Joshuachapter 9
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Key verse
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)—
It stands in Moldy bread and worn shoes: the Gibeonite ruse, verses 1 to 15.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The Gibeonites, hearing what befell Jericho and Ai, take the one road left: deception. They arrive in worn shoes and patched garments, with rent wine-skins and dry, moldy bread, claiming a very far country, and ask a covenant. The narrator plants the verdict in a single line, the men of Israel took of their provisions, 'and asked not counsel at the mouth of Jehovah' (9:14). Three days later the fraud surfaces, but the oath sworn by Jehovah holds and the congregation murmurs in vain. Joshua makes them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of Jehovah.
Context
History · Joshua · Joshua overview
Where the chapter sits
Joshua 9 falls in Conquest campaigns (chapters 6–12). Jericho and Ai (central); Gibeonite alliance; five-king coalition at Beth-horon (southern); Hazor and the northern kings.
Before it: Entry into the Land, chapters 1–5. After it: Tribal allotments, chapters 13–22.
The whole shape of Joshua→The world behind this chapter
Joshua 9The history
Gibeon and its allied towns sat on the plateau controlling the approaches to the central hill country. The text later calls Gibeon a great city, like a royal city, with skilled fighting men, these were not a helpless village.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The deception is a costume drama built from ordinary travel gear. Worn sacks on the donkeys, wineskins split and mended, patched sandals, threadbare clothes, and bread gone dry and crumbly. Every item is what a long-distance caravan would actually look like after weeks on the road.
An oath sworn in the name of the LORD was binding regardless of how it was obtained. That is why the leaders honored it even after the fraud came out, and why the congregation's anger at their leaders did not overturn it. Breaking a sworn treaty invited the wrath of the deity invoked as witness, a principle every nation in that world understood.
The Gibeonites became woodcutters and water carriers for the congregation and for the altar. That was real, permanent, subordinate labor, but it also placed them at the sanctuary. Generations later, King Saul's attempt to wipe them out was still treated as a broken oath requiring redress.
What it meant to them
The reason given for the failure is a single sentence, and it is the point of the chapter: the men of Israel sampled their provisions but did not ask counsel from the LORD. They tested the evidence and never asked the one who knew.
First hearers would also have noticed what the Gibeonites said. They came because they had heard the name of the LORD and what he did in Egypt and to the two kings east of the Jordan. Fear of God drove them to lie their way into Israel rather than fight.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Moldy bread and worn shoes: the Gibeonite ruse
1. (vv. 1-2)
Joshua 9:1
“In the hills - See the Num 13:17 note. The valleys - Or “the vale” (the Shephelah, Deu 1:7), which imports the lowland country between the mountains and the sea coast.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:1evangelical
Joshua 9:1, 1 more voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joshua 9:1
“And it came to pass when all the kings, etc. As the arrival of the people was well known to these kings from the very first, it is certain that their minds were intoxicated from above with security or lethargy, so that they did not forthwith league together to oppose them.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)· Joshua 9:1reformed
Joshua 9:2
“Tho' they were many kings of different nations, and doubtless of different interests, often at variance with each other, yet they are all determined to unite against Israel.”
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O that Israel would learn this of Canaanites, to sacrifice private interests to the public good, and to lay aside all animosities among themselves, that they may cordially unite against the common enemy.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 9:2evangelical
Joshua 9:2, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:2
“That they gathered themselves together to fight with Joshua, and with Israel,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:2reformed
a.The kings on this side Jordan hear what the kings of 5:1 heard, and where those hearts melted these men combine. The six nations named here are the six of Exodus 3:8 and Deuteronomy 20:17, which is the list the ban was written against. Their answer to the news stands first in the chapter so it can be weighed against Gibeon's answer two verses later, since both are reacting to the same report.
2. (vv. 3-5)
Joshua 9:3
“Gibeon was the head of the four towns Jos 9:17 occupied by the Hivites Jos 11:19. The inhabitants were Amorites 2Sa 21:2; the name “Amorites” being used as a general name for the Canaanite population (Deu 1:44 note).”
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The Hivites seem to have had a non-monarchical form of government (compare Jos 9:3, Jos 9:11), but their city was Jos 10:2 in size and importance equal to those cities which the kings of the country made their capitals.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:3evangelical
Joshua 9:3, 2 more voices
Joshua 9:3
“To make such an attempt, was very odious to their neighbors, because it was, in a manner, to make a schism among them, to open a door to the Israelites, and weaken the strength of their allies.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)· Joshua 9:3reformed
Joshua 9:3
“Other people heard those tidings, and were irritated thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites heard them and were induced to make peace with them. Thus the discovery of the glory and grace of God in the gospel is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unto death, 2 Cor.”
