That they feared greatly, because Gibeon was a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it was greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty. (Joshua 10:2)
They feared now not only the power of Israel and Israel’s God, as evidenced by the reports from Jericho and Ai, but also the military strength of the cities of Gibeon. They felt that any inclination toward changing sides must be stopped immediately.
As one of the royal cities.
Literally, “as one of the cities of the kingdom.” The importance of the word “as” should not be lost, because it reveals the accuracy of the writer. As previously mentioned, the city had no king but was governed by "elders" (see on ch. 9:3). Here, again, is an indirect intimation that Gibeon had no king, for it was like a city with a king for greatness. Gibeon was afterward the city of the first king of Israel, Saul (1 Chron. 8:29, 30, 33).