And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
They answered Joshua, saying, 'We were clearly told that the LORD your God commanded his servant Moses to give you all this land and to destroy all the people living here. We were terrified for our lives because of you, so that's why we did this.'
The Gibeonites are explaining to Joshua that they deceived the Israelites because they were terrified of being destroyed, having heard about God's command to give Israel the land.
📚 Historical Context
The Gibeonites were inhabitants of Canaan who had heard about Israel's victories and God's promise to give them the land. They deceived Joshua and the Israelites by pretending to be from a distant country to make a peace treaty, knowing that Israel had been commanded to destroy all the Canaanite peoples. When their deception was discovered, they were explaining their desperate motivation.
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