Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have you deceived us, saying, We are very far from you; when you dwell among us?
The critical allegation that "the altar of Jehovah ... in the place which he (God) should choose" was a customary reference to Jerusalem is erroneous.  We encountered many such critical assertions in our studies of Deuteronomy, but, as we pointed out, Jerusalem is nowhere mentioned in Deuteronomy, nor is  Joshua 9:27 here a reference to it.  Note the future tense in "God should choose," meaning that the permanent site of the tabernacle at this point in time had not been chosen.  On this account, we reject absolutely the etiological explanation quite arbitrarily assigned to this chapter by some critics.