But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell near us. How can we make a treaty with you?”
Parallel translations
- WEB The men of Israel said to the Hivites, “What if you live among us. How could we make a covenant with you?”
- KJV And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league with you?
- NKJV Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?”
- NASB But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you are living within our land; how then are we to make a covenant with you?”
- NLT The Israelites replied to these Hivites, “How do we know you don’t live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you.”
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 men of Israel voice suspicion, wondering whether these people actually live nearby. A rightful caution is raised but not pursued.
Overview
Israel's leaders rightly sense the danger that these visitors might be local Hivites with whom no covenant was allowed. Their hesitation shows an awareness of God's command, yet they fail to press the inquiry to certainty. The moment underscores how good instincts must be carried through by seeking the Lord rather than being talked past.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Josh 11:19No city made peace with the Israelites except the Hivites living in Gibeon; all others were taken in battle.
- Judg 2:2and you are not to make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall tear down their altars.’ Yet you have not obeyed My voice. What is this you have done?
- Num 33:52you must drive out before you all the inhabitants of the land, destroy all their carved images and cast idols, and demolish all their high places.
- Exod 23:31–33And I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the Euphrates. For I will deliver the inhabitants into your hand, and you will drive them out before you.
- Gen 10:17the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites,
- Exod 3:8I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.
- Deut 20:16However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes.
- Deut 7:2–3and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you to defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.
- Gen 34:2When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.
- Josh 9:1Now when news of this reached all the kings west of the Jordan—those in the hill country, the foothills, and all along the coast of the Great Sea toward Lebanon (the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites)—
- Exod 34:12Be careful not to make a treaty with the inhabitants of the land you are entering, lest they become a snare in your midst.
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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 9:7 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
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