Joshua 9

1 And when the kings of the Amorites beyond the Jordan heard of it — those in the hill country and those in the lowland and those all along the shore of the great sea and those toward Anti-Lebanon, and the Hittites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Amorites and the Girgashites and the Jebusites — 2 they came together in one place, all of them at once, to make war on Joshua and on Israel.

3 And the people living in Gibeon heard everything the Lord had done to Jericho and to Ai. 4 And they too went to work with cunning. They went and got provisions and made themselves ready, taking old sacks on their donkeys, and old wineskins, split open and tied shut again, [a] 5 and the hollow soles of their shoes, and their sandals old and patched on their feet, and their clothes worn out on them; and the bread of their provisions was dry and moldy and eaten away.

6 And they came to Joshua into the camp of Israel at Gilgal, and said to Joshua and to Israel, “We have come from a far land. So now, make a covenant with us.” 7 And the children of Israel said to the Horite, “Look — perhaps you live in my midst. How then can I make a covenant with you?” [b] 8 And they said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Where are you from, and where have you come from?”

9 And they said, “Your servants have come from a land very far away, in the name of the Lord your God; for we have heard his name, and everything he did in Egypt, 10 and everything he did to the kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan — to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. 11 And when our elders and all who live in our land heard it, they said to us, ‘Take provisions with you for the road and go to meet them, and say to them: We are your servants; so now, make a covenant with us.’ 12 These are the loaves. We took them hot for our journey on the day we set out to come to you, and now they are dried up and eaten away. 13 And these are the wineskins of wine that we filled when they were new, and now they are split; and our clothes and our shoes are worn out from the very long road.”

14 And the leaders took some of their provisions, and they did not ask the Lord. 15 And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to keep them alive; and the leaders of the gathering swore an oath to them. 16 And three days after they had made the covenant with them, they heard that these men were near neighbors of theirs, and that they were living among them. 17 And the children of Israel set out and came to their towns; and their towns were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kiriath-jearim. [c]

18 And the children of Israel did not fight them, because all the leaders had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel; and the whole gathering grumbled against the leaders. 19 And the leaders said to the whole gathering, “We have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel, and now we cannot lay a hand on them. 20 This is what we will do: we will spare their lives, and we will keep them alive, and there will be no anger against us because of the oath we swore to them. 21 They will live, and they will be woodcutters and water-carriers for the whole gathering.” That is what the leaders said to them.

22 And Joshua called them together and said to them, “Why did you deceive me, saying, ‘We live very far away from you,’ when you are people of this country, living right among us? 23 And now you are cursed. There will never fail to be from among you a slave or a woodcutter for me and for my God.”

24 And they answered Joshua, “It was reported to us, everything the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant — to give you this land and to destroy us and everyone living on it from before you. And we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this thing. 25 And now, look, we are in your hands. Do to us whatever pleases you and whatever seems good to you.”

26 And that is what they did to them: Joshua rescued them that day out of the hands of the children of Israel, and they did not kill them. 27 And Joshua made them that day woodcutters and water-carriers for the whole gathering and for the altar of God. That is why the people living in Gibeon became woodcutters and water-carriers for the altar of God to this day, and for the place the Lord would choose.

30 Then Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel on Mount Ebal, [d] 31 just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the law of Moses — an altar of whole stones, on which no iron had been lifted; and he offered up there whole burnt offerings to the Lord, and a sacrifice of well-being. 32 And Joshua wrote on the stones the second law, the law of Moses, and he wrote it in front of the children of Israel. [e]

33 And all Israel, and their elders and their judges and their scribes, passed by on this side and on that, facing the ark; and the priests and the Levites carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord. And the newcomer and the native-born were there, half of them near Mount Gerizim and half of them near Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded, to bless the people first of all. 34 And after that, Joshua read out all the words of this law, the blessings and the curses, according to everything written in the law of Moses. 35 There was not a word of all that Moses commanded Joshua that Joshua did not read out in the hearing of the whole assembly of the children of Israel — the men and the women and the little ones and the newcomers who went along with Israel.