Paragraph 9:16–21

9:16a

Three days: In Hebrew, part of a day was counted as one day when reckoning time. For example, if the treaty was made on a Monday, these events were probably on the Wednesday evening. Translate this reference to Three days in a natural way in your language.

after they had made the treaty with the Gibeonites: It may be necessary in some languages to make the subject and the object explicit, For example, you could say:

three days after ⌊the Israelites⌋ made a covenant with ⌊the Gibeonites⌋

9:16b

the Israelites learned that they were neighbors: This indicates that the Israelites heard that the Gibeonites were their neighbors. In some languages it may be clearer to make either the subject or the object explicit. For example:

the Israelites learned that these people did indeed live nearby (Good News Translation)
-or-
the Israelites learned that the Gibeonites lived nearby (New Century Version)

living among them: The clause living among them is another way to say that the Gibeonites lived in a nearby town. It emphasizes that the Gibeonites lived close by, not far away, as they had claimed. Use whatever lexical or grammatical means is natural to show this emphasis.

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