They were very afraid, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
Parallel translations
- KJV That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty.
- BSB So Adoni-zedek and his people were greatly alarmed, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities; it was larger than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
- NKJV that they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
- NASB that he feared greatly because Gibeon was a great city, like one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all its men were mighty.
- NLT He and his people became very afraid when they heard all this because Gibeon was a large town—as large as the royal cities and larger than Ai. And the Gibeonite men were strong warriors.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The Canaanite kings are terrified because Gibeon was a great, royal-sized city full of mighty men. Its surrender signaled real danger to them.
Overview
Gibeon's size and strength made its peace with Israel especially alarming, since such a formidable city had chosen submission over war. The fear that grips these kings echoes the dread Rahab described earlier (Joshua 2), confirming that the Canaanites sensed God's hand against them. Their terror, rightly directed, should have led to surrender like Gibeon's rather than to doomed resistance.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Deut 11:25No man will be able to stand before you. Yahweh your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you.
- Josh 2:24They said to Joshua, “Truly Yahweh has delivered all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”
- Exod 15:14–16The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.
- Prov 1:26–27I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you;
- 2 Sam 12:26Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city.
- 1 Sam 27:5David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?”
- Rev 6:15–17The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
- Prov 10:24What the wicked fear, will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.
- Ps 48:4–6For, behold, the kings assembled themselves, they passed by together.
- Josh 2:9–13She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.
- Heb 10:27but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.
- Heb 10:31It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
- Deut 28:10All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, and they will be afraid of you.
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Joshua — the same name as Jesus, 'the LORD saves' — leads God's people into their inheritance, a shadow of the greater Joshua who brings us into the true rest and the promised land that remains.
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Original language
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