Joshua 9 · a question people ask
Why keep an oath that was won by a lie?
The princes give their own reason: "We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them" (9:19), "lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them" (9:20). The chapter adds no comment of its own. Later Scripture holds Israel to the oath. When David sought the LORD in a famine, "The LORD said, ‘It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death’" (2 Samuel 21:1), and the text explains, "the children of Israel had sworn to them" (2 Samuel 21:2). Christians give two main answers to why the oath still stood, and the two can be held together. Both agree that it was sworn "by the LORD, the God of Israel" (9:18), that Israel kept it (9:26), and that 2 Samuel 21:1-2 names the oath when it tells of the famine.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Because of the name it was sworn by
Those who hold this view put the weight on the words "by the LORD, the God of Israel" (9:19). The Law said, "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God" (Leviticus 19:12), and the psalm praises the one "who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn’t change" (Psalm 15:4). On this view the lie was the Gibeonites' own wrong, and it didn't undo an oath made in the LORD's name.
Joshua 9:19 · Leviticus 19:12 · Psalm 15:4
Because Israel swore before asking
Those who hold this view put the weight on 9:14: the men "didn’t ask counsel from the LORD’s mouth", and then the princes swore (9:15). The Law spoke of anyone who "swears rashly with his lips": "when he knows of it, then he will be guilty" (Leviticus 5:4). Ecclesiastes says, "Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake" (Ecclesiastes 5:6), and Proverbs, "It is a snare to a man to make a rash dedication, then later to consider his vows" (Proverbs 20:25). On this view the oath stood as the cost of Israel's own haste, and the chapter warns against swearing before asking.
Joshua 9:14-15 · Leviticus 5:4 · Ecclesiastes 5:6 · Proverbs 20:25
The verses
“The children of Israel didn’t strike them, because the princes of the congregation had sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. All the congregation murmured against the princes. But all the princes said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the LORD, the God of Israel. Now therefore we may not touch them. We will do this to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.””
“He did so to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children of Israel, so that they didn’t kill them.”
“There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” The king called the Gibeonites and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);”