The kings who were across the Jordan in the hill country and in the lowland and on all the shore of the Great Sea toward Lebanon were threatened and gathered together to fight with Israel (vv. 1-2).
Verses 3 through 15 show us the trick of the Gibeonites.
The Gibeonites deceived Israel with craftiness (vv. 3-13). They went out as though they were envoys, taking old sacks upon their donkeys, old torn up and bound up wineskins, old patched sandals on their feet, and old garments upon themselves. All the bread of their provisions was dry and had become moldy. They went to Joshua at the camp of Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “From a faraway land we have come; now therefore make a covenant with us” (v. 6). The men of Israel said to these Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us. How then can we make a covenant with you?” (v. 7). They told Joshua that they would be their servants. When Joshua asked them who they were and where they came from, they answered that they came from a very far land, having heard reports of Jehovah and of all that He had done in Egypt and to the two kings of the Amorites, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan. They went on to say that their elders and the inhabitants of their land told them to take provisions, go to meet the people of Israel, and say to them, “We will be your servants; make then a covenant with us” (v. 11). They claimed that their bread had been hot but was now moldy, that their wineskins were new but were now torn up, and that their clothes and sandals had become old because of the very long journey. From this we see that the Gibeonites acted craftily.
The men of Israel took some of their provisions, but they did not ask for the counsel of Jehovah. Joshua then made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live. Furthermore, the leaders of the assembly swore an oath to them (vv. 14-15).
Eventually Israel uncovered the Gibeonites’ trick (vv. 16-27). At the end of three days, after Israel had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they dwelt among them (v. 16).
Israel still kept their oath because of the faithfulness of Jehovah (vv. 16-20, 22-25). The children of Israel came to the cities of Gibeon, but they did not strike them, for the leaders of the assembly had sworn to them by Jehovah the God of Israel. When the assembly murmured against the leaders, they told the assembly that because they had sworn to the Gibeonites by Jehovah, they could not touch them. They let them live so that wrath would not come upon Israel because of the oath that they had sworn to the Gibeonites.
Joshua called for the Gibeonites and asked them why they had deceived Israel by saying that they were far from them when they actually dwelt among them. The Gibeonites told Joshua that they knew that Jehovah the God of Israel had commanded Moses His servant to give all the land to Israel and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land. Then they said, “Therefore we were very afraid for our lives because of you, and we did this thing. And now here we are in your hand: Do as it seems good and upright in your sight to do to us” (vv. 24b-25).
Joshua delivered the Gibeonites from the hand of the children of Israel, and they did not slay them. Instead, Joshua took the Gibeonites as slaves—woodcutters and drawers of water for all the assembly and for the house of God and for the altar of Jehovah (vv. 21, 23, 26-27).
This account of the saving of Gibeon indicates that Jehovah had made His elect, Israel, powerful before the eyes of all the Canaanites.