²⁷ the Jews firmly obligated themselves and their offspring and ^(A)all who joined them, that without fail they would keep ^(B)these two days according to what was written and at the time appointed every year,

^11 (A)And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. ^(B)And I will dwell in your midst, and ^(C)you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.

¹⁷ And in every province and in every city, wherever the king's command and his edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a feast and ^(A)a holiday. ^(B)And many from the peoples of the country declared themselves Jews, ^(C)for fear of the Jews had fallen on them.

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ^(A)ten men ^(B)from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for ^(C)we have heard that God is with you.’”

²¹ obliging them to keep the fourteenth day of the month Adar and also the fifteenth day of the same, year by year,

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David ^(A)sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” ² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but ^(B)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.

²⁵ And he made it a statute and a rule for Israel from that day forward to this day.

¹⁵ And Joshua ^(A)made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.