Joshua 9 is the ninth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
'' Old Testament of the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the

Joshua Joshua () or Yehoshua ( ''Yəhōšuaʿ'', Tiberian: ''Yŏhōšuaʿ,'' lit. 'Yahweh is salvation') ''Yēšūaʿ''; syr, ܝܫܘܥ ܒܪ ܢܘܢ ''Yəšūʿ bar Nōn''; el, Ἰησοῦς, ar , يُوشَعُ ٱبْنُ نُونٍ '' Yūšaʿ ...

, with additions by the high priests

Eleazar Eleazar (; ) or Elʽazar was a priest in the Hebrew Bible, the second High Priest, succeeding his father Aaron after he died. He was a nephew of Moses. Biblical narrative Eleazar played a number of roles during the course of the Exodus, from cr ...

and

Phinehas According to the Hebrew Bible, Phinehas or Phineas (; , ''Phinees'', ) was a priest during the Israelites’ Exodus journey. The grandson of Aaron and son of Eleazar, the High Priests (), he distinguished himself as a youth at Shittim with h ...

,Gilad, Elon
Who Really Wrote the Biblical Books of Kings and the Prophets?
''Haaretz'', June 25, 2015. Summary: The paean to King Josiah and exalted descriptions of the ancient Israelite empires beg the thought that he and his scribes lie behind the Deuteronomistic History. but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to

2 Kings The Book of Kings (, '' Sēfer Məlāḵīm'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Kings) in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. It concludes the Deuteronomistic history, a history of Israel also including the book ...

, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BC. 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

, 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 Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. It is divided into 27 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

are of the

Masoretic Text The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), Aleppo Codex (10th century), and

Codex Leningradensis The Leningrad Codex ( la, Codex Leningradensis [Leningrad Book]; he, כתב יד לנינגרד) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the Masoretic Text and Tiberian vocalization. According to its colopho ...

(1008). Extant ancient manuscripts of a translation into

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

known as the

Septuagint The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond ...

(originally was made in the last few centuries BCE) include

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

(B;

\mathfrak

^B; 4th century) and

Codex Alexandrinus The Codex Alexandrinus (London, British Library, Royal MS 1. D. V-VIII), designated by the siglum A or 02 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 4 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a manu ...

(A;

\mathfrak

^A; 5th century). Fragments of the

Greek text containing this chapter is found in manuscripts such as Washington Manuscript I (5th century CE), and a reduced version of the Septuagint text is found in the illustrated

Joshua Roll The Joshua Roll is a Byzantine illuminated manuscript of highly unusual format, probably of the 10th century Macedonian Renaissance, believed to have been created by artists of the imperial workshops in Constantinople, and is now held in the V ...

.Facsimiles of Illuminated Manuscripts of the Medieval Period
. Only contains Joshua chapter II to the end of chapter X

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: :A. Jericho (5:13–6:27) :B. Achan and Ai (7:1–8:29) :C. Renewal at Mount Ebal (8:30–35) :D. The Gibeonite Deception (9:1–27) ::1. Response of Canaanite Kings to Jericho and Ai (9:1-2) ::2. Report of the Gibeonites' Deception (9:3-13) ::3. Israel Establishes a Covenant with Gibeon (9:14-15) ::4. Israel's First Response to Discovering the Deception (9:16-21) ::5. The Gibeonites Explain Their Actions to Joshua (9:22-27) :E. The Campaign in the South (10:1–43) :F. The Campaign in the North and Summary List of Kings (11:1–12:24)

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 (Deuteronomy 1:7; 7:1; Joshua 3:10; the Girgashites are not listed here) to form an alliance in anticipation of the battle with the Israelites (verses 1–2), except for the Gibeonites, parts of the Hivites, who decided to pretend that they were from a faraway land (verse 3) and to make a peace treaty with the Israelites (verse 6). Gibeon lay to the south of Bethel and Ai, a little to the north of Jerusalem, while the Israelite camp was still at

Gilgal Gilgal ( he, גִּלְגָּל ''Gilgāl''), also known as Galgala or Galgalatokai of the 12 Stones ( grc-gre, Γαλαγα or , ''Dōdekalithōn''), is the name of one or more places in the Hebrew Bible. Gilgal is mentioned 39 times, in particula ...

(verse 6), near Jericho. A treaty, or 'covenant' (Hebrew: ''berit'', the same word used for God's covenant with Israel, Exodus 24:7), was a 'universal mean of establishing relationships among peoples in the ancient Near East' (cf. Joshua 24). The Gibeonites acknowledge of Israel's successes since Egypt to the victories in Transjordan (verses 9–10), so they seek an inferior status (to be "vassal") as the price of survival. The 'leaders' (verse 14; or 'leaders of the congregation' in verse 18) 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'' ("ban"; verse 16–21) 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 (verses 22–27) 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 (here, of Joshua) 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 (Deuteronomy 12:5, 14), which may refer to Shiloh (Jeremiah 7:12), a central sanctuary for Israel before Jerusalem (

1 Samuel 1 1 Samuel 1 is the first chapter of the First Book of Samuel in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible or the first part of the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the prophet Samuel, wit ...

– 3) or to city of Gibeon, as the great 'high place' at which Solomon would worship before building the temple ( 1 Kings 3:4), where the tent of meeting was established after Shiloh (2 Chronicles 1:3). 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 ( 2 Samuel 21).

Verse 17

1880 map of El Jib showing the well (marked Ain), cisterns (marked Cis) and Caves

:''And the people of Israel set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.'' This verse shows that the "Gibeonites" live in four towns (a "tetrapolis"). 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 Beit Iksa ( ar, بيت إكسا;) is a Palestinian village in the Jerusalem Governorate, located northwest of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The village is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli West Bank barrier, and outside Palestinians are de ...

, south of Gibeon.Finkelstein et al., 1997, p. 510 * Kiriath-jearim: is identified with "Deir el-'Azar ('Azhar)", south of Chepirah, west of Gibeon, above the village of Abu Gosh.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

translations: *
Yehoshua - Joshua - Chapter 9 (Judaica Press)
Hebrew text and English translation ith_Rashi's_commentary.html"_;"title="Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary">Rashi.html"_;"title="ith_Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentaryat_Chabad.org *__Christian_translations: *
''Online_Bible''_at_GospelHall.org
(ESV,_KJV,_Darby,_American_Standard_Version,_Bible_in_Basic_English) *
Joshua_chapter_9._Bible_Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshua_09 Book_of_Joshua_chapters.html" ;"title="Joshua_9.html" ;"title="Rashi">ith_Rashi's_commentary.html" ;"title="Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentary">Rashi.html" ;"title="ith Rashi">ith Rashi's commentaryat Chabad.org * Christian translations: *
''Online Bible'' at GospelHall.org
(ESV, KJV, Darby, American Standard Version, Bible in Basic English) *
Joshua chapter 9. Bible Gateway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Joshua 09 Book of Joshua chapters">09