Discovery BoxJoshua 9:15-27 
Context9:15 Joshua made a peace treaty with them and agreed to let them live. The leaders of the community 1 sealed it with an oath. 2
9:16 Three days after they made the treaty with them, the Israelites found out they were from the local area and lived nearby. 3 9:17 So the Israelites set out and on the third day arrived at their cities – Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. 9:18 The Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the community had sworn an oath to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel. 4 The whole community criticized 5 the leaders, 9:19 but all the leaders told the whole community, “We swore an oath to them in the name of 6 the Lord God of Israel. So now we can’t hurt 7 them! 9:20 We must let them live so we can escape the curse attached to the oath we swore to them.” 8 9:21 The leaders then added, 9 “Let them live.” So they became 10 woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community, as the leaders had decided. 11
9:22 12 Joshua summoned the Gibeonites 13 and said to them, “Why did you trick 14 us by saying, ‘We live far away from you,’ when you really live nearby? 15 9:23 Now you are condemned to perpetual servitude as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.” 16 9:24 They said to Joshua, “It was carefully reported to your subjects 17 how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified 18 we would lose our lives, so we did this thing. 9:25 So now we are in your power. 19 Do to us what you think is good and appropriate. 20 9:26 Joshua did as they said; he kept the Israelites from killing them 21 9:27 and that day made them woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the divinely chosen site. (They continue in that capacity to this very day.) 22
1 tn Or “assembly.”
2 tn Heb “Joshua made peace with them and made a treaty with them to let them live, and the leaders of the community swore an oath to them.”
3 tn Heb “At the end of three days, after they made the treaty with them, they heard that they were neighbors to them and in their midst they were living.”
4 tn Heb “by the
5 tn Or “grumbled against.”
6 tn Heb “to them by….”
7 tn Or “touch.”
8 tn Heb “This is what we will do to them, keeping them alive so there will not be upon us anger concerning the oath which we swore to them.”
9 tc Heb “and the leaders said to them.” The LXX omits the words “and the leaders said to them.”
10 tn The vav (ו) consecutive construction in the Hebrew text suggests that the narrative resumes at this point. The LXX reads here, “and they will be,” understanding what follows to be a continuation of the leaders’ words rather than a comment by the narrator.
11 tn Heb “as the leaders said to them.”
12 sn Verses 22-27 appear to elaborate on v. 21b.
13 tn Heb “them.”
14 tn Or “deceive.”
15 tn Heb “live in our midst?”
16 tn Heb “Now you are cursed and a servant will not be cut off from you, woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”
17 tn Heb “your servants.”
18 tn Or “we were very afraid.”
19 tn Heb “so now, look, we are in your hand.”
20 tn Heb “according to what is good and according to what is upright in your eyes to do us, do.”
21 tn Heb “And he did to them so and he rescued them from the hand of the sons of Israel and they did not kill them.”
22 tn Heb “and Joshua made them in that day woodcutters and water carriers for the community, and for the altar of the
