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Friday, September 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 18 / Ordinary 23
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Read the Bible

New Living Translation

Joshua 9:20

This is what we must do. We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us if we broke our oath.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Alliances;   Contracts;   Covenant;   Government;   Joshua;   Kirjath-Jearim;   Magnanimity;   Oath;   Servant;   Treaty;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Gibeonites;   Oaths;   Swearing Falsely;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Gibeon;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - All-Sufficiency of God;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Alliance;   Gibeon;   Slave;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Pentateuch;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Joshua, the Book of;   Oaths;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Gibeon;   Israel;   Joshua;   Stranger;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Alliance;   Prince, Princess;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Elder;   Gibeon;   Journeyings of israel from egypt to canaan;   Nethinim;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Conquest of Canaan;   Hebrew Monarchy, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Charm;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Alliances;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Gibeon and Gibeonites;   Hivites;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This is how we will treat them: we will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us because of the oath we swore to them.”
Hebrew Names Version
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.
King James Version
This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.
Lexham English Bible
This we will do to them: we will let them live so that wrath will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them."
English Standard Version
This we will do to them: let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them."
New Century Version
This is what we must do. We must let them live. Otherwise, God's anger will be against us for breaking the oath we swore to them.
New English Translation
We must let them live so we can escape the curse attached to the oath we swore to them."
Amplified Bible
"This [is what] we will do to them: we will let them live, so that the wrath [of God] does not come upon us for [violating] the oath which we have sworn to them."
New American Standard Bible
"This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be on us because of the oath which we swore to them."
Geneva Bible (1587)
But this we wil doe to them, and let them liue, least the wrath be vpon vs because of the othe which we sware vnto them.
Legacy Standard Bible
This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them."
Complete Jewish Bible
Here is what we will do to them: we will let them live, so that God's anger will not be on us because of the oath we swore to them.
Darby Translation
This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath come upon us, because of the oath which we swore unto them.
Easy-to-Read Version
This is what we must do. We must let them live. We cannot hurt them or God will be angry with us because we broke the promise we made to them.
George Lamsa Translation
This we will do to them: we will let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oaths which we swore to them.
Good News Translation
We must let them live because of our promise; if we don't, God will punish us.
Literal Translation
We shall do this to them, and shall keep them alive, and wrath shall not be on us because of the oath which we have sworn to them.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
But this wil we do vnto them: Let them lyue, that there come no wrath vpon vs, because of the ooth that we haue made vnto them.
American Standard Version
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.
Bible in Basic English
This is what we will do to them: we will not put them to death, for fear that wrath may come on us because of our oath to them.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
But this we wyll do to them, We wyll let them liue, lest wrath be vpon vs because of the othe which we sware vnto them.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore unto them.'
King James Version (1611)
This we will doe to them; wee will euen let them liue, lest wrath be vpon vs, because of the oath which wee sware vnto them.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
This we will do; take them alive, and we will preserve them: so there shall not be wrath against us by reason of the oath which we swore to them.
English Revised Version
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.
Berean Standard Bible
This is how we will treat them: We will let them live, so that no wrath will fall on us because of the oath we swore to them."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
but we schulen do this thing to hem, sotheli be thei reserued that thei lyue, lest the ire of the Lord be stirid ayens vs, if we forsweren to hem;
Young's Literal Translation
this we do to them, and have kept them alive, and wrath is not upon us, because of the oath which we have sworn to them.'
Update Bible Version
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.
Webster's Bible Translation
This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore to them.
World English Bible
This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them.
New King James Version
This we will do to them: We will let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them."
New Life Bible
This is what we will do to them. We will let them live, or anger would be upon us for the promise we swore to them."
New Revised Standard
This is what we will do to them: We will let them live, so that wrath may not come upon us, because of the oath that we swore to them."
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
This, will we do unto them, even let them live, - lest there come on us wrath, because of the oath which we have sworn unto them.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But this we will do to them: Let their lives be saved, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us, if we should be forsworn:
Revised Standard Version
This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we swore to them."
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"This we will do to them, even let them live, so that wrath will not be upon us for the oath which we swore to them."

Contextual Overview

15 Then Joshua made a peace treaty with them and guaranteed their safety, and the leaders of the community ratified their agreement with a binding oath. 16 Three days after making the treaty, they learned that these people actually lived nearby! 17 The Israelites set out at once to investigate and reached their towns in three days. The names of these towns were Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. 18 But the Israelites did not attack the towns, for the Israelite leaders had made a vow to them in the name of the Lord , the God of Israel. The people of Israel grumbled against their leaders because of the treaty. 19 But the leaders replied, "Since we have sworn an oath in the presence of the Lord , the God of Israel, we cannot touch them. 20 This is what we must do. We must let them live, for divine anger would come upon us if we broke our oath. 21 Let them live." So they made them woodcutters and water carriers for the entire community, as the Israelite leaders directed.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

lest wrath: 2 Samuel 21:1-6, 2 Chronicles 36:13, Proverbs 20:25, Ezekiel 17:12-21, Zechariah 5:3, Zechariah 5:4, Malachi 3:5, Romans 1:31, 1 Timothy 1:10

Reciprocal: Genesis 24:8 - clear Exodus 20:7 - guiltless Joshua 9:19 - We have 1 Samuel 30:15 - Swear 2 Chronicles 16:3 - break Ezekiel 17:16 - whose oath

Cross-References

Genesis 3:23
So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made.
Genesis 4:2
Later she gave birth to his brother and named him Abel. When they grew up, Abel became a shepherd, while Cain cultivated the ground.
Genesis 5:29
Lamech named his son Noah, for he said, "May he bring us relief from our work and the painful labor of farming this ground that the Lord has cursed."
Genesis 9:18
The sons of Noah who came out of the boat with their father were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham is the father of Canaan.)
Genesis 9:19
From these three sons of Noah came all the people who now populate the earth.
Genesis 9:24
When Noah woke up from his stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
Genesis 9:26
Then Noah said, "May the Lord , the God of Shem, be blessed, and may Canaan be his servant!
Deuteronomy 20:6
Has anyone here just planted a vineyard but not yet eaten any of its fruit? If so, you may go home! You might die in battle, and someone else would eat the first fruit.
Deuteronomy 28:30
"You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.
Proverbs 10:11
The words of the godly are a life-giving fountain; the words of the wicked conceal violent intentions.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

This we will do to them,.... Either this favour we will show them, preserving their lives, next mentioned, or this punishment we will inflict on them, making them hewers of wood, and drawers of water; which though not mentioned directly, was what was upon their minds, and in their design to propose, only they were extremely desirous of sparing their lives, which they repeat:

we will even let them live; this by all means must be done, their lives must not be taken away as the rest of the Canaanites:

lest wrath come upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them; that is, lest the wrath of God come upon us princes, and upon the whole community, for perjury, a breach of the third command, Exodus 20:7, a sin highly displeasing to God; since an oath is made not only in his presence, and before him as a witness, who is appealed unto, but in his name, and is often severely threatened, and sorely punished; and as even the breach of this oath was several hundreds of years after, in the times of David, 2 Samuel 21:1. The Vulgate Latin version therefore reads the words, "lest the wrath of the Lord come upon us": but Abarbinel observes, that it may be understood of the wrath of Israel; for the words may be rendered, "and there shall not be wrath upon us, because of the oath": there need be none, there is no occasion for it, since this was agreed upon on all hands, that the Gibeonites should be let to live; and since it was an act of kindness and goodness, and especially they would have no reason to be angry and wrathful with them, when they heard them out, what they had further to propose to them, to make them their servants, though they spared their lives.


 
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