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.

This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be upon us, because of the oath which we sware unto them.

But this we mill do to them: Let their lives be saved, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us, if we should be forsworn.

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.

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.'

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.

But we shall do this to them: Certainly, let them be preserved so that they may live, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us, since we would have sworn falsely.

Hoc faciemus eis, servabimus eos vivos, ne sit contra nos ira propter jusjurandum quod juravimus eis.

This we will do to them, etc. Although, according to agreement, they give the Gibeonites their lives, they ratify the whole covenant only in part. For while the Gibeonites were entitled to be made perfectly secure, they are deprived of liberty, which is dearer than life. From this we infer that Joshua and the others had, as in a case of doubt and perplexity, devised a kind of middle course, so as not to make the oath altogether void. The principal object of this device was to appease the multitude: at the same time, while they were indignant at having been imposed upon by the Gibeonites, they punished the fraud, and did not allow impunity to increase their derision. It was a harsh condition, in this arrangement, that the Gibeonites were not only doomed to servile labors but withdrawn from their homes, to lead a vagrant and wandering life. The office of scullions imposed on them was no less mean than laborious, but the worst, of all was to hew wood and draw water, wherever God should be pleased to station the ark.

This we will do to them; we will even let them live, lest wrath be upon us, because of the (k) oath which we sware unto them.
(k) This does not establish rash oaths, but shows God's mercy toward his, who would not punish them for their sin.

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.