Now the men had said to her, “This oath you made us swear will not be binding on us

But if you tell what we are doing, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”

Joshua said to the two men who had spied out the land, “Go into the prostitute’s house and bring her out and all who belong to her, in accordance with your oath to her.”

At that time Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: “Cursed before the Lord is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: “At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations; at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates.”

Then Joshua made a treaty of peace with them to let them live, and the leaders of the assembly ratified it by oath.

But the Israelites did not attack them, because the leaders of the assembly had sworn an oath to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. The whole assembly grumbled against the leaders,

but all the leaders answered, “We have given them our oath by the Lord, the God of Israel, and we cannot touch them now.

This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that God’s wrath will not fall on us for breaking the oath we swore to them.”