But all the princes said to all the congregation, We have sworn to them by Yahweh, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.
"’This account,’ as O. v. Gerlach says, ’is a warning to the Church of God of all ages against the cunning and dissimulation of the world, which often seeks for a peaceable recognition on the part of the kingdom of God, and even for a reception into it, whenever it may be its advantage to do so.’" [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 95.] 