Joshua 9:11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. (KJV)
The 9th chapter of Joshua is about the Gibeonites. If I may, I would like to view the Book of Joshua with the idea of NEW. New leader, new land, new year, new problems, and new chances to see God move for them and through them. The “new” associated with the Gibeonites is the con/trick they pulled on Joshua and Israel. Up to this point in their history, people have held them in slavery and lied to them, attacked or threatened them, and caused them to sin. This con was because the Gibeonites feared them and did not want to fight this horde of people. This new problem came from an old curse.
The Hivites of Gibeon, Descendants of Ham
Genesis 10:6-20, 1 Chronicles 1, Joshua 3:10, and 1 Kings 9:20 all list the family groups that descended from Ham and Cannan. They settled in this land and they are the ones under the curse of Noah. That curse was they would serve the descendants of the Shem, who is the progenitor of Abram. The list will look like this – Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and the Jebusites. Joshua 9:7 calls the Gibeonites Hivites.
Hivite | The amazing name Hivite: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com)
Biblical Canaanite descendants are still living in Lebanon, say geneticists (christiantoday.com)
A fun side note here is Job is in the land of Uz. Uz is in Genesis 10:23 and is a descendant of Shem.
Because of the Treaty
The first notable thing in 9:18 is that Israel grumbled. In the exodus under Moses, they grumbled when they had no bread, then they grumbled when they got tired of the bread (manna), and here Israel is grumbling because of dry, moldy bread. There is a pattern in all of that, I just do not know what it is. Another side note, Jesus our Bread of Life was born in the House of Bread. We need to remember that at this time the manna had stopped, and they were getting their own food.
Did they grumble because of Exodus 34:12 where God said to not make a treaty with anyone in the land? It could be that grumblers just like to grumble.
Joshua and the leaders did not do well in this treaty/league. Treaty and league are nice sounding terms, but they made a H1285 or covenant with these people. For them to break it would have been bad news, King Saul did, and a drought plagued the land under David’s rule.
So, they made them wood choppers and water carriers. Deuteronomy 29:11 states that there were foreigners in the exodus that had the job during the forty years of wandering. Joshua assigned the Gibeonites these chores for the Tabernacle and Gibeon was given to the Levites as one of their cities.
A clause in the covenant must have been about mutual defense if attacked. Because when Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem attacked, the Gibeonites called for help. (Joshua 10:2) In 10:12 Joshua asks for a miracle and gets it, the sun “stands still” until he has beaten the Amorites. This miracle is mentioned in Isaiah 28:21.
To show how far the area had slipped into sin let’s look at the name Adoni-Zedek. Melchizedek was also the king of Jerusalem (Salem) and he was the priest of the Most High God in Genesis 14. Adoni-Zedek means lord of righteousness, he did not come out with bread and wine. Like Balaam, he did not keep the memo about listening to and believing the Most High God.
King Saul and the Gibeonites
2 Samuel 21 is a story that involves the Gibeonites, King Saul, Rizpah, and King David. Gibeon was in the area that was given to the tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 21:17). 1 Chronicles 9:35, Saul’s genealogy, says he had family from that city. Saul had relatives who lived by the Gibeonites, so his zeal may have had a monetary base. Anyway, he had tried to destroy them, which broke the covenant that Joshua had made with them. They must have cried out to God and He answered by stopping the rain for three years. Rizpah was Saul’s concubine who had two sons given to the Gibeonites, she kept scavengers from disturbing the bodies. No, I do not comprehend all of the “legal” aspects of this tale but it is plain that God was serious about that covenant.
Gibeon the City
This city and region are mentioned many times in the history of Israel and Judah.
- There was a pool there. 2 Samuel 2:13 and Jeremiah 41:12 are fights that happened near this pool.
- David moved Moses’ Tabernacle and the altar of offerings to a hill there when he took the Ark to Jerusalem, see 1 Chronicles 16:39, 21:29, 1 Kings 3:4, 2 Chronicles 1:3.
People of Gibeon
These may be Benjaminites or native Hivites.
- 1 Chronicles 12:4 mentions a member of David’s elite bodyguard, Ishmaiah, who led the Thirty.
- Hananiah, a false prophet, who opposed Jeremiah was from Gibeon. He was probably a priest or Levite.
- Nehemiah mentions it twice – 3:7 and 7:25.
Joshua
Joshua was a great leader. How would you like to follow in the steps of Moses? He and Caleb were the oldest people in the camp and had watched their families all pass. He did the job he had been raised up for and with just one recorded mistake, not bad.
Numbers 27:18 and Deuteronomy 34:9 both speak of Joshua having the Spirit. The OJB uses the term Ruach HaKodesh which means spirit of wisdom or Holy Spirit.
Hebrew Names for God – Ruach HaKodesh (hebrew4christians.com)
Other posts I have done on Joshua – Joshua by the Books, and Joshua and Encouragement
Mark's Bible Study 