^3–6The people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai and cooked up a ruse. They posed as travelers: their donkeys loaded with patched sacks and mended wineskins, threadbare sandals on their feet, tattered clothes on their bodies, nothing but dry crusts and crumbs for food. They came to Joshua at Gilgal and spoke to the men of Israel, “We’ve come from a far-off country; make a covenant with us.”

⁷The men of Israel said to these Hivites, “How do we know you aren’t local people? How could we then make a covenant with you?”

⁸They said to Joshua, “We’ll be your servants.”

Joshua said, “Who are you now? Where did you come from?”

^9–11They said, “From a far-off country, very far away. Your servants came because we’d heard such great things about God, your God—all those things he did in Egypt! And the two Amorite kings across the Jordan, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan, who ruled in Ashtaroth! Our leaders and everybody else in our country told us, ‘Pack up some food for the road and go meet them. Tell them, We’re your servants; make a covenant with us.’

^12–13“This bread was warm from the oven when we packed it and left to come and see you. Now look at it—crusts and crumbs. And our cracked and mended wineskins, good as new when we filled them. And our clothes and sandals, in tatters from the long, hard traveling.”

¹⁴The men of Israel looked them over and accepted the evidence. But they didn’t ask God about it.

¹⁵So Joshua made peace with them and formalized it with a covenant to guarantee their lives. The leaders of the congregation swore to it.

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