Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Messagethey chose a different strategy: cunning over combat. They set out disguised as weary travellers, loading worn-out sacks on their donkeys and carrying wineskins old, cracked, and patched together—
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.Gand they too acted with cunning. They set out having provisioned themselves—taking worn-out sacks on their donkeys and wineskins old, cracked, and patched—
KJV
King James VersionThey did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up;
BSB
Berean Standard Bibleacted deceptively and set out as envoys, carrying on their donkeys worn-out sacks and old wineskins, cracked and mended.
Footnotes
עָרְמָה (*ormah*) — "cunning, shrewdness." The same root appears in Proverbs for wisdom (*arum* = prudent, Prov. 12:23) and in Genesis for the serpent's craftiness (Gen. 3:1). The word is morally neutral in Hebrew — context determines whether it is praised or condemned. Here the narrative suspends judgement; the Gibeonites' cunning is born of terror (v. 24), not malice. FOG renders "cunning" in both versions to preserve this moral ambiguity rather than flattening it to "trickery" or "deceit."
