Now, behold, we are in your hand: as it seems good and right to you to do to us, do.
Ancient Near Easterners regarded all treaties as sacred agreements. [Note: Davis and Whitcomb, p. 63.] If Israel had violated this oath she would have brought great reproach on herself and her God. Israel’s leaders were wise not to break their promise. [Note: See F. Charles Fensham, "The Treaty Between Israel and the Gibeonites," Biblical Archaeologist 27:3 (1964):98-100.] Later in Israel’s history King Saul put some of the Gibeonites to death in his misguided zeal, and God sent a famine on Israel as punishment (2 Samuel 21:1-2).