They said to him, From a very far country your servants are come because of the name of Yahweh your God: for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt,
The mention of "Ashteroth"  (Joshua 9:10) appears to be another contribution to the deception.  Ashteroth was some 20 miles east of Galilee;[17] and their mention of it was probably intended to show their familiarity with places and events far removed from Palestine.  As Plummer said, "This entire deception was carried on "with consummate astuteness."[18]  Of course, such a skilled and artful deception could not have been conceived and executed except under the urgency of the most critical necessity.  "The kind of necessity that precipitated this deception could never have existed in a forger or a interpolator, thus giving us a sign of the genuineness of this narrative."[19]