The Cursed Ones

While learning ספר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ  I came across an interesting similarity between the story of the גבעונים and the story of שכם in ספר בראשית. Let's begin with the story in יהשוע first. In פרק ט the Navi relates to us an incident that occurred to the Jewish people upon entering the land of Israel. The Navi tells us at that when the kings that were west of the Jordan and along the coast of the Mediterranean sea, heard about the advancing Jewish nation that they joined together their forces to battle against the Jewish people. There was however a population called the גבעונים that were afraid because they feared the G-d of Israel and chose instead, a path of peace. They approached the nation of Israel disguised as sojourners from a faraway land that had heard of the miracles of the G-d of Israel and had traveled a great distance in order that they could join this great nation. The ruse turned out to be successful. Joshua and the Jewish people were fooled into believing their story and as a result the גבעונים were sworn an oath of protection against any harm. It was only three days later that the Jewish people realized that they were fooled. When the  גבעונים were confronted, they replied in Perek 9  כד וַיַּעֲנוּ אֶת-יְהוֹשֻׁעַ וַיֹּאמְרוּ, כִּי הֻגֵּד הֻגַּד לַעֲבָדֶיךָ אֵת אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה יְהוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת-מֹשֶׁה עַבְדּוֹ, לָתֵת לָכֶם אֶת-כָּל-הָאָרֶץ, וּלְהַשְׁמִיד אֶת-כָּל-יֹשְׁבֵי הָאָרֶץ מִפְּנֵיכֶם; וַנִּירָא מְאֹד לְנַפְשֹׁתֵינוּ מִפְּנֵיכֶם, וַנַּעֲשֵׂה אֶת-הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה.  כה וְעַתָּה, הִנְנוּ בְיָדֶךָ:  כַּטּוֹב וְכַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינֶיךָ לַעֲשׂוֹת לָנוּ, עֲשֵׂה -But they replied  to Joshua,"you see,your servants had heard that the lord your G-D had promised His servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all the inhabitants of the country on your account; so we were in great fear for our lives on your account.That is why we did this thing. and now we are at your mercy;do with us what you consider right and proper." So יהשוע made these converts into wood cutters and water drawers for the community and the altar of the temple-
כז וַיִּתְּנֵם יְהוֹשֻׁעַ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, חֹטְבֵי עֵצִים וְשֹׁאֲבֵי מַיִם--לָעֵדָה; וּלְמִזְבַּח יְהוָה עַד-הַיּוֹם הַזֶּה, אֶל-הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר יִבְחָר. (later on King David appointed them to preside next to the Leviim in the service of the temple in Jerusalem-see Ezra 8:20).

In the story of  שכם we find  a similar story but with a much different outcome. The daughter of Jacob was raped by  שכם and as a result of his love/lust of her he wanted to join both his family and his people with the children of Jacob. By the story of  שכם,  it was the children of Jacob-specifically the brothers, Simeon and Levi that were deceiving.  They convinced  שכם and his people that they were willing to enter a covenant with  them  as long as they were willing to circumcise themselves. Here too, it was  on the "third day" after the circumcision, that Simeon and Levi killed everyone in the city(see  ספר בראשית - perek 34).

When we look at both stories we can see some very interesting similarities in both their content and also their wording.  Both stories involve the "third day" as the day of reckoning by שכם  and the day that  יְהוֹשֻׁעַ realized that he was fooled . Both  שכם and theגבעונים are Hivites.  We also find similar phrasing- the word (guile)בְּמִרְמָה is used to refer to the deception  by the brothers of   שכם  (pasuk 13) while by Joshua the word  בְּעָרְמָה  (cunning) is used when referring to the  גבעונים ( Joshua 9,4).
I find it also very interesting that at the end of his life, Jacob "cursed "the anger of Simeon and Levi(Bereishit 49,7) and when Joshua summoned the גבעונים,  after he found out that they had fooled him. He said to them, "therefore be accursed!"(Joshua 9,23).   

There is a real irony that the   גבעונים  who were a G-D fearing people (they believed in G-D and in the prophecy of Moshe) and therefore wanted to join the Jewish people, were appointed as wood cutters and water drawers for the house of G-D-next to/together with the tribe of Levi. This is the same Levi that hundreds of years earlier slaughtered   שכם and his people. In the end the fate of  both peoples were eventually joined. The same cursed Levites were joined together with their arch enemy, the cursed   גבעונים, in the service of the Jewish people and the temple of G-D.