Commentary on Joshua - Keil & Delitzsch - David Cox

Keil and Delitzsch <strong>Commentary</strong> on the Old Testament
to do, by granting to the Gibeonites on the one hand the preservation of their lives
according to the oath they had taken, and on the other hand by making them slaves of
the sanctuary. That they acted rightly in this respect, is evident from the fact that their
conduct is never blamed either by the historian or by the history, inasmuch as it is not
stated anywhere that the Gibeonites, after being made into temple slaves, held out any
inducement to the Israelites to join in idolatrous worship, and still more from the fact,
that at a future period God himself reckoned the attempt of Saul to destroy the
Gibeonites, in his false zeal for the children of Israel, as an act of blood-guiltiness on
the part of the nation of Israel for which expiation must be made (2 Sam 21:1ff.), and
consequently approved of the observance of the oath which had been sworn to them,
though without thereby sanctioning the treaty itself.
Joshua 9:21
And the princes said unto them, Let them live; but let them be hewers of wood and
drawers of water unto all the congregation; as the princes had promised them.
The princes declared again most emphatically, "They shall live." Thus the Gibeonites
became hewers of wood and drawers of water to the congregation, as the princes had
said to them, i.e., had resolved concerning them. This resolution they communicated
to the congregation at the time, using the expression yichªyuw (OT:2421) ( let them
live ); but the historian has passed this over at v. 21a, and instead of mentioning the
resolution proceeds at once to describe its execution.
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