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ii.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:3puritan
Joshua 9:4
“They did work wilily - Finesse of this kind is allowed by the conduct of all nations; and stratagems in war are all considered as legal. Nine tenths of the victories gained are attributable to stratagem; all sides practice them, and therefore none can condemn them.”
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Much time and labor have been lost in the inquiry, “Did not the Gibeonites tell lies?” Certainly they did, and what is that to us? Does the word of God commend them for it? It does not. Are they held up to us as examples!
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:4evangelical
Joshua 9:4, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:4
“These skin bottles are liable to be rent when old and much used; and there are various ways of mending them--by inserting a new piece of leather, or by gathering together the edges of the rent and sewing them in the form of a purse, or by putting a round flat splinter of wood into the hole.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 9:4reformed
Joshua 9:5
“Old shoes and clouted - Their sandals, they pretended had been worn out by long and difficult travelling, and they had been obliged to have them frequently patched during the way; their garments also were worn thin; and what remained of their bread was mouldy - spotted with age, or, as our old version has it, bored - pierced with many holes by the vermin which had bred in it, through the length of the time it had been in their sacks; and this is the most literal meaning of the original נקדים nikkudim, which means spotted or pierced with many holes.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:5evangelical
Joshua 9:5, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:5
“Not being so well baked as our biscuits, it becomes hard and mouldy from the moisture left in the dough. It is usually soaked in water previous to being used.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 9:5reformed
a.Gibeon hears about Jericho and Ai, the two towns the reader has just watched fall, and answers with a lie instead of an army. The word rendered wilily comes from the root behind the subtilty ascribed to the serpent at Genesis 3:1, and the King James translators kept the sense of craft rather than of wisdom. Every prop is chosen because it ages: sacks, wine skins, shoes, garments and bread, five separate witnesses to a long road, with the bread put last because it is the item a man would examine first.
3. (vv. 6-8)
Joshua 9:6
“Make ye a league with us - כרתו לנו ברית kirethu lanu berith, cut, or divide, the covenant sacrifice with us. From this it appears that heathenism at this time had its sacrifices, and covenants were ratified by sacrificing to and invoking the objects of their adoration.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:6evangelical
Joshua 9:7
“Peradventure ye dwell among us - It is strange they should have had such a suspicion, as the Gibeonites had acted so artfully; and it is as strange that, having such a suspicion, they acted with so little caution.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:7evangelical
Joshua 9:8
“We are thy servants - This appears to have been the only answer they gave to the question of the Israelitish elders, and this they gave to Joshua, not to them, as they saw that Joshua was commander-in-chief of the host. Who are ye? and from whence come ye?”
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- To these questions, from such an authority, they felt themselves obliged to give an explicit answer; and they do it very artfully by a mixture of truth, falsehood, and hypocrisy.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:8evangelical
a.They ask for a league at Gilgal, and the phrase they lead with, come from a far country, is lifted straight out of the law they are working around. Deuteronomy 20:10-15 permits terms of peace with a city very far off, and Deuteronomy 20:16-18 orders the opposite for the cities of these nations, so the entire disguise turns on one clause of one statute. The men of Israel see it and say it aloud in verse 7, which means the danger was named before the oath was sworn and the objection was met with evidence rather than with inquiry.
4. (vv. 9-10)
Joshua 9:9
“Because of the name of the Lord thy God - They pretend that they had undertaken this journey on a religious account; and seem to intimate that they had the highest respect for Jehovah, the object of the Israelites’ worship; this was hypocrisy.”
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We have heard the fame of him - This was true: the wonders which God did in Egypt, and the discomfiture of Sihon and Og, had reached the whole land of Canaan, and it was on this account that the inhabitants of it were panic-struck.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:9evangelical
Joshua 9:9, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:9
“At least, no fault was found with them for making a covenant with the Gibeonites; while, on the other hand, the violation of it was severely punished (2Sa 21:1; and Jos 11:19, 20).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)· Joshua 9:9reformed
Joshua 9:10
“And all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:10reformed
a.They credit the name of the Lord thy God, cite Egypt and the two kings east of Jordan, and stop there. Verse 3 says what they actually heard was Jericho and Ai, so the recent news is exactly what they leave out, since a traveller months from home could not yet carry it. Rahab's confession at 2:9-10 names the same two items, the drying of the Red Sea and Sihon and Og, which makes this speech a copy of a true one.
