‘And Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, “Why have you deceived us, saying ‘we are very far from you', when you dwell among us? Now therefore you are cursed, and you will never cease to provide bondmen (literally ‘there shall not be cut off from you a bondman'), both hewers of wood and drawers of water, for the house of my God.” '
Up to now the conversation had been between the princes and their tribespeople. The initial decision to make the treaty-covenant had been the work of all the leaders (Joshua 9:14) acting on behalf of their people. Now they had had to justify themselves to the people. But the final decision was then left for Joshua to pass on as their general and spokesman. The whole process brings out the tribal nature of their society. They were a confederacy of twelve tribes with each tribe self-governed but responsible to the centre, here Joshua, later the priests at the central sanctuary.
Joshua informed the Gibeonites that their deceit had brought them under a curse. They were to be permanent bondmen, serving Israel and serving the sanctuary in all menial tasks. Their cities were to be taken from them and would presumably be taken over by Israelites.
“For the house of my God.” Compare Genesis 28:17; Numbers 12:7. In Numbers 12:7 ‘My house' surely refers to Israel. Thus God saw Israel as ‘His house'. Joshua may thus have been speaking of the whole ‘house of Israel' (Exodus 16:31; Exodus 40:38; Leviticus 10:6; Leviticus 17:3 compare Exodus 19:3) as ‘the house of my God'. The word ‘house' is used regularly to describe a group of people connected to a common head, e.g. ‘the house of Israel' and ‘the houses of their fathers'. Or it may be that he saw Canaan in that way in contrast with Egypt, not the house of bondage but the house of God, in view of the wonderful things that were to happen there. Egypt was constantly described as ‘the house of bondage' (Joshua 24:17; Exodus 13:3; Exodus 13:14; Exodus 20:2; Deuteronomy 5:6; Deuteronomy 6:12; Deuteronomy 8:14; Deuteronomy 13:5; Deuteronomy 13:10). Jacob had acknowledged Bethel as ‘the house of God' because of wonders observed there, how much more could the whole of Canaan (seen prophetically as completely controlled by Israel once the final conquest had been achieved) be seen as ‘the house of my God'.
But the Tabernacle could also be described as ‘the house of YHWH your God' or ‘the house of God' (Exodus 23:19; Exodus 34:26; Judges 20:18; Judges 20:26; Judges 20:31; Judges 21:2) for it was where God ‘abided' with them. Compare for the full phrase 1 Chronicles 29:2-3; Nehemiah 13:14; Psalms 84:10, although these were much later and referred to the Temple. (The equivalence of a tent and a house in Israelite minds comes out in that going home was regularly described as returning ‘to their tents' even when they lived in houses. A house was a tent, and vice versa).