8 They said to Joshua, We are your servants. Joshua said to them, Who are you? and from whence come you?
It shall be, if it make you answer of peace, and open to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become tributary to you, and shall serve you.
He who was over the household, and he who was over the city, the elders also, and those who brought up [the children], sent to Jehu, saying, We are your servants, and will do all that you shall bid us; we will not make any man king: you do that which is good in your eyes.
He said, "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants will he be to his brothers." He said, "Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Shem; Let Canaan be his servant.
Now therefore you are cursed, and there shall never fail to be of you bondservants, both wood cutters and drawers of water for the house of my God.
That day Joshua made those wood cutters and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of Yahweh, to this day, in the place which he should choose.
As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel; their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them did Solomon raise a levy of bondservants to this day.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Joshua 9
Commentary on Joshua 9 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 9
Here is in this chapter,
Jos 9:1-2
Hitherto the Canaanites had acted defensively; the Israelites were the aggressors upon Jericho and Ai. But here the kings of Canaan are in consultation to attack Israel, and concert matters for a vigorous effort of their united forces to check the progress of their victorious arms. Now,
Jos 9:3-14
Here,
Jos 9:15-21
Here is,
Jos 9:22-27
The matter is here settled between Joshua and the Gibeonites, and an explanation of the league agreed upon. We may suppose that now, not the messengers who were first sent, but the elders of Gibeon, and of the cities that were dependent upon it, were themselves present and treated with, that the matter might be fully compromised.