5. (vv. 11-13)
Joshua 9:11
“Wherefore our elders, etc. - All this, and what follows to the end of Jos 9:13, was false, contrived merely for the purpose of deceiving the Israelites, and this they did to save their own lives; as they expected all the inhabitants of Canaan to be put to the sword.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:11evangelical
Joshua 9:12
“This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses,....”
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These are not the words of the elders to the messengers they sent, continued, but of the ambassadors to the Israelites, pointing to the bread they brought with them, which they pretended was newly baked and took hot out of the oven: on the day we came forth to go unto you, but now, behold, it is dry, and it is mouldy: See Gill on Jos 9:5; which they gave as a demonstration and proof that they were come from a far country, as they had asserted.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:12reformed
Joshua 9:12, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:12
“And thus there are those who make themselves poor with the badges of want and distress and yet have great riches ( Prov. xiii. 7 ), or at least have no need of relief, by which fraud charity is misplaced and diverted from those that are real objects of it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:12puritan
Joshua 9:13
“And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new,....”
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That is, on the day they came out on their journey: and, behold, they be rent; which were owing to the long use that had been made of them, as they pretended: and these our garments, and our shoes, are become old by reason of the very long journey: quite worn out through length of time and tedious travels.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:13reformed
a.The elders and the whole country are invoked and the country is never named, which is the first thing a real embassy would state. The bread, the wine skins, the garments and the shoes are each produced in turn as proof, so the props carry the argument and the men only point at them. Nothing in the speech can be tested without asking somebody outside the room.
6. (v. 14)
Joshua 9:14
“And he, being as yet ignorant of localities and not knowing anything of the inhabitants, did not see through their deceit, nor did he enquire of God but readily believed them. So sacred was one's promised word held in those days that no one would believe that others could try to deceive.”
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Who could find fault with the saints in this, namely, that they should consider others to have the same feelings as themselves and suppose no one would lie because truth was their own companion?
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On the Duties of the Clergy 3.10.67-68· Joshua 9:14patristic
Joshua 9:14, 3 more voices
Joshua 9:14
“And the men took of their victuals,....”
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That is, the princes of Israel took thereof; not to eat of them, for it cannot be thought that such personages would eat of such dry and mouldy bread, and especially as they were now in a plentiful country, and possessed of the fruits of it; but to see whether it was in such a plight and condition as they said, whereby they might judge of the truth of what they said; and they learned and knew, as R.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:14reformed
Joshua 9:14
“The men took of their victuals - This was done in all probability in the way of friendship; for, from time immemorial to the present day, eating together, in the Asiatic countries, is considered a token of unalterable friendship; and those who eat even salt together, feel themselves bound thereby in a perpetual covenant.”
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But the marginal reading of this clause should not be hastily rejected.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:14evangelical
Joshua 9:14
“For though it is probable, if God had been consulted, he would have consented to the sparing of the Gibeonites; yet it should have been done with more caution, and an obligation upon them to embrace the true religion.”
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In every business of importance, we should stay to take God along with us, and by the word and prayer consult him.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 9:14evangelical
a.One clause at the end of the verse carries the chapter. The mouth of the Lord was a working provision rather than a figure of speech, since Numbers 27:21 appointed Eleazar to ask counsel by Urim for Joshua by name, so the means was standing in the camp unused. Readers divide over the first clause, some taking the men eating of the victuals as the shared meal that sealed a treaty, others as an inspection of the bread that got the answer the eye gives. On either reading the evidence was weighed and the Lord was not asked.
7. (v. 15)
Joshua 9:15
“Joshua made peace with them - Joshua agreed to receive them into a friendly connection with the Israelites, and to respect their lives and properties; and the elders of Israel bound themselves to the observance of it, and confirmed it with an oath.”
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As the same words are used here as in Jos 9:6, we may suppose that the covenant was made in the ordinary way, a sacrifice being offered on the occasion, and its blood poured out before the Lord. See on Gen 15:10 (note), etc.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:15evangelical
Joshua 9:15-16
a.Joshua makes peace and the princes swear, and the oath is by the Lord God of Israel, which verses 18 and 19 give as the reason nothing can afterward be undone. Three days is the whole life of the deception, so it fails almost at once and still binds. Joshua covers the ground from Gilgal to Gibeon in a single night march at 10:9, which is how near the far country was.
