“But three days later, after they had made the covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors, that they lived there with them. The people of Israel traveled and arrived at their cities on the third day. Their cities were Giv‘on, K’firah, Be’erot and Kiryat-Ye‘arim.”-Joshua 9:16-17
The proper term for the type of treaty Israel entered into with the Gibeonites is called a SUZERAIN.
Literally, it is a peace agreement between two men or two nations.
However, in terms of authority, this was NOT an agreement among equals.
One party was considered inferior or subservient to the other.
A modern day definition which I pulled from the web is as follows:
“Suzerainty is a situation in which a powerful region or people controls the foreign policy and international relations of a tributary vassal state while allowing the subservient nation internal autonomy”.
Well, there you have it.
We’re basically referring to what is normally called a “vassal treaty”.
For example, this was quite different than the League of Nations established after World War II.
In that case, all nations were considered to be of equal standing.
Also, the 6-nation states that ganged up against Israel would be considered an alliance of equals.
In a nutshell, the Gibeonites agreed to be ruled by Israel and as a result receive their military protection.
On the other hand, understand that the Gibeonites would not intermarry or become grafted into Israel and…
…neither would they become slaves as if they had been conquered in a war.
When all was said and done, the leaders of Gibeon got what they wanted…
…which was a survival guarantee that their people would not be targeted for extermination as Israel continued to take over the Land of Canaan.
However, a mere three days later, Israel discovered they had been duped.
Joshua learned that Gibeon was located only about 20 miles form where they were camping in Gilgal.
He immediately sent a group of men to where the Gibeonites were residing to investigate further and what did he find?
Joshua discovered that not only were the Gibeonites full-fledged citizens living inside the Land of Canaan but they were not some small or isolated group of people.
Nope, they were a huge population and…
…in addition to their capital city of Gibeon, the Gibeonites were also controlling several smaller cities sprawled throughout the region called Cephirah, Beeroth and Kiriath-Jearim.
Every one of the above-mentioned cities were concentrated in the territory that had been assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin.
However, that was just the beginning.
The Gibeonites also controlled several other villages and towns in the outlying areas as well.
Joshua knew he had been had and had big time.
The takeaway here is clear.
When we don’t consult God on important matters before making important decisions in our lives, the consequences can be downright disastrous.
We’ll talk about what happened afterwards the next time we meet.
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