C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Joshua 9:8-10

Jos 9:8-10

To the further question put by Joshua, where they had come from, the Gibeonites replied, “From a very distant land have thy servants come, because of the name of Jehovah thy God,” or as they themselves proceed at once to explain: “for we have heard the fame (fama) of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites.” They very wisely say nothing about the miracles connected with the crossing of the Jordan and the taking of Jericho, since, “as the inhabitants of a very far distant region, they could not have heard anything about things that had occurred so lately, even by report” (Masius).