B. The fraud found out, the oath still binding
1. (v. 16)
Joshua 9:16
“At the end of three days - Gibeon is reputed to be only about eight leagues distant from Gilgal, and on this account the fraud might be easily discovered in the time mentioned above.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:16evangelical
2. (vv. 17-19)
Joshua 9:17
“Chephirah (Kefir) is situated eight or nine miles west of Gibeon, and was an inhabited city in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah Ezr 2:25; Neh 7:29. Beeroth (Birch), about eight miles north of Jerusalem. Kirjath-jearim, i. e.”
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“city of woods,” is identified by Robinson with the modern Kuriet el Enab, nine miles from Jerusalem on the road to Jaffa (and by Conder with Soba). The town was numbered among those belonging to Judah, and was in the northern boundary of that tribe. Beyond this city the six hundred Danites encamped on their famous expedition to Laish Jdg 18:
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:17evangelical
Joshua 9:18
“All the congregation murmured - Merely because they were deprived of the spoils of the Gibeonites. They had now got under the full influence of a predatory spirit; God saw their proneness to this, and therefore, at particular times, totally interdicted the spoils of conquered cities, as in the case of Jericho.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:18evangelical
Joshua 9:19
“But all the princes said to all the congregation,....”
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That is, all the princes that went to Gibeon addressed all the Israelites that were there: we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel; by the Word of the Lord God, as the Targum; an oath is a solemn sacred thing, and not to be broken, and a good man will make conscience of it, and keep it, though he has sworn to his own hurt: and now therefore we may not touch them; neither take away their lives nor their substance.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:19reformed
Joshua 9:19, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:19
“We have sworn unto them - Although the Israelites were deceived in this business, and the covenant was made on a certain supposition which was afterwards proved to have had no foundation in truth, and consequently the whole engagement on the part of the deceived was hereby vitiated and rendered null and void; yet, because the elders had eaten with them, offered a covenant sacrifice, and sworn by Jehovah, they did not consider themselves at liberty to break the terms of the agreement, as far as the lives of the Gibeonites were concerned.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:19evangelical
a.Four towns come in with Gibeon and each has a later history: Kirjath-jearim keeps the ark twenty years at 1 Samuel 7:1-2, Beeroth produces the men who kill Ishbosheth at 2 Samuel 4:2, and Gibeon itself holds the tabernacle at 1 Chronicles 16:39 and hears Solomon's dream at 1 Kings 3:4-5. The congregation murmurs against the princes, using the verb the wilderness chapters use of this same people against Moses. The princes make no case that the treaty was fair, and rest the whole answer on having sworn by the Lord God of Israel.
3. (vv. 20-21)
Joshua 9:20
“He that ratifies a promise with an oath imprecates the divine vengeance if he wilfully break his promise, and has reason to expect that divine justice will take him at his word. God is not mocked, and therefore oaths are not to be jested with.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:20puritan
Joshua 9:21
“Render “they shall be hewers of wood and drawers of water:” menial duties belonging to the lowest classes only (compare the marginal reference). The curse of Noah Gen 9:25 on the children of Ham was thus fulfilled to the letter in the case of these Hivites.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:21evangelical
a.Lest wrath be upon us gives the princes their reason, and it treats an oath obtained by fraud as binding on the men who swore it. Psalm 15:4 states the principle in the same terms, of a man who sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, and 2 Samuel 21:1-2 records the three years of famine that followed Saul breaking this exact oath generations later. Hewers of wood and drawers of water is a phrase already in use, since Deuteronomy 29:11 applies it to the lowest class standing inside the covenant assembly, so the sentence sets the Gibeonites at the bottom of Israel rather than beyond its edge.
C. Hewers of wood and drawers of water
1. (vv. 22-23)
Joshua 9:22
“Were the Israelites bound to respect an oath thus procured by fraud? Were they right in doing so? Dr. Sanderson (“Works,” vol. iv. 4 pp. 269, 300, Oxford edition), determines these questions in the affirmative; and rightly, since the oath, though unlawfully taken, was not an oath taken to do an unlawful thing, i. e. a thing in itself unlawful.”
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It was the carelessness of the Israelites themselves which betrayed them into this league.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:22evangelical
Joshua 9:23
“Ye are cursed - You shall not escape the curse of God which by divine sentence belongs to all the Canaanites; but only change the quality of it, you shall feel that curse of bondage, which is proper to your race by virtue of that ancient decree, Gen. ix, 25.”
