Joshua 9:4
New International Version
they resorted to a ruse: They went as a delegation whose donkeys were loaded with worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

New Living Translation
they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old, patched wineskins.

English Standard Version
they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,

Berean Standard Bible
acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

King James Bible
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;

New King James Version
they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended,

New American Standard Bible
but they on their part acted craftily and went and took provisions for a journey, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins that were worn out, split open, and patched,

NASB 1995
they also acted craftily and set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended,

NASB 1977
they also acted craftily and set out as envoys, and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,

Legacy Standard Bible
So they also acted craftily and went and traveled as envoys and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins worn-out and torn and mended,

Amplified Bible
they too acted craftily and cunningly, and set out and took along provisions, but took worn-out sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins (leather bottles) that were worn out and split open and patched together,

Christian Standard Bible
they acted deceptively. They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
they acted deceptively. They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

American Standard Version
they also did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-skins, old and rent and bound up,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And they also worked with subtlety and they went, they traveled as Ambassadors and they cast old sackcloth on their donkeys and wineskins of wine that were worn out and torn and sewn up

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And they also wrought craftily, and they went and made provision and prepared themselves; and having taken old sacks on their shoulders, and old and rent and patched bottles of wine,

Contemporary English Version
So they decided that some of their men should pretend to be messengers to Israel from a faraway country. The men put worn-out bags on their donkeys and found some old wineskins that had cracked and had been sewn back together.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Cunningly devising took for themselves provisions, laying old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles rent and sewed up again,

English Revised Version
they also did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wineskins, old and rent and bound up;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
they devised a scheme. They posed as messengers. They took worn-out sacks on their donkeys. Their wineskins were old, split, and patched.

Good News Translation
and they decided to deceive him. They went and got some food and loaded their donkeys with worn-out sacks and patched-up wineskins.

International Standard Version
they took the initiative by preparing their provisions shrewdly: they took tattered sacks for their donkeys, worn-out, torn, and mended wineskins,

JPS Tanakh 1917
they also did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine skins, worn and rent and patched up;

Literal Standard Version
and they work, even they, with subtlety, and go, and feign to be ambassadors, and take old sacks for their donkeys, and wine-bottles, old, and split, and bound up,

Majority Standard Bible
acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.

New American Bible
formed their own scheme. They chose provisions for a journey, making use of old sacks for their donkeys, and old wineskins, torn and mended.

NET Bible
they did something clever. They collected some provisions and put worn-out sacks on their donkeys, along with worn-out wineskins that were ripped and patched.

New Revised Standard Version
they on their part acted with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,

New Heart English Bible
they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wineskins, old and torn and bound up,

Webster's Bible Translation
They did work craftily, and went and made as if they had been embassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;

World English Bible
they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and old, torn-up and bound up wine skins,

Young's Literal Translation
and they work, even they, with subtilty, and go, and feign to be ambassadors, and take old sacks for their asses, and wine-bottles, old, and rent, and bound up,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
The Deceit of the Gibeonites
3But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, 4acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended. 5They put worn, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies, and their whole supply of bread was dry and moldy.…

Cross References
Matthew 9:17
Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will spill, and the wineskins will be ruined. Instead, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved."

Joshua 9:3
But the people of Gibeon, having heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,

Joshua 9:5
They put worn, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies, and their whole supply of bread was dry and moldy.

Joshua 9:13
These wineskins were new when we filled them, but look, they are cracked. And these clothes and sandals are worn out from our very long journey."


Treasury of Scripture

They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;

work wilily

Genesis 34:13
And the sons of Jacob answered Shechem and Hamor his father deceitfully, and said, because he had defiled Dinah their sister:

1 Kings 20:31-33
And his servants said unto him, Behold now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, I pray thee, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes upon our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save thy life…

Matthew 10:16
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Psalm 119:83
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.

Matthew 9:17
Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

Mark 2:22
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles: else the new wine doth burst the bottles, and the wine is spilled, and the bottles will be marred: but new wine must be put into new bottles.

Jump to Previous
Acted Acting Ambassadors Asses Bottles Bound Cord Craftily Deceit Delegation Donkeys Embassadors Envoys Journey Kept Loaded Patched Prepared Ready Rent Resorted Sacks Skins Together Torn Wine Wine-Bottles Wineskins Work Worn Worn-Out
Jump to Next
Acted Acting Ambassadors Asses Bottles Bound Cord Craftily Deceit Delegation Donkeys Embassadors Envoys Journey Kept Loaded Patched Prepared Ready Rent Resorted Sacks Skins Together Torn Wine Wine-Bottles Wineskins Work Worn Worn-Out
Joshua 9
1. The kings combine against Israel
3. The Gibeonites by craft obtain a league
22. They are condemned to perpetual bondage














(4) They did work wilily.--Literally, and they also dealt with subtilty. The stratagem does not seem a very profound one, or one that would have been difficult to detect. But we may remember a fact of Israel's experience which puts it in a somewhat different light. The Israelites themselves had come from a far country, but their raiment had not "waxed old upon them," nor did "their feet swell," these forty years. Of bread they had no need, when there was manna, and God gave them water for their thirst. Of worn garments and stale provisions they had no experience, and therefore, when the Gibeonites presented themselves in this extraordinary garb and guise, it is not unnatural that they were not detected by the eyes of Israel.

