And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us; and how shall we make a league 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?”
- BSB But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you dwell near us. How can we make a treaty 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 11:19There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites the inhabitants of Gibeon: all other they took in battle.
- Judg 2:2And ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall throw down their altars: but ye have not obeyed my voice: why have ye done this?
- Num 33:52Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:
- Exod 23:31–33And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee.
- Gen 10:17And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
- Exod 3:8And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
- Deut 20:16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
- Deut 7:2–3And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
- Gen 34:2And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.
- Josh 9:1And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof;
- Exod 34:12Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee:
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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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