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Joshua 9

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Joshua 9
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Old Testament Minute: Joshua

Stephen O. Smoot

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Contents

Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3
Joshua 4
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
Joshua 7
Joshua 8
Joshua 9
Joshua 10
Joshua 11
Joshua 12
Joshua 13
Joshua 14
Joshua 15
Joshua 16
Joshua 17
Joshua 18
Joshua 19
Joshua 20
Joshua 21
Joshua 22
Joshua 23
Joshua 24
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Contents

Joshua 1
Joshua 2
Joshua 3
Joshua 4
Joshua 5
Joshua 6
1 2 … 4 Next »
Genesis 1
Genesis 2
Genesis 3
Genesis 4
Genesis 5
Genesis 6
Genesis 7
Genesis 8
Genesis 9
Genesis 11
Genesis 12
Genesis 13
Genesis 14
Genesis 15
Genesis 16
Genesis 17
Genesis 18
Genesis 19
Genesis 20
Genesis 21
Genesis 22
Genesis 23
Genesis 24
Genesis 25
Genesis 26
Genesis 27
Genesis 28
Genesis 29
Genesis 30
Genesis 31
Genesis 32
Genesis 33
Genesis 34
Genesis 35
Genesis 36
Genesis 37
Genesis 38
Genesis 39
Genesis 40
Genesis 41
Genesis 42
Genesis 43
Genesis 44
Genesis 45
Genesis 46
Genesis 47
Genesis 48
Genesis 49
Genesis 50

Stephen O. Smoot, “Joshua 9,” in Joshua, Old Testament Minute Commentary Series, ed. Taylor Halverson (Springville, UT: Book of Mormon Central, 2021).

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Joshua 9. The Gibeonites Save Themselves by Trickery

Joshua 9 opens the narrative of the second stage of the conquest of Canaan (9:1–11:15). This stage of the war pitted Israel against both the south (see chapter 10) and the north (see chapter 11) of Canaan. With two victories secured (those against Jericho and Ai), the Israelites’ military prowess threatened the remaining Canaanite kings, who formed an anti-Israelite coalition (9:1–2). These sorts of military alliances are known from both biblical (for example, Genesis 14) and secular history of the ancient Near East and usually arose in response to a perceived regional threat by an emerging or dominant superpower. In this instance, that threat was Israel.

The inhabitants of Gibeon, however, chose a different route than open warfare with Joshua and the Israelites. Their plan was instead to trick the Israelites with a clever ruse—ironic enough given how the Israelites themselves successfully tricked the inhabitants of Ai with their own subterfuge in the previous chapter. The Gibeonites’ plan was to disguise themselves as impoverished foreigners and make a treaty with Joshua (Joshua 9:3–14). The idea behind the plan was to take advantage of the instructions in the law of Moses to treat aliens and foreign cities equitably (see Deuteronomy 20:10–20).

Remarkably, the plan worked due to the Israelites’ credulity and their failure to consult the Lord (Joshua 9:14). By the time the Israelites discovered the identity of the Gibeonites (verses 16–18), it was too late—they had entered a covenant with the Gibeonites and had sworn by the Lord not to harm them (verses 15, 19). The reasoning the Gibeonites gave at verses 24–25 for their deception is self-evident: it was undertaken out of desperation to save their lives. Unable to subject them to the same ḥerem as the other Canaanites on account of the peace treaty but fully recognizing the deception, Joshua instead impressed the Gibeonites into servitude (verses 22–27). The concluding verse of the chapter gives the author’s etiology for why Gibeonites served in menial labor roles in his day.

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