约书亚记 9:4

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

就施詭計，假冒使者而來，把舊的布袋和破裂又修補過的舊皮酒袋馱在驢上，

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
就 设 诡 计 ， 假 充 使 者 ， 拿 旧 口 袋 和 破 裂 缝 补 的 旧 皮 酒 袋 驮 在 驴 上 ，

Contextual Overview

³ When the people of Gibeon heard how Joshua had defeated Jericho and Ai, ⁴ they decided to trick the Israelites. They gathered old sacks and old leather wine bags that were cracked and mended, and they put them on the backs of their donkeys. ⁵ They put old sandals on their feet and wore old clothes, and they took some dry, moldy bread. ⁶ Then they went to Joshua in the camp near Gilgal. The men said to Joshua and the Israelites, "We have traveled from a faraway country. Make a peace agreement with us." ⁷ The Israelites said to these Hivites, "Maybe you live near us. How can we make a peace agreement with you?" ⁸ The Hivites said to Joshua, "We are your servants." But Joshua asked, "Who are you? Where do you come from?" ⁹ The men answered, "We are your servants who have come from a far country, because we heard of the fame of the Lord your God. We heard about what he has done and everything he did in Egypt. ¹⁰ We heard that he defeated the two kings of the Amorites from the east side of the Jordan River—Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan who ruled in Ashtaroth. ¹¹ So our elders and our people said to us, ‘Take food for your journey and go and meet the Israelites. Tell them, "We are your servants. Make a peace agreement with us."' ¹² "Look at our bread. On the day we left home to come to you it was warm and fresh, but now it is dry and moldy.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

work wilily: Genesis 34:13, 1 Kings 20:31-33, Matthew 10:16, Luke 16:8

ambassadors: The word tzir, an ambassador, properly denotes a hinge; because an ambassador is a person upon whom the business turns as upon a hinge. So the Latin Cardinalis, from cardo, a hinge, was the title of the prime minister of the emperor Theodosius, though now applied only to the Pope's electors and counsellors.

wine bottles: These bottles being made of skin, were consequently liable to be rent, and capable of being mended; which is done, according to Chardin, by putting in a piece, or by gathering up the wounded piece in the manner of a purse; and sometimes by inserting a flat piece of wood. Psalms 119:83, Matthew 9:17, Mark 2:22, Luke 5:37, Luke 5:38

Reciprocal: Joshua 9:12 - our bread

Cross-References

Genesis 9:10
and with every living thing that is with you—the birds, the tame and the wild animals, and with everything that came out of the boat with you—with every living thing on earth.

Genesis 9:14
When I bring clouds over the earth and a rainbow appears in them,

Leviticus 3:17
"‘This law will continue for people from now on, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or blood.'"

Leviticus 7:26
No matter where you live, you must not eat blood from any bird or animal.

Leviticus 19:26
"‘You must not eat anything with the blood in it. "‘You must not try to tell the future by signs or black magic.

Deuteronomy 12:16
but do not eat the blood. Pour it out on the ground like water.

Deuteronomy 12:23
but be sure you don't eat the blood, because the life is in the blood. Don't eat the life with the meat.

Deuteronomy 14:21
Do not eat anything you find that is already dead. You may give it to a foreigner living in your town, and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. But you are holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Do not cook a baby goat in its mother's milk.

Deuteronomy 15:23
But don't eat its blood; pour it out on the ground like water.

Acts 15:20
Instead, we should write a letter to them telling them these things: Stay away from food that has been offered to idols (which makes it unclean), any kind of sexual sin, eating animals that have been strangled, and blood.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And they did work wilily,.... Acted craftily, dealt in much cunning and subtlety; our version leaves out a very emphatic word, "also"; they also, as well as other nations, acted a cunning part, but in a different way; they did not enter into consultations and alliances with others, how to defend themselves, but made use of a stratagem to make peace, and enter into a league with Israel; or also as the Israelites had done, either as Simeon and Levi had dealt craftily with the Shechemites, who were Hivites, Genesis 34:2; so now the Gibeonites, who also were Hivites, Joshua 9:7; wrought in a wily and crafty manner with them, so Jarchi; or as the Israelites had lately done in the affair of Ai:

and went and made as if they had been ambassadors: from some states in a foreign country, sent on an embassy to the people of Israel, to compliment them on their successes, and to enter into alliance with them, which they thought would be pleasing and acceptable to them; the Targum is,

"they prepared food,''

which they took with them for their journey; and so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions:

and took old sacks upon their asses: in which they put, their provisions:

and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up: not made of glass, as ours usually are, but of the skins of beasts, as the bottles in the eastern countries commonly were; which in time grew old, and were rent and burst, and they were obliged to mend them, and bind them up, that they might hold together, and retain the liquor put into them, see Matthew 9:17.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They did work wilily - literally, “they also,” or “they too, did work, etc.” The “also” serves, apparently, to connect the stratagem of the Gibeonites with that employed by the Israelites before Ai. It hints that the Gibeonites resolved to meet craft with craft.

Rent and bound up - i. e. the wine skins were torn and roughly repaired by tying up the edges of the tear. The more thorough and careful way, hardly feasible in a hasty journey, would have been to insert a patch.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Joshua 9:4. They did work wilily — Finesse of this kind is allowed by the conduct of all nations; and stratagems in war are all considered as legal. Nine tenths of the victories gained are attributable to stratagem; all sides practise them, and therefore none can condemn them. Much time and labour have been lost in the inquiry, "Did not the Gibeonites tell lies?" Certainly they did, and what is that to us? Does the word of God commend them for it? It does not. Are they held up to us as examples! Surely no. They did what any other nation would have done in their circumstances, and we have nothing to do with their example. Had they come to the Israelites, and simply submitted themselves without opposition and without fraud, they had certainly fared much better. Lying and hypocrisy always defeat their own purpose, and at best can succeed only for a short season. Truth and honesty never wear out.

Old sacks-and wine bottles, old, &c. — They pretended to have come from a very distant country, and that their sacks and the goat-skins that served them for carrying their wine and water in, were worn out by the length of the journey.