Today’s biblical sites included Gibeon. Gibeon is the Canaanite
city whose residents (the Hivites Josh. 9:7) pretended to be a
long distance away from the land of Canaan, as they approached
Joshua and the men of Israel in the days of the Conquest. They
brought old dry, moldy bread and wore worn out clothes, and said
the bread was fresh when they left, and their garments had worn
out along the way. The text says, “Then the men of Israel took
some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the
Lord” (Josh 9:14). Later the Israelites found out they had been
deceived. They honored their covenant with the Gibeonites, but
made them wood cutters and water carriers for the house of God
(v.23). Because the Gibeonites had made a treaty with Israel, a
coalition of kings to the south, led by the king of the
Jebusites (ancient Jerusalem), attached. They sent to Joshua for
help, and he responded, defeating these southern kings. Needed
extra daylight to make the victory complete, Joshua prayed to
the Lord, and the