Joshua 9:3,4

Joshua 9:3,4 And when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done unto Jericho and to Ai, They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up. As Joshua and his army moved into the Promised Land, the kings of the Canaanites began to fear and to react. The Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite banded together to fight against Israel, but they couldn’t prevail. God gave Israel the victory over all of them. But the Gibeonites took another strategy. They took the sneaky approach. They got old wine bottles and dry, moldy bread and put them in old sacks upon worn out donkeys. They put on old clothes with rags wrapped around their feet for shoes and showed up at Joshua’s camp pretending to be from a far away country. They said, “We are your servants and are from a far away country and have come to make a treaty with you.” The leaders of Israel looked at their dried up provisions and their old clothes and thought they were authentic. But they failed to ask God about the matter. So the elders of Israel made a treaty with Gibeon and gave their word on it. But after three days’ journey, the army of Israel came to Gibeon. The Gibeonites were just their neighbors! But they had made a treaty. Joshua said, “We have given our word, but you have lied to us. You people of Gibeon will be our servants forever.” The Gibeonites replied, “We would rather be alive and your servants than to be dead.” So the Gibeonites survived and became Israel’s servants.