⁴³ Why then have you not kept your oath to the Lord and the commandment with which I commanded you?”

⁵ Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also ^(A)for the sake of conscience.

¹⁸ He despised the oath in breaking the covenant, and behold, he gave his hand and did all these things; he shall not escape. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head.

² I say:^[a] Keep the king's command, because of ^(A)God's oath to him.^[b]

¹² The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the princes commanded ^(A)by the word of the Lord.

² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but ^(A)of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.