¹¹ Our elders and all the population of our land said to us, ‘Take along supplies for the journey. Go meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. So now make a treaty with us.”’ ¹² This is our bread. On the day we left to come to you we took it warm from our houses as supplies. But now here it is, dried up and crumbly. ¹³ These wineskins were new when we filled them. But here they are, split open. These clothes and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” ¹⁴ The Israelites^[a] took some of their supplies, but they didn’t ask for any decision from the Lord. ¹⁵ Joshua made peace with them. He made a treaty with them to protect their lives. The leaders of the community made a solemn pledge to them.

Israel discovers the trick

¹⁶ Three days after the Israelites made a treaty with the Gibeonites, the Israelites heard that they were actually their neighbors and were living among them. ¹⁷ So on the third day the Israelites marched out and came to their cities: Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. ¹⁸ But the Israelites didn’t strike at them. This was because the leaders of the community had made a solemn pledge to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The entire community grumbled against the leaders. ¹⁹ Then all the leaders said to the whole community, “We have made a solemn pledge to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. So we can’t touch them now. ²⁰ This is what we’ll do with them. We’ll let them live so that wrath won’t come down on us because of the solemn pledge that we made to them.”