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Bond-men - The slavery, which is upon you shall be entailed on your posterity.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)· Joshua 9:23evangelical
Joshua 9:23, 2 more voices
Joshua 9:23
“Now therefore ye are cursed - Does not this refer to what was pronounced by Noah, Gen 9:26, against Ham and his posterity? Did not the curse of Ham imply slavery, and nothing else?”
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Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be; and does it not sufficiently appear that nothing else than perpetual slavery is implied in the curse of the Gibeonites?
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:23evangelical
Joshua 9:23
“Now therefore ye are cursed,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:23reformed
a.Joshua charges them with the deceit and pronounces them cursed, and the curse he gives is servitude. Verse 7 calls them Hivites, and the Hivite is a son of Canaan at Genesis 10:17, so the words land on the line Noah cursed at Genesis 9:25 in the very shape Noah used, a servant of servants. The place of the service comes in the same breath, for the house of my God, which fastens them to the sanctuary rather than to a private master.
2. (vv. 24-25)
Joshua 9:24
“We were sore afraid of our lives - Self-preservation, which is the most powerful law of nature, dictated to them those measures which they adopted; and they plead this as the motive of their conduct.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:24evangelical
Joshua 9:24, 3 more voices
Joshua 9:24
“It was mere fear which drove the Gibeonites to act as they did. They sought for union with God’s people, not for its own sake, but to save their lives. Rahab’s motives were higher (Jos 2:9 ff). Hence, she was adopted into Israel; the Gibeonites remained forever bondsmen of Israel.”
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)· Joshua 9:24evangelical
Joshua 9:24
“And they answered Joshua, and said, because it was certainly told thy servants,....”
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:24reformed
Joshua 9:24
“Under the greatest provocations, it is our wisdom and duty to keep our temper, and to bridle our passion; a just cause needs not anger to defend it, and a bad one is made never the better by it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:24puritan
Joshua 9:25
“And thus the ransom of their lives is paid; dominion is acquired by the preservation of a life that lies at mercy ( servus dicitur a servando--a servant is so called from the act of saving ); they owe their service to those to whom they owe their lives. Observe how the judgment is given against them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:25puritan
Joshua 9:25, 1 more voice
Joshua 9:25
“Those of the very meanest and most despicable condition are described to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, Deut. xxix. But skin for skin, liberty, and labour, and all that a man has, will he give for his life, and no ill bargain. Accordingly the matter was determined.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)· Joshua 9:25puritan
a.Their answer is Rahab's answer: they heard what the Lord commanded Moses, and they believed it. Deuteronomy 7:1-2 is the command they are quoting back, and fear of it drove the whole performance, which they admit without offering an excuse. We are in thine hand puts them where Rahab put herself at 2:12-13, and the two Canaanite households that live through this book are the two that took the report as true.
3. (vv. 26-27)
Joshua 9:26
“And so did he unto them - That is, he acted according to justice and mercy: he delivered them out of the hands of the people, so that they slew them not - here was mercy; and he made them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and to the altar of God - here was justice.”
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Thus Joshua did nothing but what was good and right, not only in his own eyes, but also in the eyes of the Lord. How long the Gibeonites were preserved as a distinct people after this, we know not.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)· Joshua 9:26evangelical
Joshua 9:27
“And Joshua made them that day,....”
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Constituted and appointed them, ordered and settled them, in the post and office after mentioned; or "gave" them (u); hence some think they had the name Nethinim, persons given to the Levites for the service of the sanctuary: namely, to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the Lord; some think they were employed both for the service of the congregation, when they wanted wood and water, and for the altar, and what belonged to it, that needed both.
John Gill· Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763)· Joshua 9:27reformed
a.Joshua keeps them alive and fixes their labour at the altar of the Lord, in the place which he should choose, which is the wording Deuteronomy 12:5 uses of the sanctuary before there is one. The men who lied to stay clear of Israel spend their generations at its centre. Ezra 2:43-58 and Ezra 8:20 list the Nethinim, given for the service of the Levites, and older writers including Gill read them as this people's descendants, a link the text of Ezra leaves unstated. The league also sets up the next chapter, since Adoni-zedek attacks Gibeon at 10:1-5 because of it, so the long day comes out of a treaty made without counsel.
This page carries no textual note on Joshua 9. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 9 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.10.67-68; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Calvin, Commentaries (1554); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry.