Skip to content
mannafest.faith
Read

Joshua 9:19

in Joshua 9

All the leaders answered, “We have sworn an oath to them by the LORD, the God of Israel, and now we cannot touch them.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by Jehovah, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.

KJV

But all the princes said unto all the congregation, We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them.

⋯

This verse in Joshua 9

Commentary

3 notes on this verse
But all the princes said to all the congregation,.... That is, all the princes that went to Gibeon addressed all the Israelites that were there: we have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel; by the Word of the Lord God, as the Targum; an oath is a solemn sacred thing, and not to be broken, and a good man will make conscience of it, and keep it, though he has sworn to his own hurt: and now therefore we may not touch them; neither take away their lives nor their substance.

This site's exposition

came unto their cities on

on Joshua 9:17-19

Four towns come in with Gibeon and each has a later history: Kirjath-jearim keeps the ark twenty years at 1 Samuel 7:1-2, Beeroth produces the men who kill Ishbosheth at 2 Samuel 4:2, and Gibeon itself holds the tabernacle at 1 Chronicles 16:39 and hears Solomon's dream at 1 Kings 3:4-5. The congregation murmurs against the princes, using the verb the wilderness chapters use of this same people against Moses. The princes make no case that the treaty was fair, and rest the whole answer on having sworn by the Lord God of Israel.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

We have sworn unto them - Although the Israelites were deceived in this business, and the covenant was made on a certain supposition which was afterwards proved to have had no foundation in truth, and consequently the whole engagement on the part of the deceived was hereby vitiated and rendered null and void; yet, because the elders had eaten with them, offered a covenant sacrifice, and sworn by Jehovah, they did not consider themselves at liberty to break the terms of the agreement, as far as the lives of the Gibeonites were concerned.

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיֹּאמְר֤וּand they said

    vaiyomeruH559 →5305 times

  • כָל־all

    khol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הַנְּשִׂיאִים֙the leaders

    hanesiimH5387 →134 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • כָּל־all

    kol-H3605 →5413 times

  • הָ֣עֵדָ֔הthe congregation

    haedahH5712 →149 times

  • אֲנַ֙חְנוּ֙we

    ʾanachnuH587 →120 times

  • נִשְׁבַּ֣עְנוּwe have sworn an oath

    nishba'nuH7650 →186 times

  • לָהֶ֔םto <the> them

    lahem

  • בַּֽיהוָ֖הby Yahweh

    bayahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֱלֹהֵ֣י[the] God of

    ʾeloheiH430 →2601 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֑לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • וְעַתָּ֕הand therefore

    veatahH6258 →433 times

  • לֹ֥אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • נוּכַ֖לwe are able

    nukhalH3201 →194 times

  • לִנְגֹּ֥עַto touch

    lingoa'H5060 →

  • בָּהֶֽם׃<in> <the> them

    bahem

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

4 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Ecclesiastes 8:2Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God.3 worksJoshua 9:20This 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.”2 worksEcclesiastes 9:2It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.2 worksJeremiah 4:2and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”2 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Ecclesiastes 9:2

    It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices…

    it leads to

    • Malachi 3:5

      “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Malachi 3:18

      So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

    • Ecclesiastes 2:14–16

      The wise man has eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also came to realize that one fate overcomes them both.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 4:2

    and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 65:16

      Whoever invokes a blessing in the land will do so by the God of truth, and whoever takes an oath in the land will swear by the God of truth. For the former troubles…

    • Jeremiah 9:24

      But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,”…

    • Genesis 22:18

      And through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

    • Deuteronomy 10:20

      You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name.

  • Through

    Ecclesiastes 8:2

    Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 24:21

      My son, fear the LORD and the king, and do not associate with the rebellious.

About Joshua

The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Walls of Jericho Fall Down, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Joshua: the study guide →Read Joshua 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth.

Read on in Joshua 9 →