We are thy servants. This does not mean altogether, as Joshua 9:9 shows, that the Gibeonites intended by this embassy to reduce themselves to servitude. Their object, as Grotius remarks, was rather to form an alliance on terms of something like equality.
The phrase was one common in the East as a token of respect (e.g; Genesis 32:4, Genesis 32:18; Genesis 50:18; 2 Kings 10:5; 2 Kings 16:7). But no doubt the Gibeonites (see Joshua 9:11) expected to have a tribute laid on them.
And they would willingly accept such an impost, for, as Ewald remarks ( 'History of Israel,' Joshua 4:3), their object was "to secure the peace which a mercantile inland city especially requires" (see also note on Joshua 3:10).
From whence come ye? Joshua uses the imperfect, not the perfect, tense here. Commentators are divided about its meaning. Some suppose that the perfect, "from whence have ye come?" is mere direct and abrupt than "from whence may you have come?"
or, "from whence were you coming?" and certainly an indirect question is in most languages considered more respectful than a direct one (see Genesis 42:7). But perhaps with Ewald we may regard it simply as implying that their mission was still in progress.