Bible Strands
Joshua 9:24
The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Gibeonite delegation addresses Joshua and the Israelite assembly immediately after he pronounces their curse. They speak during the negotiation phase that follows Joshua’s demand for an explanation of their origins.
The words — The supplied lexical data identifies הֻגֵּד (hu.Ged) and הֻגַּד (hu.Gad), both from H5046 meaning “it was told.” The verse uses these forms to record the Gibeonites’ explicit claim that they received prior warnings about Israel’s conquest.
The thread — The delegation’s report of a divine command to dispossess the land directly echoes the territorial mandates in Deuteronomy 7:1 and Deuteronomy 20:15. Their stated fear of total destruction aligns with the border promises recorded in Exodus 23:31.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that the Gibeonites grounded their deception in the very conquest commands Israel received. It demands acknowledgment that fear of divine judgment, even when misapplied, drove their political survival strategy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 7:1 When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to possess, and He drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—
- Deuteronomy 20:15 This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
- Exodus 23:31 And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
- Numbers 33:55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides; they will harass you in the land where you settle.
- Matthew 10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
- Exodus 15:14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.
- Numbers 33:51 “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
- Deuteronomy 7:23 But the LORD your God will give them over to you and throw them into great confusion, until they are destroyed.
- Joshua 9:9 “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,
- Job 2:4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life.