The people of Gibeon lie to Joshua
1They told the kings west of the Jordan River what had happened. These kings lived in the hill_country and in the lowlands and near the big sea up to Mount Lebanon. They were the kings of the Hittite people, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites. 2The kings came together to go to war_against Joshua and the Israelites.
3They told the people who lived in the town of Gibeon what Joshua had done to the cities of Jericho and Ai. 4They made a clever plan. They told lies and said that they were messengers. They took old saddle bags for their donkeys and old skin-bags that were torn and mended.
5They put on old sandals which they had mended, and old clothes. 6Then they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and they told him and the leaders_of_Israel: ‘We have come from a land that is far from here. Please make a peace agreement with us.’
7The leaders_of_Israel said to these Hivite people who had come from the town of Gibeon: ‘If you live near us, then we can not make an agreement with you.’ 8But the Hivite people said: ‘We will be your slaves.’
Then Joshua asked them: ‘Who are you? Where do you come from?’ 9They answered and said: ‘We are from a land that is far from here. But they told us about the Name of the Lord your God and of all the things He has done in Egypt. 10They also told us what He did to the 2 Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan River, to King Sihon of Hesbon and King Og of Bashan. (Og lived in the town of Ashtarot). 11Our leaders and all the people in our land said to us: “Take some food for the road and go to the Israelites and tell them we want to be their slaves. Ask them to make an agreement with us.” 12Look, our bread was still hot when we took it with us from our homes to come to you, and look at it now. It is dry crumbs. 13These skin-bags were new when we filled them, and look at them now. They are old and no good. And look at our clothes and our sandals. They have become old and they have worn out on the long road that we came on to come to you.’
14The Israelites tasted the food, but they did not ask the Lord what they must tell the messengers. 15Joshua made peace with the people of Gibeon. He made an agreement with them and said he would not kill them. The leaders of the congregation promised this and they said the Lord was their Witness.
16But 3 days after they made this agreement, the Israelites found out that these people lived very near to them. 17When the Israelites went further, they came to the 4 towns of the Gibeon people on the 3rd day. Their towns were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-Jearim. 18But the Israelites did not kill the Gibeon people, because the leaders of the congregation had promised that they would not kill them and they had said that the Lord, the God of Israel, was their Witness. The Israelites were not pleased with their leaders. 19All the people in the congregation accused the leaders, but the leaders said to them: ‘We promised that we would not kill them and we said that the Lord, the God of Israel, was our Witness. That is why we can not attack them now. 20We must do what we have promised them. We must let them live. If we don't do that, the Lord will be angry with us, because we promised and said that the Lord was our Witness.’ 21The leaders_of_Israel said they must let the Gibeon people stay alive, but from that time the Gibeon people had to cut wood and get water for them. The leaders told them to do it.
22Joshua called the Gibeon people and said to them: ‘You live nearby. Why did you lie to us? Why did you say you live far away from us? 23I curse you now. You will be slaves forever. You will have to cut wood and get water for the tent of the Lord.’
24The Gibeon people answered and said: ‘We did this because they told us that the Lord your God had said to Moses, his servant, that He would give this whole land to you and that He would kill all the people in this land so that you could live here. When they told us about this, we became afraid. We were afraid that you would kill us, and that is why we did this. 25We are here now. Do what you think is right.’
26Joshua told the Israelites not to kill the Gibeon people. 27Joshua said the Gibeon people had to cut wood and get water for all the Israelites and for the altar of the Lord from that day on. They had to do it in the place that the Lord would choose. They are still doing this today.
