¹⁷ The men said to her, “We will be released from this oath that you have made us swear to you^(A)

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.^(A)

² When a man makes a vow to the Lord or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.^(A)

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David inquired of the Lord. 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 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)

¹¹ “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; and you shall not lie to one another.^{(A) 12} And you shall not swear falsely by my name, profaning the name of your God: I am the Lord.^(B)

²⁰ But if you tell this business of ours, then we shall be released from this oath that you made us swear to you.”

⁷ “You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.^(A)

³ and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live,^{(A) 4} but will go to my country and to my kindred and get a wife for my son Isaac.”^{(B) 5} The servant said to him, “Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” ⁶ Abraham said to him, “See to it that you do not take my son back there. ⁷ The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth and who spoke to me and swore to me, ‘To your offspring I will give this land,’ he will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son from there.^{(C) 8} But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.”