Joshua 9:24

24 Which answered, It was told to us thy servants, that thy Lord God promised to Moses, his servant, that he should betake to you all the land, and should lose all the dwellers thereof; therefore we dreaded greatly, and purveyed to our lives, and we were compelled by your dread, and we took this counsel. (And they answered, It was told to us thy servants, that the Lord thy God promised to his servant Moses, that he would deliver all the land to you, and would destroy all of its inhabitants; and so we greatly feared, and purveyed for our own lives, and we were compelled by our fear of you, and so we did this thing.)

Joshua 9:24 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 9:24

And they answered Joshua, and said, because it was certainly
told thy servants
Or "it was told", told ^F20; not only certainly, told, but frequently told them, they had often heard of it by one means or another:

how that the Lord thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all
the land;
all the land of Canaan, no part excepted; they had heard much of the Lord God of Israel, and of Moses, what character he bore, and of the commands of the Lord to him; they seem to have knowledge of God, and faith in him as to his promises and threatenings, believing they would be fulfilled:

and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you;
as the gift of the land of Canaan to Israel was often spoken of by the Lord to Moses, and frequently mentioned by him; so there were instructions given him from the Lord, and which lie delivered to Israel, utterly to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan, so, that these people had accurate intelligence and information of this matter; see ( Deuteronomy 7:1 Deuteronomy 7:2 ) :

therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have
done this thing;
they answer to Joshua's question, "wherefore have ye beguiled us?" ( Joshua 9:22 ) , that it was fear of losing their lives, than which nothing is dearer to a man, and the principle of self-preservation that put them upon framing and using this device.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (dgh dgh) "indicando indicatum est", Pagninus, Montanus.

Joshua 9:24 In-Context

22 Joshua called (for the) Gibeonites, and said to them, Why would ye deceive us by fraud, (so) that ye said, We dwell full far from you, since ye be in the midst of us? (We live far away from you, when truly ye live right here in the midst of us?)

23 Therefore ye shall be under cursing, and none shall fail of your generation, hewing trees and bearing waters, into the house of my God. (And so because ye did this, ye shall all be cursed, and none of your generation shall ever be free, from cutting wood and carrying water, for the House of my God/for God's household, or his family.)

24 Which answered, It was told to us thy servants, that thy Lord God promised to Moses, his servant, that he should betake to you all the land, and should lose all the dwellers thereof; therefore we dreaded greatly, and purveyed to our lives, and we were compelled by your dread, and we took this counsel. (And they answered, It was told to us thy servants, that the Lord thy God promised to his servant Moses, that he would deliver all the land to you, and would destroy all of its inhabitants; and so we greatly feared, and purveyed for our own lives, and we were compelled by our fear of you, and so we did this thing.)

25 Now forsooth we be in thine hand; do thou to us that, that seemeth rightful and good to thee. (And so now we be in thy hands; do thou to us what seemeth right and good to thee.)

26 Therefore Joshua did, as he said, and delivered them from the hands of the sons of Israel, that they should not be slain. (And so Joshua did, as he said, and delivered them from the hands of the Israelites, and they were not killed.)