Yehoshua 9: How Much Wood Could a Woodchopper Chop

Faced with an ascendant Israelite army the Gibeonites try a little trickery of their own. They disguise themselves as foreigners and ask Joshua for a peace treaty. Without consulting God, Joshua and the people agree to the treaty. When it is quickly revealed that the Gibeonites were playing games, Joshua is stuck. On the one hand, the Israelites were instructed to wipe out the seven nations. On the other hand, they had just entered into a peace treaty. Even thought it was entered into with deceit, reneging on the peace treaty would also be an affront to God. The compromise position is that Gibeonites are to remain a lower caste responsible for water carrying and woodchopping. God seems to be in step with this decision because there are no repercussions for Joshua and Israelites for creating this treaty that theoretically went against the edict to destroy the nations. Later on in the book of Ezra (8:20), the Gibeonites are referred to as the Nitinim: “and of the Nitinim whom David and the officers had appointed for the service of the Levites—220 temple servants, all of them listed by name.”וּמִן־הַנְּתִינִים שֶׁנָּתַן דָּוִיד וְהַשָּׂרִים לַעֲבֹדַת הַלְוִיִּם נְתִינִים מָאתַיִם וְעֶשְׂרִים כֻּלָּם נִקְּבוּ בְשֵׁמוֹת(Ezra 8:20)They were later called the Nitinim because they were given over to the Temple service. Their reappearance in the book of Ezra also indicates that the Gibeonites upheld their end of the bargain through the centuries and even were committed enough to return with the few exiles to help build the Second Temple.The compromise with Joshua also created a new “category” of Jewish law relating specifically to the Gibeonites. Deuteronomy 23 mandates that someone from Ammon and Moav can never marry into the Israelite nation, and someone from Edom and Egypt must wait three generations. The Talmud in Yevamot 79a explains that Joshua decreed that the Gibeonites are also forbidden to marry into the Israelite nation as they were designated as slaves to the Temple (or Mishkan at that time). This is derived from verse 27: “That day Joshua made them hewers of wood and drawers of water—as they still are—for the community and for the altar of the LORD, in the place that He would choose.” וַיְשִׂימֵם יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא חֹטְבֵי עֵצִים וְשֹׁאֲבֵי מַיִם לָעֵדָה וּלְמִזְבַּח ה׳ עַד הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה אֶל־הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחָר(Joshua 9:27)Tractate Derech Eretz Rabba includes the Gibeonites among the list of those who disqualify their Israelite wife from eating terumah and later marrying a Kohen and disqualify a child from their union from marrying a fellow Israelite: “an Ammonite, Moabite, Egyptian, Idumean, slave, bastard, Nitin, Samaritan and a ḥalal (the illegitimate son of a priest).”The Shulchan Aruch also includes the Gibeonites in his hierarchy of charity:“If many poor seek help and there is not enough money in the treasury to help them all, a priest is given preference before a Levite; a Levite before an ordinary Israelite; an Israelite before a Halal; a Halal before a child of unknown fatherhood; such a one before a child of unknown parents; a child of unknown parents before a bastard; a bastard before a Natin; a Natin before a proselyte; a proselyte before an emancipated slave.”It is rare for an entirely new law to appear in the Prophets, but Joshua’s edict created a compact that lasts, theoretically, to this day.