TEXT [Commentary]

2.   The Gibeonites’ sentence of servitude (9:16-27)

16 Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby! 17 The Israelites set out at once to investigate and reached their towns in three days. The names of these towns were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. 18 But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for the Israelite leaders had made a vow to them in the name of the LORD, the God of Israel.

The people of Israel grumbled against their leaders because of the treaty. 19 But the leaders replied, “Since we have sworn an oath in the presence of the LORD, the God of Israel, we cannot touch them. 20 This is what we must do. We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us if we broke our oath. 21 Let them live.” So they made them woodcutters and water carriers for the entire community, as the Israelite leaders directed.

22 Joshua called together the Gibeonites and said, “Why did you lie to us? Why did you say that you live in a distant land when you live right here among us? 23 May you be cursed! From now on you will always be servants who cut wood and carry water for the house of my God.”

24 They replied, “We did it because we—your servants—were clearly told that the LORD your God commanded his servant Moses to give you this entire land and to destroy all the people living in it. So we feared greatly for our lives because of you. That is why we have done this. 25 Now we are at your mercy—do to us whatever you think is right.”

26 So Joshua did not allow the people of Israel to kill them. 27 But that day he made the Gibeonites the woodcutters and water carriers for the community of Israel and for the altar of the LORD—wherever the LORD would choose to build it. And that is what they do to this day.

NOTES

9:17 three days. Gibeon is only about 15 miles from Gilgal, albeit mostly by an uphill route. A first day of travel not begun early, a full second day, and arrival well before evening on the third day, easily could be represented by the phrase “three days.” Alternatively, “three days” here may be an idiomatic way of saying “a few days later,” as it is in some other narratives. Moreover, in view of 10:6, it is not necessary to suppose all Israel made this journey; it was enough that Joshua sent or, perhaps, led a company of soldiers to investigate.

Gibeon. See note on 9:3.

Kephirah. Khirbet el-Kifirah is five miles west-southwest of el-Jib, the site of Gibeon (see note on 9:3).

Beeroth. This is probably Khirbet el-Burj, two miles south-southeast of el-Jib (Gibeon). Though this identification is not certain, Rainey (Rainey and Notley 2006:126) considers it the best candidate.

Kiriath-jearim. This is Tell Deir el-’Azhar (Abu Ghosh), two miles south of Kephirah, and six miles southwest of Gibeon (el-Jib).

9:20 divine anger. Heb., qetsep [TH7110, ZH7912], often translated “wrath” (e.g., NRSV, NASB); this response of God is never capricious, but always “morally conditioned” (Woudstra 1981:163).

9:21 for the entire community. This is defined more precisely in 9:23, 27.

9:23 May you be cursed! This is a theological and judicial sentence of misfortune or punishment, never uttered in a private capacity, or for private purposes, such as revenge. It corresponds to a judge’s declaration, “You have been found guilty, and are hereby sentenced to . . . ,” that one may hear in a modern courtroom.

9:24 were clearly told. Heb., huged hugad [TH5046, ZH5583], a very strong verbal construction, both in the verb forms and in the syntax employed. The NLT provides an appropriate rendering.

9:25 at your mercy. Lit., “in your hand.”

think is right. This translates two Hebrew nouns, with their prepositions. The clause may be translated, “as [is] the good, and as [is] the right in your eyes to do to us, do [it].” Acknowledging Joshua’s absolute power over them, the Gibeonites nevertheless emphasized his responsibility to do the right thing by them, in light of Israel’s oath.

9:27 to this day. See note on 8:28.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Israel discovered the Gibeonites’ deception too late. In reporting Israel’s discovery, the author twice used the same word Joshua had used in voicing his suspicion; literally, “They were near to them; even in their midst they lived” (9:16). Joshua ought to have followed his instincts, to say nothing of asking God for guidance on the matter.

The note (9:17) that it took the Israelite investigating party “three days” to reach the Gibeonite towns is another example of the narrator’s skill in commenting by the barest reporting. Three days is hardly a “very long journey” (9:13) “from a very distant country” (9:9)! On the contrary, these four towns were clustered strategically in the center of what would come to be known as the plateau of Benjamin. Benjamin, scarcely more than 10 miles long by 10 miles wide, is the military key to the highlands. The force that controls Benjamin effectively controls all the southern hill country.

