But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,
Certainly, the stratagem of trickery or deceit was one with which Israel should have been very familiar.  Such devices were frequently employed by the patriarchs in Israel's early history.  Abraham and Isaac both passed their wives off as their sister, resulting in great financial gain to the deceivers.  The same device was used by Jacob against his father-in-law, Laban; and Jacob's sons used it on him in the matter of Joseph's alleged death!  The sons of Jacob, Levi and Simeon, also brutally deceived and destroyed the men of Shechem following the rape of Dinah.