Joshua 9:11
Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us. Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.
The verse preserves the charge given by the elders and all the inhabitants of the country to their envoys to take provisions for the journey, go to meet Israel, present themselves as Israel's servants, and ask for a league or treaty. The envoys carried out those instructions by claiming to have been sent from a distant country with provisions for a long journey. That claim of distant origin was a deception, for they were in fact Israel's near neighbors, and they resorted to it because they knew they could not successfully resist Israel.
The verse stands within the account of Israel's unwise treaty with the Gibeonites, a treaty that brought punishment upon Israel because counsel of God was neglected and not sought. The Gibeonites' request for a covenant through these envoys led to their renouncing heathenism, joining themselves to Israel, and sharing in the blessings of the covenant.