Joshua 9:21 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Joshua 9:21
And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
said
וַיֹּאמְר֧וּvai.yo.me.Ru
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
live
יִֽחְי֑וּyich.Yu
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
hewers
חֹטְבֵ֨יcho.te.Vei
H2404
to chop or carve wood · verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
wood
עֵצִ֤ים'e.Tzim
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
drawers
וְשֹֽׁאֲבֵיve.sho.'a.vei-
H7579
to bale up water · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
water
מַ֙יִם֙ma.yim
H4325
water · noun, common masculine plural absolute
congregation
הָ֣עֵדָ֔הha.'e.Dah
H5712
a stated assemblage (specifically · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
princes
הַנְּשִׂיאִֽיםha.ne.si.'Im
H5387
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
promised
דִּבְּר֥וּdi.be.Ru
H1696
perhaps properly · verb, piel perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 29:11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
Joshua 9:23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house…
Joshua 9:27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD, even unto this day, i…
Joshua 9:15 And Joshua made peace with them, and made a league with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation sware unto them.
2 Chronicles 2:17-18 And Solomon numbered all the strangers that were in the land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; an…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 9:15-21
Here is, I. The treaty soon concluded with the Gibeonites, Jos 9:15. The thing was not done with much formality, but in short, 1. They agreed to let them live, and more the Gibeonites did not ask. In a common war this would have been but a small matter to be granted; but in the wars of Canaan, which were to make a general destruction, it was a great favour to a Canaanite to have his life given him for a prey, Jer 45:5. 2. This agreement was made not by Joshua only, but by the princes of the congregation in conjunction with him. Though Joshua had an extraordinary call to the government, and extraordinary qualifications for it, yet he would not act in an affair of this nature without the couns…
the children of Israel smote them not--The moral character of the Gibeonites' stratagem was bad. The princes of the congregation did not vindicate either the expediency or the lawfulness of the connection they had formed; but they felt the solemn obligations of their oath; and, although the popular clamor was loud against them, caused either by disappointment at losing the spoils of Gibeon, or by displeasure at the apparent breach of the divine commandment, they determined to adhere to their pledge, "because they had sworn by the Lord God of Israel." The Israelitish princes acted conscientiously; they felt themselves bound by their solemn promise; but to prevent the disastrous consequences o…
Hewers of wood and drawers of water - Perhaps this is a sort of proverbial expression, signifying the lowest state of servitude, though it may also be understood literally. See below.
John Gill on Joshua 9:21
And the princes said to them, let them live,.... They were very pressing upon them, and importunate with them, to save their lives, because of the oath they had taken:
(but let them be hewers of wood, and drawers of water, unto all the congregation): which was a very low and mean employment, Deuteronomy 29:11; as well as wearisome; and this being a yoke of servitude on the Gibeonites, and a punishment of them for their fraud, and of service, profit, and advantage to the people of Israel, the princess proposed it in hopes of pacifying them, and that they would yield to spare the lives of the Gibeonites; what they proposed was, not that they should hew wood and draw water for all the Israelit…
The Church Fathers
Thus, therefore, you also, if you have brought a word in praise of God, not new and fresh from the learning of the spirit, from the doctrine of God's grace, your mouth indeed offers "a sacrifice of praise," but your mind is accused on account of the sterility of yesterday's flesh. For the Lord did not delay and order the bread which he gave to the disciples to be reserved for the next day when he said to them, "Take and eat." Perhaps there is something of this mystery in the fact that "he commands them not to carry bread on the way," that you always bring fresh loaves of the word of God which you carry within you. For this reason, the Gibeonites are condemned, and they become "cutters of wood and carriers of water" because they had brought old bread to the Israelites whom the spiritual law ordered always to use fresh and new.
It must certainly be observed that heretics who do not receive the Old Testament are accustomed, when reading this passage, to make a slander, and they say: See how Jesus the son of Nave had no humanity in him, in that, while granting salvation to men who had come to him as suppliants, he inflicted upon them the mark of ill repute and the yoke of servitude. If a soul less instructed in the divine Scriptures hears these things, it can at once be weakened and endangered, so that it flees from the catholic faith; for they do not understand these men's deceptions. For Jesus held a fitting judgment toward them according to the measure of their faith. But moreover "Rahab the harlot," who believed with whole faith together with "all her house" and received the Israelite spies with fullest devotion, was received wholly into the fellowship and society of the people, and it is written of her that "she was joined to the sons of Israel unto this present day." But those men, who loved the fellowship of the Israelite nation not so much as, terrified by fear of their own destruction, they "came to Jesus with cunning and fraud"—how could they earn liberty of life and fellowship of the kingdom by servile deceits? In short, do you wish to know that a condition worthy of the baseness of their mind was dispensed toward them by Jesus? They themselves say, "we have heard how great things the Lord did" for you through the Red Sea and in the desert. And though they said these things and confessed that they had heard and knew of the divine wonders, yet they did nothing worthy of faith, nothing worthy of admiration of such great powers. And therefore Jesus, seeing their narrow and meager resolve in faith, preserves a most just moderation toward them, so that they might earn salvation, though they had brought but little faith, yet would not receive the highest degree of the kingdom or of liberty, because their faith was ennobled by no addition of works, since the Apostle James declares that "faith without works is held to be dead."
