Bible in Basic English
"Acting with deceit, got food together as if for a long journey; and took old food-bags for their asses, and old and cracked wine-skins kept together with cord;"
— Joshua 9:4, Bible in Basic English
“They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;”
Now on hearing the news of these things, all the kings on the west side of Jordan, in the hill-country and the lowlands and by the Great Sea in front of Lebanon, the Hittites and the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites,
Came together with one purpose, to make war against Joshua and Israel.
And the men of Gibeon, hearing what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,
Acting with deceit, got food together as if for a long journey; and took old food-bags for their asses, and old and cracked wine-skins kept together with cord;
And put old stitched-up shoes on their feet, and old clothing on their backs; and all the food they had with them was dry and broken up.
And they came to Joshua to the tent-circle at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country: so now make an agreement with us.
And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, It may be that you are living among us; how then may we make an agreement with you?