Joshua 9:14-23

¹⁴The Israeli leaders tasted the bread, but they did not ask Yahweh what to do.

¹⁵So Joshua agreed to make a peace agreement with the men from Gibeon to not kill them. All the Israeli leaders vowed to do what Joshua said in the agreement. Then the men from Gibeon returned home.

¹⁶Three days later the Israelis found out that the men from Gibeon lived nearby.

¹⁷So they went to where the men from Gibeon lived. After traveling only three days, they came to their cities: Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-Jearim.

¹⁸But the Israelis did not attack the people of those cities, because they had promised to live peacefully with them, and Yahweh had heard them promise to do that. All the Israeli people grumbled against their leaders for doing that.

¹⁹But the leaders answered, “We promised to live peacefully with them, and Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis worship, heard us promise to do that. So now we cannot attack EUP them.

²⁰This is what we will do: We will not kill them. If we kill them, God will be very angry with us and punish us because of not doing what we promised to do.

²¹So we must allow them to live. But they will cut wood for us, and they will carry water for us.” So the Israeli leaders did what they had promised.

²²Then Joshua summoned the men from Gibeon and asked them, “Why did you lie to us? Your land was near to where we had set up our tents, but you told us that you were from a distant land!

²³So now you will become our slaves. You will always be forced to cut wood and carry water for us Israeli people who worship in the temple of our God.”