Dictionary and topics
Alliance — A treaty between nations, or between individuals, for their mutual advantage. Abraham formed an alliance with some of the Canaanitish princes (Gen. 14:13), also with Abimelech (21:22-32). Joshua and…
Drawer of water — (Deut. 29:11; Josh. 9:21, 23), a servile employment to which the Gibeonites were condemned.
Gibeon — Hill-city, “one of the royal cities, greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty” (Josh. 10:2). Its inhabitants were Hivites (11:19). It lay within the territory of Benjamin, and became a…
Slave — Jer. 2:14 (A.V.), but not there found in the original. In Rev. 18:13 the word “slaves” is the rendering of a Greek word meaning “bodies.” The Hebrew and Greek words for slave are usually rendered…
Contracts · 21:2-6; — 21:2-6;
Covenant · Sacred — Sacred
Gibeonites · Israel: Appointed, hewers of wood, &c — Israel: Appointed, hewers of wood, &c
Joshua · .Makes a treaty with the Gibeonites — .Makes a treaty with the Gibeonites
Magnanimity · the Israelites — the Israelites
Treaty · Sacredness of — Sacredness of
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Joshua 9:16-27
16. And it came to pass, at the end of three days after they had made a league with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them.
16. Post tres autem dies a foedere cum illis inito audierunt, quod pro-pinqui essent ipsis, et in medio ipso-rum habitarent.
17. And the children of Israel journeyed, and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim.
17. Profectique sunt filii Israel, et venerunt ad urbes ipsorum die tertio. Urbes autem eorum erant Gibeon, Chephirat, Beeroth, Ciriatjearlm.
18. And the children of Israel smote them not, because the princes of the congr…
The princes declared again most emphatically, "They shall live." Thus the Gibeonites became hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation, as the princes had said to them, i.e., had resolved concerning them. This resolution they communicated to the congregation at the time, using the expression יחיוּ (let them live); but the historian has passed this over at Jos 9:21, and instead of mentioning the resolution proceeds at once to describe its execution.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Joshua 9:18-21
Israel was not entitled to break this treaty even though the Gibeonites deceived the Israelites into making it. Breaking a covenant sworn by an oath in the presence of the Lord would have made light of God’s name and honor (cp. Gen 27:30-38).
Rashi on Joshua 9:14
And the men took of their provisions. They accepted their words. They trapped them with their mouths,10The men of Yisroel were taken in by their trick. as it is said, “But if he did not set an ambush.”11Shemos 21:13.
Nevertheless it must be known, so far as we are taught by the shadowing forth of figures of this kind, that if there are any such among us, whose faith has only this much, that they come to the church and bow their head to the priests, render services, honor the servants of God, and also contribute something to the adornment of the altar or the church, yet do not apply zeal to cultivate their morals as well, to amend their acts, to put off their vices, to cultivate chastity, to soften their anger, to restrain their avarice, to check their rapacity, to remove evil-speaking and foolish talk or scurrilities and the poisons of detraction from their mouth: let those who are such, who are unwilling to amend themselves but persevere in these things even to their last old age, know that a part and lot with the Gibeonites is to be allotted them by the Lord Jesus. But rather we beseech you, brethren, we who exercise the embassy of the word of God, that, while we still have the power of amending, we may make the effort and hasten, casting off the old filth and the "old rags" of vices, to be joined and associated to Israelite liberty. But do you wish to see how great the liberty of the Israelites is? In the law it is enjoined that it not be permitted for a "Hebrew boy," if perchance he has fallen into servitude, to serve more than "six years," but the law commands that "in the seventh year" he be dismissed "free." So great is the care for liberty among them. And if indeed we recall this to spiritual understanding, even if you too are a "Hebrew boy" who has fallen into servitude—for he is a boy who through the pliancy of his soul has fallen into servitude; and what sort of servitude, the Scripture says: "he who sins is a slave of sin"; into this servitude a manly and perfect soul does not fall, but a boyish and pliant one—therefore even if you are a "Hebrew boy," that is, already faithful and having obtained baptism in the church, and after this have fallen into the servitude of sin, let a servitude of "six years" suffice for you; "in the seventh year" take care that you do not serve, but hasten back to your liberty. The number seven signifies the law of the commandments; but the number six holds the figure of this world. As long, therefore, as "you savor the things that are of this world" and are exercised in them and "think according to the flesh," it is necessary…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
