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“Come up to me and help me, and let’s attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the sons of Israel.”
Joshua 10:4 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB “Come up to me and help me. Let us strike Gibeon; for they have made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.”
  • KJV Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
  • BSB “Come up and help me. We will attack Gibeon, because they have made peace with Joshua and the Israelites.”
  • NKJV “Come up to me and help me, that we may attack Gibeon, for it has made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.”
  • NLT “Come and help me destroy Gibeon,” he urged them, “for they have made peace with Joshua and the people of Israel.”

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 coalition's stated aim is to punish Gibeon for making peace with Joshua. They intend to strike the city that aligned with Israel.

Overview

Adoni-Zedek calls his allies to attack Gibeon precisely because it submitted to Israel, treating that peace as betrayal. The coalition thus turns its hostility first against those who sought safety among God's people. This sets up the occasion for Israel to defend its new ally, fulfilling the protection promised by covenant and demonstrating that God shelters those who take refuge with Him.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 14

  • Josh 9:15Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them.
  • Josh 10:1Now when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard how Joshua had taken Ai. and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them.
  • Acts 9:23–27When many days were fulfilled, the Jews conspired together to kill him,
  • Isa 8:9–10Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered!
  • 2 Tim 3:12Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
  • Matt 16:24Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
  • Acts 21:28crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. Moreover, he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place!”
  • 1 Pet 4:4They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming:
  • Isa 41:5–7The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.
  • John 15:19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
  • Rev 20:8–10and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
  • Rev 16:14for they are spirits of demons, performing signs; which go out to the kings of the whole inhabited earth, to gather them together for the war of that great day of God, the Almighty.
  • Jas 4:4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
  • John 16:2–3They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (7)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Joshua videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Joshua 10:4YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on JoshuaMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

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.

How Joshua 10:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.