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, etc. - All this, and what follows to the end of Joshua 9:13, was false, contrived merely for the purpose of deceiving the Israelites, and this they did to save their own lives; as they expected all the inhabitants of Canaan to be put to the sword.
Related Commentaries of Joshua 9:11
Joshua 9:11
11 Wherefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spake to us, saying, Take victuals with youb for the journey, and go to meet them, and say unto them, We are your servants: therefore now make ye a league with us.