Joshua 9


Joshua 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings. This chapter focuses on the deception by the people of Gibeon to avoid annihilation by having a treaty with the people of Israel under the leadership of Joshua, a part of a section comprising Joshua 5:13–12:24 about the conquest of Canaan.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language. It is divided into 27 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus. Fragments of the Septuagint Greek text containing this chapter is found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I, and a reduced version of the Septuagint text is found in the illustrated Joshua Roll.

Analysis

The narrative of the Israelites conquering the land of Canaan comprises verses 5:13 to 12:24 of the Book of Joshua and has the following outline:

Israel Establishes a Covenant with Gibeon (9:1–15)

The successes of Israel at Jericho and Ai caused independent kings of different nations in Canaan to form an alliance in anticipation of the battle with the Israelites, except for the Gibeonites, parts of the Hivites, who decided to pretend that they were from a faraway land and to make a peace treaty with the Israelites.
Gibeon lay to the south of Bethel and Ai, a little to the north of Jerusalem, while the Israelite camp was still at Gilgal, near Jericho. A treaty, or 'covenant', was a 'universal mean of establishing relationships among peoples in the ancient Near East'. The Gibeonites acknowledge of Israel's successes since Egypt to the victories in Transjordan, so they seek an inferior status as the price of survival. The 'leaders' of Israel, who represent Israel in an official way, conclude the treaty, eating the Gibeonites' provisions, and then Joshua makes peace with them. The narrative, however, states that the treaty was not according to the will of YHWH, because the Israelites did not consult YHWH about it.

The responses after discovering the deception (9:16–27)

When the Gibeonites was revealed to be local inhabitants, the Israelites debated whether they should still implement the herem on these people, or rather honor the oath, and the decision was for the latter, with the Gibeonites consigned to servitude, as the retribution of their deceit. The short report in verse 21 is expanded in the final paragraph with a dialogue between Joshua and the Gibeonites, in which Joshua pronounced them 'cursed' for acquiring the treaty by deceit and the Gibeonites accepted the right of the Israelites to decide their fate. The Gibeonites was assigned to servitude at the 'place that YHWH should choose', that is, the main worship sanctuary of Israel, which may refer to Shiloh, a central sanctuary for Israel before Jerusalem or to city of Gibeon, as the great 'high place' at which Solomon would worship before building the temple, where the tent of meeting was established after Shiloh. By the time of Saul's reign, the application of the treaty was already well established, that when Saul broke the covenant by killing the Gibeonites probably to extend his territory in Benjamin, Israel suffered the consequences of a famine.

Verse 17

This verse shows that the "Gibeonites" live in four towns. Three of the four cities, without Gibeon, appear in Ezra 2:25 and Nehemiah 7:29.
  • Gibeon: is identified with "el-Jib", located in a valley basin next to the central watershed, the northern most of the four cities.
  • Chephirah: is identified with "Khirbat el-Kefireh", west of Gibeon.
  • Beeroth: was identified with "el-Bireh", but modern scholars believe it should be identified with Khirbet el-Burj near Beit Iksa, south of Gibeon.
  • Kiriath-jearim: is identified with "Deir el-'Azar ", south of Chepirah, west of Gibeon, above the village of Abu Gosh.