Chapter Nine

1. The aspiration of the Canaanite kings and peoples to unite for the struggle against the Israelite people. 3. The Gibeonites achieve a covenant with them through deceit. 16. The faithfulness of the Israelite people to their given oath. 23. The condemnation of the Gibeonites to eternal servitude.

Joshua 9:1. When all the kings [of the Amorites], who were beyond the Jordan, on the hill country and in the lowland and on all the coast of the great sea, [and those] near the Lebanon—the Hittites, the Amorites, [the Girgashites,] the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites— Joshua 9:2. heard of it, they gathered themselves together to fight united against Joshua and against Israel. Josh 9:1-2 compose a general introduction to the three following chapters (Josh 9-11). In them a new movement that began at that time among the population of the entire Canaanite land is indicated—to unite their forces for a common struggle against the Israelite people. In depicting the universality of this movement, the biblical writer points out, as those who sympathized with this aspiration, all the kings controlling the most important regions of the West-Jordanian country (hills, valleys, and the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to the Lebanon) and at the same time lists the strongest tribes living in it, in accordance with Josh 3:10.

Joshua 9:3. But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, Joshua 9:4. they on their part acted with cunning: they went and took provisions for a journey, and put worn-out sacks upon their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, The inhabitants of Gibeon did not, however, join the general movement against the Israelites. Gibeon, at present the village of El-Jib, about 7 versts north of Jerusalem; in the time of Joshua it was a great city, like the capitals of Canaanite kings (Josh 10:2), although it did not have a king. It was located on the road from central Canaan to the Mediterranean Sea by the Bethhoron descent and stood at the head of a league of four nearby cities. Its inhabitants, from the tribe of the Hivites (Josh 9:7), were distinguished for their bravery (Josh 10:2). Despite the considerable power at the disposal of Gibeon, the elders who governed it did not join the general movement, but chose another way to escape the fate that had befallen the inhabitants of Jericho and Ai (Josh 9:3). In what was known to them about the Israelites, about their departure from Egypt (Josh 9:9), about their victories over the trans-Jordanian kings (Josh 9:10), and the conquest of Jericho and Ai (Josh 9:3), they, like Rahab, saw the action of a higher power of the God confessed by the Israelites, Who brings into fulfillment His decision to give all the Canaanite land to this people (Josh 9:24). Therefore they resolved, “and they,” like the Israelites at the conquest of Ai, to use cunning to preserve their lives; this “and they” before the verb “acted” (Josh 9:4) is expressed in the Hebrew text by “gam hema,” in the Greco-Slavonic by the words καί γε αὐτοὶ – “and these,” and in Russian it is left untranslated.

Joshua 9:7. But Joshua said to the Hivites: Who are you? And from where do you come? “How can we make a covenant with you,” say the elders of Israel, bearing in mind the explicit prohibition to make covenants with the Canaanite peoples (Exod 23:32; Deut 7:2).

Joshua 9:14. The men took some of their provisions, but did not ask the Lord. “The men took some of their provisions, but did not ask the Lord.” “The men,” in Hebrew here “ha-anashim,” that is, “the known men,” more clearly designated in Josh 9:18 by the word “nesim” – “princes”; in this sense the word “men” is taken in Josh 9:14 by the LXX, who rendered it by οἱ ἄρχοντες – “princes” according to the Slavonic Bible. The acceptance by the princes of the Israelite people of bread from the Gibeonite envoys, that is, in general foodstuffs, was not, it should be supposed, merely a tasting of the latter to confirm the length of their journey from their place of residence, because otherwise the internal connection between this action of the princes and the asking of the Lord would remain unclear: a mere tasting of provisions is too insignificant an action to require asking the consent of the highest will. Therefore, if the biblical writer, having mentioned this act, immediately indicates the failure to ask the Lord, this itself inclines toward the understanding that the acceptance of bread from the Gibeonite envoys had another, far more important significance: it served as an expression on the part of the Israelite princes of their disposition toward the envoys and their matter, that is, agreement to the proposal made by them. Before daring such a step, the Israelite princes, led by Joshua, should have indeed asked the Lord, of course, through the high priest, in accordance with the divine commandment (Num 27:21).

Joshua 9:17. The sons of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. The three cities of the Gibeonite league named here are sufficiently well known by their location in the central part of Palestine, at no great distance to the north of Jerusalem. Chephirah, at present Khirbeh Kephir, with preserved ruins, is located about 12 versts to the west of Gibeon. Later this city belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh 18:26). Beeroth, now the large village of Bireh, on the main road from Jerusalem to Shechem, about 12 versts from the first. Later it also belonged to the tribe of Benjamin (Josh 18:25). Kiriath-jearim, commonly placed by researchers at the site of the present Muslim village of Karate-el-Enab, was located to the northwest of Jerusalem, three hours’ journey on the road to Lydda. It received its name from the forest surrounding it, so rare in southern Palestine (the Hebrew word “iyyar” means “forest”), which was preserved even in later times, according to the testimony of travelers 83. In ancient times it also bore the name Kiriath-Baal (Josh 15:60) from a shrine or temple of Baal probably located in it, and belonged to the tribe of Judah, by whose name it was also called Baalah of Judah (2 Sam 6:2).

