Joshua 9:11

11 So our elders said to us and all the inhabitants of our land, 'Take in your hand provisions for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, "We [are] your servants; so then {make a covenant with us}." '

Joshua 9:11 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 9:11

Wherefore our elders, and all the inhabitants of our country,
spake unto us
They suggest, that their senate, or the states of their country, their principal men were convened, and that it was the unanimous voice of them, and of the people, that they should go on this embassy:

saying, take victuals with you for the journey;
sufficient for so long a journey; for, in those times and countries, inns on the road were not frequent as now:

and go to meet them;
to prevent their coming in an hostile manner unto them, and make peace, and enter into an alliance with them:

and say unto them, we [are] your servants;
ready to come into any terms with them, just and reasonable:

therefore now make ye a league with us;
that we may live in friendship, and mutually assist each other, as occasion should require.

Joshua 9:11 In-Context

9 And they said to him, "Your servants have come from a very far land because of the name of Yahweh your God; we have heard of his reputation, of all that he did in Egypt,

10 and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who [were] beyond the Jordan--to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who [was] in Ashtaroth.

11 So our elders said to us and all the inhabitants of our land, 'Take in your hand provisions for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, "We [are] your servants; so then {make a covenant with us}." '

12 This [is] our bread; [it was] hot [when] we took it from our houses as provisions on the day we set out to come to you. But now, look, it is dry and crumbled.

13 These [are] the wineskins that we filled new, but look, they have burst; and these [are] our clothes and sandals that have worn out from the very long journey."

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "cut for us a covenant"