Jo’s Place

The Gibeonite Oath Three days after making the treaty  (with the strangers who had come to them) , the Israelites learned that these people actually lived nearby!  The Israelites set out at once,to investigate …and they reached their towns, in three days.  The names of these towns were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.  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.  But the leaders replied,  “Since we have sworn an oath, in the presence of the Lord, the God of Israel, we cannot touch them.  This is what we must do.  We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us, if we broke our oath.  Let them live.”  So they made them woodcutters and water carriers, for the entire community, as the Israelite leaders directed.  They made them servants,...

The Gibeonites Deceive Israel Now all the kings, west of the Jordan River, heard about what had happened ( with the Israelites at Jericho and Ai) .  These were the kings of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who lived in the hill country, in the western foothills, and along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, as far north as the Lebanon mountains.  These kings combined their armies, to fight as one, against Joshua and the Israelites.  But, when the people, of Gibeon, heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, …they resorted to deception to save themselves.  They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old, patched wineskins.  They put on …worn-out, patched sandals and ragged clothes.  And the bread, that they took with them, was dry and moldy.  When they arrived, at the camp of Israel, at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel,  “We have come from a distant lan...