Joshua unto the camp at Gilgal, and said unto him, and to the men of Israel, We be come from a far country: now therefore make ye a league with us.
7 And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you?
8 And they said unto Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said unto them, Who are ye? and from whence come ye?
9 And they said unto him, From a very far country thy servants are come because of the name of the LORD thy God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
10 And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, which was at Ashtaroth.
11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with youb for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.
12 This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go unto you; but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy:
13 And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reason of the very long journey.
14 And the menc took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.
15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
16 And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbours, and that they dwelt among them.
17 And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.
18 And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congregation had sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the princes.
19 But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.
20 This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.
21 And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.
22 And Joshua called for them, and he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among us?
23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
24 And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 And now, behold, we are in thine hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do.
26 And so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, that they slew them not.
27 And Joshua maded them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.
Come in, and receive God’s promises!
Joshua
Brian Rowlands
Maps to help you to study this book are on the Internet at www.easyenglish.info.Chapter 9
The *Israelites become friends with their enemies from Gibeon – Joshua 9:1-27
v1 The kings who lived west of the Jordan heard about these things. They lived in the hills and everywhere near the Great Sea, as far as Lebanon. (They were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, *Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.) When they heard about these things, they joined together. v2 They joined together to fight Joshua and *Israel.
v3 The people from Gibeon were called Gibeonites. They heard about what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai. v4 So they had a clever idea. Some Gibeonites put old bags of food on their donkeys (small horses). They took old *wineskins, which they mended. v5 They wore old shoes (which they had mended) on their feet. And they wore old clothes. The bread that they took for food was stale. In fact, the bread was going bad. v6 Then they went to Joshua, who was camping at Gilgal. They spoke to him and to the men of *Israel. ‘We have come from a country that is a long way away’, they said. ‘Please let us make a promise with you not to fight each other.’
v7 But the men of *Israel answered the Gibeonites (who were Hivites), ‘Perhaps you live close to us. In that case we cannot make a promise not to kill you.’
v8 ‘We want to serve you’, they said to Joshua.
‘Who are you? Where do you come from?’ Joshua asked.
v9 They answered, ‘Your servants have come from a country a very long way away. We heard about your great God. We heard all about the things that he did in Egypt. v10 And we heard what he did to the two kings of the Amorites. Those kings ruled cities east of the Jordan. They were Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan. They ruled in Ashtaroth. v11 Our leaders and the people in our land told us that we should come to see you. Our leaders said, "Take food and wine for your journey. Go to meet the *Israelites, and speak to them. Say that we want to serve them. Ask them not to kill us". v12 Our bread was warm when we put it in our bags. We packed this bread on the day that we left home to come to you. But you can see how bad and stale it has become. v13 And these *wineskins were new. You can see how old they are now. And our clothes and shoes wore out on our long journey.’
v14 The men of *Israel looked at the food and other things, but they did not ask the *Lord for help. v15 Then Joshua agreed that they would not kill the people from Gibeon. The leaders of *Israel also said that they would keep Joshua’s promise.
Verses 1-4 Here we have two different attitudes to the *Israelites.
• The kings who lived west of Jordan were afraid. They planned to fight *Israel. We read about this in chapter 10.
• The people from Gibeon were afraid. But they planned to make friends with the *Israelites.
Verses 3-13 The people from Gibeon had a very clever plan. They pretended that they had come from a long distance away. They had come only about 25 miles (40 kilometres)! The Gibeonites told several lies.
• They had come from a land that was a long way away (verse 6).
• The bread was warm when they left home (verse 12).
• The *wineskins were new when they left home.
The *Israelites believed them.
God had told the *Israelites not to make agreements with the inhabitants of *Canaan (Deuteronomy 7). If the people from Gibeon had come from another country, then the *Israelites could make a peace agreement with them. But they had come only 25 miles (40 kilometres). The *Israelites believed the story that the Gibeonites told them. The story was not true.
If the group of Gibeonites were genuine
• they would bring enough supplies for the return journey
• they would have brought gifts for the *Israelites
• they would throw away any stale bread
• their servants would make them new bread
• they would bring good clothes for their meeting with the *Israelites.
Verse 14 Joshua believed the Gibeonites. He did not think about any problems. He did not ask the *Lord if their story was true. Joshua made a big mistake. This was a very big decision. The *Israelites agreed with Joshua’s decision.
We must be careful. We must always pray to God about important decisions. We should not make important decisions unless we ask God first.
James 1:5 says, ‘If you do not have wisdom, you should ask God for it.’ Proverbs 4:11 says that God will guide us to make wise decisions.
v16 So Joshua and the *Israelites made a promise to the Gibeonites. Three days later, the *Israelites learned that the Gibeonites lived near to them. v17 The *Israelites left their camp to go to the cities of Gibeon. Three days later, they came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath Jearim. v18 The *Israelites did not attack them, because of the promise that their leaders had made. They had said to the *Lord God of *Israel that they would not kill the Gibeonites.