Joshua 9:18. [Joshua and] the sons of Israel did not strike them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. But all the assembly murmured against the leaders. When the deception of the Gibeonite envoys was revealed, “the sons of Israel did not strike them,” that is, did not put them to death, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn to preserve the life of the Gibeonites. The words “[Joshua and]” are not read in the Hebrew text and in the earliest Greek manuscripts, which is why, probably, they are placed in brackets in the Slavonic Bible; the following “[all],” also not read in the Hebrew text, is found in many Greek manuscripts; it was probably transferred from Josh 9:19.

Joshua 9:19. But all the leaders said to all the congregation: We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them; Joshua 9:20. This we will do to them: let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. Although the oath made by the leaders, who had been deceived by the Gibeonite envoys, provoked murmuring among the people, who apparently wished to put to death both the envoys and their principals as belonging to the Canaanites, the leaders nevertheless insisted that they preserve their lives, appealing to the oath they had made, attested by the name “the Lord, the God of Israel.” The reason for such insistence on the part of the leaders is indicated by the biblical writer in the second half of Josh 9:20, which is rendered in the Slavonic Bible with particular closeness to the Hebrew text, in accordance with the Greek translation: “and there shall not be wrath upon us for the sake of the oath whereby we swore to them,” that is, in the preservation of the oath made to the Gibeonites, the leaders see the only means to avoid divine punishment, which (according to Exod 20:7, Deut 5:11) threatens anyone who pronounces the name of God in vain. If the leaders, having been deceived, gave an oath in vain and committed a sin, not having asked the Lord about this matter, then, breaking the oath, they would have added to the committed sin a new and grievous sin of oath-breaking, through which the name of God is dishonored before those to whom the oath was given.

Joshua 9:21. And the leaders said to them: Let them live. So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water for all the congregation. [And all the congregation] did as the leaders said to them. In insisting on the observance of the oath, by virtue of which the life of the Gibeonites was preserved, the leaders do not forget, however, the prohibition to enter into a covenant with the Canaanite peoples, which was intended to prevent the latter from leading the Israelites into idolatry. To prevent the destructive consequence of leaving the Gibeonites in the Canaanite land, they adopt such a measure, which at the same time served as punishment for their deception. They specifically proposed to impose on the Gibeonites the obligation to cut wood and carry water for all the Israelite assembly, and the latter, being reduced to a state of slavery (Josh 9:23; Deut 29:11), could not be dangerous to the dominant Israelite population. This proposal of the leaders was accepted by the assembly. The words “[And all the congregation]” are not found in the Hebrew text, nor in the Vatican and Alexandrian manuscripts, but are read in the Ambrosian and some other manuscripts (καὶ ἐποίησαν πᾶσα ή συναγωγή), and the course of the biblical speech becomes clearer: without this addition, the final words “as the leaders said to them” would be not entirely clear, since the leaders, making a proposal to the assembly in the first half of the verse, could not refer to themselves in such a manner; moreover, the proposal to make the Gibeonites woodcutters and water carriers is made here for the first time. With the insertion, on the contrary, of the words “[and all the congregation]” into the biblical speech, the final words of the verse receive a completely definite sense, expressing the agreement of the assembly with the proposal of the leaders. This agreement of the assembly was not, however, the final decision of the matter, which belonged, as the subsequent narrative shows, to Joshua. That the decision adopted by the leaders regarding the fate of the Gibeonites was correct and in accordance with the divine will was shown by the victories soon after gained over the Canaanite kings, with special divine aid, and later by the wrath of God that befell the Israelite land and the house of Saul for the violation of the oath made to the Gibeonites (2 Sam 21:1).

Joshua 9:23. Therefore you are cursed, and some of you shall always be slaves, hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. For their deception, as something that debases human dignity and misleads others, Joshua pronounced a curse upon the Gibeonites, by which they were doomed to eternal slavery. Thus the curse of Noah upon Ham was fulfilled upon them (Gen 9:25). The words “[me and for]” are not read in the Hebrew text and in the Latin translation, but are found in the Greek manuscripts: according to Josh 9:26, the Gibeonites were to cut wood and carry water “for the assembly and for the altar of the Lord.”

Joshua 9:24. They answered Joshua: It was clearly told to your servants that the Lord your God had commanded Moses his servant to give you all the land, and to destroy [us and] all the inhabitants of the land before you; so we feared greatly for our lives because of you, and did this thing; From the words quoted here it is evident that the desire to seek a covenant with the Israelite people was prompted in the Gibeonites solely by fear for their lives, and that their knowledge of the great deeds of the God of Israel led them only to the certainty of the inevitable destruction of the Canaanite peoples, and did not awaken in them, as in Rahab, the thought of Him as the God of heaven and earth, and together with this a desire to take their place in the ranks of his confessors. In this lies the inner reason why they did not enter into the composition of the Israelite people.

Joshua 9:26. And Joshua did so to them and delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel, and they did not kill them; Joshua 9:27. And on that day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, [to this day, in the place which he would choose]; at the place which he should choose. The words “[so the inhabitants of Gibeon became hewers of wood and drawers of water for the altar of God]” are found in the Vatican manuscript and the Sixtine Bible, but are absent in the Hebrew text, in the Alexandrian and other Greek manuscripts. * * * Tristram. Bible Places, 78.