They . . . made as if they had been ambassadors.--The verb thus translated does not occur elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. By the alteration of a letter, the Targum, LXX., and some other versions make it mean, "they gat them provision."

Verse 4. - They did work wilily. Rather, and they worked - they also - with craft. The reference, no doubt, is to the confederacy of the other kings. The Gibeonites also acted upon what they had heard, but they preferred an accommodation to war. So Calvin and Rosenmuller; also Drusius. And they felt that they could only effect their purpose by craft. Other explanations are given, such as that a reference is made to Joshua's stratagem at Ai. Keil rejects both, and proposes an explanation of his own, which is unintelligible. Origen's interpretation here is interesting as a specimen of the theology of the third century. He regards the Gibeonites as the type of men who, though they are enrolled in the Church as believers and have faith in God, and acquiesce in all the Divine precepts, and are ready enough to take part in all the external duties of religion, are yet involved in vices and foulnesses, like the Gibeonites in their old garments and clouted shoes. They display no signs of improvement or alteration, yet Jesus our Lord concedes to them salvation, even though that salvation does not escape a certain stigma of disgrace. That there may be some persons in a condition somewhat resembling this described by Origen may be admitted, but it is difficult to see how any one in a state of salvation can display no signs of improvement whatever. There are many who do not improve as they might, whom we should yet hesitate to pronounce altogether reprobate from God. But surely the entire absence of all improvement is a manifest sign of reprobation. This passage is one of many among the voluminous works of Origen in which that holy and learned man has not sufficiently weighed what he was saying (see below, ver. 23). Made as if they had been ambassadors. "Sent an embassy" (Luther). If we take this reading, we must suppose, with Grotius and others, the word to be the Hithpahel of צִיר to go, to revolve. But the form is rare, and the word is elsewhere unknown, at least in Hebrew, though an Arabic form of it is found. It is therefore better to read יֹצְטַיָּדוּ "they prepared themselves provisions." This is the reading of the LXX., the Vulgate, the Chaldee, the Syriac, and of most modern editors. It is rendered still more probable by the occurrence of the same word in ver. 12. Old sacks. Rather, worn out, and so throughout the passage. The usual mode of conveyance still in the East is in sackcloth bags on the backs of horses, mules, camels, and asses. Such bags are apt to meet with rough usage in a long journey. Wine bottles. Rather, wine skins, the wine then being kept in skins, not in vessels of glass. This explains how they could be burst open (מְבֻקָּעִים) and tied up. These skins were hung up frequently in the smoke (Psalm 119:83), which gave them a shrivelled appearance. The first bottles were made of such skins, as Herodotus tells us. The Egyptian monuments confirm his statements, displaying as they do skins of animals so used, with the legs or the neck forming what we still term the "neck" of the bottle (cf. Homer, Iliad, 4:247, ἀσκῷ ἐν αἰγείῳ). Similar bottles are depicted on the walls of Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the like may be seen still in Italian villages. They were pitched over at the seams to prevent leakage (cf. Job 32:19; Matthew 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37, 38. See also Kitto's 'Cyclopaedia of Biblical Literature '). Bound up. The usual mode of mending in the East, except when a patch is inserted, is to tie or sew up the hole.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
acted deceptively
וַיַּעֲשׂ֤וּ (way·ya·‘ă·śū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6213: To do, make

and set out
וַיֵּלְכ֖וּ (way·yê·lə·ḵū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 1980: To go, come, walk

as envoys,
וַיִּצְטַיָּ֑רוּ (way·yiṣ·ṭay·yā·rū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Hitpael - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 6737: To make an errand, betake oneself

carrying
וַיִּקְח֞וּ (way·yiq·ḥū)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 3947: To take

on their donkeys
לַחֲמ֣וֹרֵיהֶ֔ם (la·ḥă·mō·w·rê·hem)
Preposition-l | Noun - masculine plural construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 2543: A male ass

worn-out
בָּלִים֙ (bā·lîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 1087: Worn out

sacks
שַׂקִּ֤ים (śaq·qîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 8242: A mesh, coarse loose cloth, sacking, a bag

and old
בָּלִ֔ים (bā·lîm)
Adjective - masculine plural
Strong's 1087: Worn out

wineskins,
וְנֹאד֥וֹת (wə·nō·ḏō·wṯ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct
Strong's 4997: A skin bottle, skin

cracked
וּמְבֻקָּעִ֖ים (ū·mə·ḇuq·qā·‘îm)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Pual - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 1234: To cleave, to rend, break, rip, open

and mended.
וּמְצֹרָרִֽים׃ (ū·mə·ṣō·rā·rîm)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Pual - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 6887: To bind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, or cramped


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OT History: Joshua 9:4 They also resorted to a ruse (Josh. Jos)
Joshua 9:3
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