Joshua 9:22-24

EasyEnglish Bible

²² Joshua called the Gibeonites to come to him. He asked them, ‘Why did you deceive us like that? You said that you lived far away from us. But you really live near to us. ²³ Because you told lies to us, you will always have to be our servants. You will cut wood and you will fetch water to serve our God.’

²⁴ The Gibeonites said to Joshua, ‘We heard about the command that the Lord your God had given to his servant, Moses. We know that he told Moses to take the whole of our land for you to live in. We know that you must kill all the people who live there now. Because of that, we were very afraid that you would kill us. That is why we did what we did.