19 Then all the leaders said to the whole community, "We have made a solemn pledge to them by the Lord, the God of Israel. So we can’t touch them now.
20 This is what we’ll do with them. We’ll let them live so that wrath won’t come down on us because of the solemn pledge that we made to them."
21 The leaders went on to say to them, "Let them live." So they became woodcutters and water haulers for the whole community, exactly as the leaders had intended for them.
22 Joshua called for the Gibeonites and spoke to them: "Why have you deceived us by saying, ‘We live very far away from you,’ when actually you live among us?
23 So now you are cursed. Some of you will always serve as woodcutters and water haulers for my God’s house."
24 They answered Joshua, "Your servants had been told that the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the entire land and to wipe out all its population on your account. So we feared for our very lives because of you and did this thing.
25 Now, here we are in your power. Do to us whatever seems good and proper to you."