What constitutes a nation? A community? Who among those who works right now to ensure life’s small and little comforts truly counts as a valued, seen, cared for member of society? Who's invisible among us, chopping our proverbial wood, bringing us water, laboring in hidden warehouses and behind screens for too little compensation or equal participation in the collective pride? When we say ‘we’ who don’t we actually count - and can, and should?
Ancient questions and challenges, met by different ideologies and political approaches.
Today’s chapter in Joshua presents an outlier case that sheds light on the systemic structure and ways to dismantle it.
As the determined conquest of Canaan continues, word gets out that there’s no mercy here for indigenous people. One desperate and enterprising group of locals tricks Joshua into believing that they have traveled from far away -to sing his praises and seek a truce as allies. Joshua and the elders are duped by the people of Gibeon, falling for the dusty costumes and props that make it look like they have traveled for months when in fact their city is one of the more prominent ones in the Canaanite hilltop region. But what is done cant be undone - the deal was struck and and Joshua,furious at having been deceived, is bound by honor, and instead of slaughtering the Gibeonites in the same way he disposes of all other locals - hands them their new assignment - slavery in the service of Israel, sanitation service squad of the future temple:
וְעַתָּ֖ה אֲרוּרִ֣ים אַתֶּ֑ם וְלֹא־יִכָּרֵ֨ת מִכֶּ֜ם עֶ֗בֶד וְחֹטְבֵ֥י עֵצִ֛ים וְשֹׁ֥אֲבֵי מַ֖יִם לְבֵ֥ית אֱלֹהָֽי׃
“You are cursed! Never shall your descendants cease to be slaves, choopers of wood and drawers of water for the House of my God.”
On the face of it, this is a familiar colonial move, a tragic twist of fate for once proud landowners who became the servants of the new regime. But is there more going on here below the surface as some scholars suspect - a more complex story of class and race, ethnic and religious tensions that eventually form the fragile fabric of Joshua’s nation?
The people of Gibeon’s job descriptions, super specific, are already mentioned by Moses in the Book of Words, chapter 29. When he describes the future gathering of the nation, he lists the full social spectrum - from priest and president to those who chop the wood and bring the water. The two tasks are also seen as gendered: The guys bring the wood, while the (often younger) women are tasked with the water. This is found throughout the bible.
Beyond gendered roles, Biblical scholar Jeffrey Tigay claims that the specificity of mention means that Moses does not just mean menial laborers from among the poorest of Israel's working class - it’s code for ‘foreigners’ who are possibly enslaved to the Israelites. It may mean ‘sojourners’(gerim) - a special class of foreigners who are not slaves but somehow their own class, vulnerable outsiders, placed together repeatedly with the widow and the orphan, all entitled to equal justice with Israelites.
Could the Gibenoites, demoted to the lowest labor on the social ladder be entitled to any rights as members of the nation? Why the repeated phrase describing their new roles, already used by Moses to indicate inclusion?
The people of Gibeon are the only ones from among the Cananites to survive the conquest, even at the price of their freedom. Was it their thanks to their cunning strategy of survival or was this story a cover up to hide earlier origins and complicated familial ties and tensions that over time created the Hebrew state? Some believe that this may hint at who they really were - original locals who were part of the pact but somehow reduced to lower level, with a framing story that explains why. The ultimate editing of the Joshua narrative wanted to portray firm boundaries between us and them when in fact those were - and are - always much more complex and fluid.
What is our responsibility today to the ones who chop our wood and bring our water, seen and unseen, valued or forgotten, struggling under minimum wage and at the mercy of mobs and problematic politics that elevate hatred in the so-called name of national unity and cohesion? When are we those invisible voices, valued less and finding cunning ways to ensure our very survival? The Gibeon story perhaps provides some formulas for creative co-existence and survival of minorities within complex realities, so similar to some of what’s happening in our realities right now.
Gibeon’s name lives on - in an attempt to honor his oath to help the allies, Joshua will step up in the next chapter to fight for them - and even stop the sun.
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Hevrelock says that the writers may understand their audience’s preference of war and conquest stories rather than treaties and assimilation. So .. punish those Gibeonites! I like their props and costumes!