Joshua 9:3

Gibeon. Literally, “a hill.” The city was situated on a terraced hill, and had a pool of water in it. Jeremiah refers to it as “great waters” (Jeremiah 41:12). The city was nearly 6 miles (9 km.) northwest of Jerusalem, on the road to Joppa. Its inhabitants, the Hivites (Joshua 9:7; see on Genesis 10:17), were included in the confederacy of verses 1 and 2. When the Gibeonites received the news of the destruction of Jericho and Ai, they concluded that it was futile to resist the army of Israel, and accordingly worked out a carefully planned scheme to gain favor with Israel and make a league with them.

Some scholars have considered the Hivites (see on Genesis 10:17) to be the same as the Horites or Hurrians (see on Genesis 36:20). The LXX calls the Hivites the Chorrhaion. If this identification has any validity, then a group of Horites, originally from the region southwest of Lake Van, in Armenia, settled in the vicinity of Gibeon some time before the arrival of the Hittites.

The Gibeonite form of government must have been more or less democratic, for the Gibeonites spoke of their elders and all their people as sending them (verse 11). Had their government at this time been headed by a king, his heart might have been too proud to bow to the conquering Israelites. In that event the Gibeonites might have joined with the other Canaanite kings in resisting Israel. The Gibeonites may have had spies at Ebal, when the law was read, who brought them word of the command given to Israel (see Deuteronomy 7:1-3) to show no mercy to the Canaanites, to give them no quarter in battle, and to make no league with them (see on Exodus 23:32). To say the least, their determination not to resist showed a degree of faith in the strength of Israel’s God. They were willing to enter into a league, which included their pledge to renounce idolatry and to accept the worship of Jehovah (Patriarchs and Prophets 506).