All the *Israelites were angry with their leaders. v19 The leaders said to them, ‘We have promised the *Lord, the God of *Israel, and now we cannot hurt them. v20 But this is what we will do. We will let them live. Then God will not punish us because we did not keep our promise. v21 Let them live. They will cut wood and carry water for us’, they said. This is how the leaders kept their promise to the Gibeonites.
v22 Joshua told the Gibeonites to come to him. ‘Why did you tell me those lies? You said that you lived a long way from us. But you really live near to us’, he said. v23 ‘Now we will punish you. You will always be our servants. You will cut wood and carry water for our God’s people.’
v24 They answered Joshua, ‘The *Lord your God had told Moses to give you the whole land. We had heard that clearly. He told you to kill all the people who lived there in front of you. So, we were afraid that you would kill us. That is why we did as we did. v25 You must decide what to do with us. Do what you think is right and good.’
v26 So Joshua did not let the *Israelites kill the Gibeonites, and the *Israelites let them live. v27 They made the Gibeonites cut wood and fetch water for them. And they would do this for the *altar of the *Lord, at the place that the *Lord would tell them. They are doing this still.
Verse 16 It was not long before the *Israelites learnt the truth. The Gibeonites lived so close that the *Israelites soon learnt the truth.
Verses 17-19 The *Israelites set out to talk to the Gibeonites. The *Israelites wanted to fight the Gibeonites because of what they had done. The leaders said that the *Israelites must keep their promise. They had made the promise to God.
We should keep the promises that we make to God. It is a very serious matter if we do not keep them.
Verses 20-27 Joshua had no choice. He let the Gibeonites live.
In Deuteronomy 20:17, God told the *Israelites not to make peace with the Hivites. The Gibeonites were Hivites. God wanted the *Israelites to kill the Hivites. This was because the Hivites were very evil. God was punishing the Hivites for their *sins. So, the Gibeonites deserved to die. But God allowed the *Israelites to make a peace agreement with them. God saved the Gibeonites.
God did not save the Gibeonites because they lied. Lies are wrong. But God knew that the Gibeonites really wanted to serve God. In fact, they were desperate to serve God. They did not want God to punish them. They would do anything if God would save them. God knew their true thoughts.
Other people in the *Old Testament also lied because they wanted to serve God:
• In Joshua 2:4, Rahab lied. Like the Gibeonites, she lied because she was desperate to serve God (Joshua 2:9-11). And, like the Gibeonites, God saved her.
• In Genesis 27:19, Jacob lied. Jacob lied because he wanted his father to bless him. If Jacob’s father blessed Jacob, then God would also bless Jacob. Jacob was wrong to lie. But God still met with Jacob, because God knew Jacob’s intentions. Really, Jacob wanted to serve God (Genesis 28:13-15).
These people lied because they did not know the right way to serve God. But God blessed them because they really wanted to serve God.
The Gibeonites became servants of the *Israelites. There is a group of people in the *Old Testament called *temple servants (1 Chronicles 9:2; Ezra 2:43; Ezra 2:58; Nehemiah 3:26). They were almost certainly Gibeonites. Much later, these *temple servants went into *exile to Babylon with the *Israelites. When the *Israelites returned, the *temple servants came with them. The Gibeonites stayed loyal to the *Israelites.
God used the mistake that Joshua made. The Gibeonites enjoyed all the good things that God gave to the *Israelites.
God can use our mistakes. It is never too late to ask God to help us.
Think about this. Joshua made an agreement with the wrong people. Paul, in 2 Corinthians 6:14 says, ‘Do not try to work with people who are not friends of God. You cannot do it. Right things and wrong things cannot work together. Light and darkness cannot work together.’
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
Canaanites ~ the people who used to live in Canaan, the promised land.
Canaan ~ another name for the promised land.
promised land ~ the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his family.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
wineskins ~ a wineskin is like a bottle. People used to store wine in wineskins. People made wineskins from animal skins.
Lord ~ a name for God in the Bible. The original language of the Old Testament is called Hebrew. In the Hebrew language, there are two words that we translate as ‘Lord’. The Hebrew word ‘ADONAI’ means that God rules. God is our master. The Hebrew word ‘YHWH’ means that God never changes. God is always God.
Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
Canaan ~ another name for the promised land.
promised land ~ the land that God promised to give to Abraham and his family.
altar ~ a table on which to burn animals or other gifts to God.
sin ~ when we do not obey the rule of God; when we do not do what God wants us to do.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible, which the writers wrote before the life of Jesus.
temple ~ a special building where people worship God. The Israelites would later build their own temple in Jerusalem. At the time of the Book of Joshua, they used the Tent of Meeting instead.
worship ~ to love and to praise God more than anyone else. But some people worship false gods, instead of the real God.
Israelites ~ people from Israel. They are also called Hebrews and Jews.
Tent of Meeting ~ a special tent where God met with his people.
Israel ~ all the people born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children; the people that God chose; or, the land that the Israelites lived in.
Jew ~ a person who was born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for one of the Israelites.
exile ~ away from your own country.