Joshua 10:1-6 -He and his people were very much alaramed

10:1-4

Adoni-Zedek, the king of Jerusalem, got together four other kings to take action against Israel. We should note that cities at that time were not enormous metropolises, and there weren’t large nations. In fact, Israel was possibly the most cohesive group. Hess seems to see the opposition to Israel as a result of the sin at Ai. As mentioned before, I don’t agree with this view. If Adam and Eve had never sinned, then evil would never have had a foothold, but that is not the situation. All men, Israel included, had sinned. The taking of the Promised Land was a taking back of land occupied by idolatrous people, and giving it to Israel. So opposition was to be expected. Just as opposition is to be expected to the gospel. Obviously the less we sin the better, but sin will always be there until Christ returns. We should also note that Israel proved herself to be just as idolatrous as the other nations, and suffered the consequences. Adoni-Zedek persuaded the kings to attack Gibeon. It is interesting that Gibeon was chosen. Possibly the kings saw it as a warning to anyone else who considered making a treaty with Israel. 

10:5,6

So the five Amorite kings joined forces and prepared to attack Gibeon. Gibeon, having made a peace treaty with Israel, called on Israel to come to her aid. She referred to herself as “your servants”. They had referred to themselves as “your servants” in 9:8. Now this could be just a polite form of greeting at the time, but they had actually been made servants by Joshua.