The four Gibeonite towns were northwest of Jerusalem, all within 10 miles of it. No king of Gibeon is mentioned in the text. Adoni-zedek, king of Jerusalem, called on four allied kings to help him recapture the Gibeonite towns to the Canaanite cause (10:3-5). Taking these data together, it is reasonable to surmise that the Gibeonite towns were part of Adoni-zedek’s kingdom of Jerusalem. If so, they took this extraordinary step, which amounted to rebellion against their overlord, in a desperate attempt to save themselves, just as they said.

We may wonder what the people of the four towns thought when they saw Israelite soldiers approaching. They surely hoped Israel had spoken with greater integrity than they themselves had, but until the Israelites actually arrived, and then refrained from killing, they had no way of knowing.

The modern reader may assume Israel was entitled to declare this covenant null and void, since they had entered into it only because of Gibeonite fraud. But Israel’s leaders understood, correctly, that to break a covenant sworn by “an oath in the presence of the LORD” (9:19) would have been to treat lightly God’s name and God’s honor. Moreover, the deceit of the Gibeonites was probably not as great a moral issue for people of the ancient world as it is to moderns.

Since the Israelite community was angry with the Gibeonites over their own gullibility, Israel’s leaders may have suggested in self-defense that Israel make “woodcutters and water carriers” of the Gibeonites (9:21). Joshua accepted and followed through on their proposal. Verse 21 is a proleptic summary; the rest of the chapter is a more detailed report.

As their new overlord, Joshua had the right to summon the Gibeonites before him for an accounting. If Joshua led the investigating company, this may have occurred in or in front of Gibeon, the principal city of the four. If Joshua remained in Israel’s camp at Gilgal, then the Gibeonite leaders were escorted to him there. Joshua’s question acknowledged that he ought to have known better than to accept the Gibeonites’ word that they lived far away. He repeated as a statement—literally, “since you live right here among us” (9:22)—what he earlier had asked as a question, “perhaps you live among us?” (9:7). But Joshua had not followed up when the Gibeonites avoided giving a clear answer. Now Joshua knew; now he knew also that he should have known earlier.

Their deception of Israel made the Gibeonites morally accountable, so Joshua placed them under a curse, even before hearing their explanation for their action (9:23). As always with this verb, the curse took the form of punishment for a moral violation. There was nothing capricious nor vindictive about it. This was an appropriate judicial sentence for serious wrongdoing. Joshua’s curse took the form of a decree of perpetual service to “the house of my God” (9:23). The verb used in covenant-making was to cut a covenant. Using the same verb, Joshua decreed that the service of hewing wood and drawing water never would be cut from them.

The expression “the house of my God” may refer to the Tabernacle God had instructed Moses to make at Sinai (cf. Exod 34:26; Deut 23:18), and later to the Temple of Solomon at Jerusalem. The Levitical sacrifices required a great deal of wood for burning. To be holy, the Tabernacle had to be clean. To maintain the cleanliness of a large slaughtering operation (Israel’s sacrificial system, from a strictly physical point of view) required much water. The Gibeonites, Joshua ordained, would hew the wood and draw the water, and carry them to the Tabernacle. In this way, they would serve the entire community, as Israel’s leaders had proposed. An alternate possibility for understanding this service is that Joshua charged the Gibeonites with the upkeep of a sanctuary in Gibeon itself. That Gibeon was an important worship center is clear from an episode early in Solomon’s reign (1 Kgs 3:4-5; 2 Chr 1). Given that even the worship of Yahweh was not fully centralized in Jerusalem until the reign of Josiah (2 Kgs 23:8-9), it is possible that a pagan sanctuary in Gibeon was rededicated to the worship of Yahweh.

The Gibeonite response amounts to a statement of faith in Israel’s God. They believed that what God had instructed Moses, God would enable Israel to do, so they acted deceptively to save their lives.

The author closed his account of this episode with a brief summarizing statement (9:26-27) of a kind seen before (cf. 8:28); it suggests that the book of Joshua received its final form some generations after the events it records. This summary closes the account of Joshua’s second, and last, major recorded leadership mistake.