Joshua 9:3-13
This our bread we took hot for our provision
The evidence is staged and inspected. Every prop is chosen to prove distance, and the bread is the centrepiece.
Places of the Bible
Gibeon
A city that survived by lying convincingly, and the treaty it got by fraud was honoured anyway.
Having seen what happened at Jericho and Ai, the Gibeonites work wilily. They arrive with old sacks, cracked wine bottles, patched shoes and mouldy bread, and say we be come from a very far country. The account records the exact failure in one clause: and the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD. A league is made and confirmed by oath, and three days later the truth comes out.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Gibeon
- 01
- 02
Joshua 9:14-15
They asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD
One clause names the whole error. The inspection was thorough and the question that mattered was never asked.
- 03
Joshua 9:18-21
We have sworn unto them
The congregation murmurs and the princes refuse to break the oath. The fraud is punished with labour rather than the sword.
- 04
Joshua 10:6-14
Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon
Israel marches up all night to save the city that tricked them, and the longest day in Scripture is spent defending a treaty obtained by lying.
- 05
1 Kings 3:4-15
Give thy servant an understanding heart
Solomon sacrifices at the great high place here and is offered anything. What he asks for is the ability to discern between good and bad.
Why it matters
What happens next is the interesting part. Israel does not break the treaty. The princes say we have sworn unto them by the LORD God of Israel, now therefore we may not touch them, and the Gibeonites become hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation. Then five kings attack Gibeon for defecting, and Israel marches all night to defend the people who had deceived them. The long day happens over that battle, and centuries later the tabernacle is at Gibeon when Solomon asks for an understanding heart.
6 songs
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
