¹⁶ Humans, of course, swear by someone greater than themselves, and an oath given as confirmation puts an end to all dispute among them.^(A)

¹¹ an oath before the Lord shall decide between the two of them that the one has not laid hands on the property of the other; the owner shall accept the oath, and no restitution shall be made.^(A)

The Certainty of God’s Promise

¹³ When God made a promise to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,^(A)

²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it, ²¹ and whoever swears by the sanctuary swears by it and by the one who dwells in it, ²² and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.^(A)

¹⁶ As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the place where the king resides who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant with him he broke—in Babylon he shall die.^{(A) 17} Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, when ramps are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives.^{(B) 18} Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, because he gave his hand and yet did all these things, he shall not escape.^{(C) 19} Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, I will surely return upon his head my oath that he despised and my covenant that he broke. ²⁰ I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare; I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has committed against me.^(D)

² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)^(A)

¹⁵ And Joshua made peace with them, guaranteeing their lives by a treaty, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.^(A)

¹⁶ But when three days had passed after they had made a treaty with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and were living among them. ¹⁷ So the Israelites set out and reached their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.^{(B) 18} But the Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. Then all the congregation murmured against the leaders.^{(C) 19} But all the leaders said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the Lord, the God of Israel, and now we must not touch them. ²⁰ This is what we will do to them: we will let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them.”

⁵³ May the God of Abraham and the God of Nahor^[a] judge between us.” So Jacob swore by the Fear of his father Isaac,^(A)

³⁰ He said, “These seven ewe lambs you shall accept from my hand in order that you may be a witness for me that I dug this well.”^{(A) 31} Therefore that place was called Beer-sheba,^[a] because there both of them swore an oath.^(B)

²³ now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity, but as I have dealt loyally with you, you will deal with me and with the land where you have resided as an alien.”