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C. Second Campaign: Five Southern City-states

Most of the indigenous Canaanites viewed the presence of the Israelites in Canaan as a threat. But some isolated villages decided it would be to their advantage to make peace with the Israelites. One such village was Gibeon. The problem, however, was that the Gibeonites knew the Israelites were not in the practice of making peace but were under holy war orders to exterminate everyone. But the Gibeonites were clever in getting around this. Although they lived only a short distance from Gilgal where the Israelites were encamped, they disguised themselves as foreigners. They figured that if they were perceived to be foreigners, who presumably held no claim to Canaan, then the Israelites might make a treaty with them.
    The Israelites were tricked by this deceit and entered into formal treaty arrangements with the Gibeonites, which included a pledge of protection. Shortly afterwards, the Israelites found out that these people lived only a short distance away. They were furious but could not dissolve the treaty and still be deemed honorable. In retaliation for their trickery the Israelites enslaved the Gibeonites, making them "hewers of wood and drawers of water," but stopped short of killing them.
    When the larger Canaanite city-states of the area heard of the Gibeonites' accommodation to the Israelites they in turn were furious and attacked Gibeon. The Israelites were bound by treaty to come to their aid. In the process of rescuing the Gibeonites, Joshua and the Israelites defeated the kings of five important southern city-states: Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon. This secured the territory of what would become Judah for the Israelites.

Sun Stands Still. In the course of Joshua's battle against Gibeon's enemies he called upon the sun to stand still in the sky to give the Israelites enough time to defeat the Amorites. "The sun stood in the middle of the sky and delayed setting for about a full day" (10:13).
ToC | Reading the Old Testament. . . Chapter 6. Joshua | ToC