the Fourth Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Joshua 9:4
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedParallel Translations
they acted deceptively. They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended.
they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wine-skins, old and torn and bound up,
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;
and they acted on their part with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and old wineskins that were torn and mended.
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,
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.
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.
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,
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,
And therefore they wrought craftily: for they went, and fayned themselues ambassadours, and tooke olde sackes vpon their asses, and olde bottels for wine, both rent and bound vp,
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,
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.
they developed a clever deception: they made themselves look as if they had been on a long journey by putting old sacks on their donkeys and taking used wineskins that had burst and been mended back together.
then they also acted with craft, and they went prepared as on a journey, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine-flasks, old and rent and tied up;
So they decided to try to trick the Israelites. This was their plan: They gathered together old wineskins that were cracked and broken. They put these old wineskins on the backs of their animals. They put old pieces of cloth on their animals to look as if they had traveled from far away.
They worked subtly, and prepared provisions, and laid old sacks upon their asses, and wine skins, old, torn, and patched;
and they decided to deceive him. They went and got some food and loaded their donkeys with worn-out sacks and patched-up wineskins.
And they acted slyly, and they went and acted like envoys, and took old sacks for their asses, and old wineskins, even torn and bound up;
they dealte craftely, wete on their waie, and made a message, and toke olde sackes vpon their asses, and olde rente wyne botels,
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,
Acting with deceit, got food together as if for a long journey; and took old food-bags for their asses, and old and cracked wine-skins kept together with cord;
And they dyd worke wylylye, & went and made them selues embassadours, and toke olde sackes vpon their asses, & wine bottels old, both rent & boude vp:
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;
They did worke wilily, and went and made as if they had beene embassadours, and tooke old sackes vpon their asses, and wine-bottels, old, and rent, and bound vp,
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,
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;
acted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.
and token to hem silf metis, and puttyden elde sackis on assis, and wyn botels brokun and sewid, and ful elde schoon,
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,
they also worked craftily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wine-skins, old and rent and bound up,
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;
they also resorted to a ruse, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks on their donkeys, and wine-skins, old and torn and bound up,
they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended,
they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old, patched wineskins.
So they went out to fool him, as men from another land. They took old bags on their donkeys, and skin bags of wine that were old and torn and mended.
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,
they, however, acted craftily, and went and started, - and took old sacks for their asses, and leathern wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
Cunningly devising took for themselves provisions, laying old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles rent and sewed up again,
they on their part acted with cunning, and went and made ready provisions, and took worn-out sacks upon their asses, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended,
Contextual Overview
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
and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.
"It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud,
'It is a perpetual statute throughout your generations in all your dwellings: you shall not eat any fat or any blood.'"
'You are not to eat any blood, either of bird or animal, in any of your dwellings.
'You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor practice divination or soothsaying.
"Only you shall not eat the blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
"Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.
"You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the LORD your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.
"Only you shall not eat its blood; you are to pour it out on the ground like water.
but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from 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.
