Joshua 9

Today’s Passage: Joshua 9

The kings west of the Jordan hear what has happened to Jericho and Ai and band together to fight Israel. But the people of Gibeon try another way. Terrified, they resort to a clever disguise, loading their donkeys with moldy bread, cracked wineskins, and worn-out sandals, and coming to Israel’s camp as though they had traveled from a far country. They ask for a treaty. The men of Israel examine the evidence with their own eyes, sample the stale provisions, and are convinced, but they do not inquire of the LORD. Joshua makes peace, and the leaders bind themselves with an oath sworn in the LORD’s name. Three days later the trick is uncovered: these are near neighbors, not distant travelers. Yet Israel does not break faith. Because of the oath, the Gibeonites are spared, and they are made woodcutters and water carriers for the house of God.

As you read, hold this: When we trust our own eyes instead of asking the LORD, we are easily deceived, yet a vow sworn in His name still holds.

Joshua 9:1–5 (BSB)

¹ Now when news of this reached all the kings west of the Jordan—those in the hill country, the foothills, and all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon (the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites)— ² they came together to wage war against Joshua and Israel. ³ But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, ⁴ acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. ⁵ They put worn, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies, and their whole supply of bread was dry and moldy.

The chapter opens with two responses to the same news. The kings hear what God has done and reach for their swords. Gibeon hears the same news and reaches for a costume. The word but at the start of verse 3 sets the two apart: everyone else will meet Israel on the battlefield, while these people will try to slip past the war altogether. Notice how much care the deception takes. Sacks worn out, wineskins cracked and patched, sandals mended, clothes threadbare, bread gone dry and moldy. Every detail is staged to say one thing, that these men have been on the road a very long time. It is a lie, but it is a lie dressed with such craft that it will convince men who look only at the surface.

Joshua 9:6–13 (BSB)

⁶ They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land; please make a treaty with us.” ⁷ But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell near us. How can we make a treaty with you?” ⁸ “We are your servants,” they said to Joshua. Then Joshua asked them, “Who are you and where have you come from?” ⁹ “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt, ¹⁰ and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan—Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth. ¹¹ So the elders and inhabitants of our land told us, ‘Take provisions for your journey; go to meet them and say to them: We are your servants. Please make a treaty with us.’ ¹² This bread of ours was warm when we packed it at home on the day we left to come to you. But look, it is now dry and moldy. ¹³ These wineskins were new when we filled them, but look, they are cracked. And these clothes and sandals are worn out from our very long journey.”

The men of Israel are not fools, and their first instinct is exactly right. They put the suspicion into words: perhaps you dwell near us, and if so, we cannot make a treaty with you. The doubt is there, spoken aloud, waiting only to be tested. But the Gibeonites are ready. They flatter Israel by speaking of the fame of the LORD, and they carefully name only the old victories, in Egypt and beyond the Jordan, never Jericho or Ai, so that they will sound like men who left home long before the recent campaign. Then they point to their props. Look at the bread, the wineskins, the clothing, the sandals. It is a masterful argument, built entirely on things a person can pick up and handle. And it works, because Israel is about to make its decision on that very ground, the evidence of the eyes and the hands, rather than the counsel of God.

Joshua 9:14–15 (BSB)

¹⁴ Then the men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not seek the counsel of the LORD. ¹⁵ And Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.

Here is the hinge of the whole chapter, and it turns on one sentence. They sampled the provisions but did not seek the counsel (שָׁאַל) shaʾal, pronounced shah-AHL. Strong's H7592, to ask, inquire, request. The word simply means to ask, to inquire, to put a question. It is the ordinary word for asking a person for bread or asking a king for a favor, and it is also the word for asking of God, laying a matter before Him and waiting for His answer. That is what the priest was equipped to do; that is what the LORD had made possible for His people at every turning. The whole disaster of the chapter fits into the single phrase that Israel did not shaal the LORD. They asked one another, they asked the strangers, they asked their own eyes, but they did not ask God. The word marks the exact place where faith was meant to speak and stayed silent. of the LORD. They tasted the stale bread and were satisfied, and that tasting stands for the whole method: judge by what you can see and touch, and never once turn to the God who could have told them the truth in a moment. The tragedy is that everything was in place for them to ask. God was near, His voice was available, and their own suspicion had already pointed them to the right question. All that was missing was the asking. So Joshua makes peace, and the leaders swear an oath, and a solemn covenant is sealed on the strength of a lie, because God’s people leaned on their own eyes instead of inquiring of Him.

Joshua 9:16–21 (BSB)

¹⁶ Three days after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites learned that they were neighbors, living among them. ¹⁷ So the Israelites set out and on the third day arrived at their cities—Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. ¹⁸ But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the congregation had sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. And the whole congregation grumbled against the leaders. ¹⁹ All the leaders answered, “We have sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them. ²⁰ This is how we will treat them: We will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us because of the oath we swore to them.” ²¹ They continued, “Let them live, but let them be woodcutters and water carriers for the whole congregation.” So the leaders kept their promise.

The truth comes out fast. Within three days Israel discovers that these distant travelers live just up the road, and they march to the very cities the treaty was supposed to have nothing to do with. The people want to attack, and by every reckoning of the recent war they had cause to. But the leaders will not, and their reason is one they cannot get around: they had sworn an oath (שָׁבַע) shābaʿ, pronounced shah-VAH. Strong's H7650, to swear, take an oath, bind oneself by oath. This is the word for binding yourself with an oath, and it carries the sense of being made firm, settled, sworn seven times over. When the leaders shaba by the LORD, they call God Himself to witness their word and to hold them to it. That is why they cannot simply walk away when the deception is exposed. The oath was not merely a handshake between men; it reached up and laid hold of the name of God. To take that name onto your lips in a promise and then break the promise is to treat God as though He did not matter. So the very holiness that made the oath binding is what protects the Gibeonites now. Israel keeps faith, not because the Gibeonites deserved it, but because the God they swore by is faithful. by the LORD, the God of Israel. The oath was obtained by fraud, yet it was sworn in God’s own name, and to break it would be to profane that name and bring wrath on the whole nation. So the leaders hold the line against a grumbling congregation. The Gibeonites will live, and they will serve, cutting wood and carrying water for the people, but they will not be destroyed. A promise made in the LORD’s name binds even when the promise was won by a trick.

Joshua 9:22–27 (BSB)

²² Then Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you deceive us by telling us you live far away from us, when in fact you live among us? ²³ Now therefore you are under a curse and will perpetually serve as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” ²⁴ The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this. ²⁵ Now we are in your hands. Do to us whatever seems good and right to you.” ²⁶ So Joshua did this and delivered them from the hands of the Israelites, and they did not kill the Gibeonites. ²⁷ On that day he made them woodcutters and water carriers, as they are to this day for the congregation of the LORD and for the altar at the place He would choose.

Joshua calls the Gibeonites in and names their crime plainly, and they do not deny it. Their answer is the most revealing thing in the chapter. They deceived Israel because they were afraid, and their fear was fear of the LORD, of the God who had promised this land to His people and had already toppled Jericho and Ai. They had heard the reports and believed them, and their scheming, wrong as it was, grew out of a real conviction that Israel’s God would do what He said. Now they throw themselves on Israel’s mercy: do to us whatever seems good and right to you. And Joshua delivers them, sparing their lives and setting them to serve. Look where their service lands them. Woodcutters and water carriers for the altar of the LORD, for the very house of God. A people who came in by a lie are given a place, however lowly, near the worship of the true God. Israel’s failure to ask cost them, and the trick had to be honored, but through it a Canaanite people who feared the LORD are drawn under His mercy and near His altar.