17. So the Israelites went to the place where they lived. On the third day the Israelites came to the cities of Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim.
18. But the army of Israel did not try to fight against those cities. They had made a peace agreement with them. They had made a promise to them before the Lord, the God of Israel. All the people complained against the leaders who made the agreement.
19. But the leaders answered, “We have given our promise. We promised before the Lord, the God of Israel. We cannot fight against them now.
20. 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.
21. So let them live, but they will be our servants. They will cut wood for us and carry water for all our people.” So the leaders did not break their promise of peace to them.
22. Joshua called the Gibeonites together. He said, “Why did you lie to us? Your land was near our camp. But you told us you were from a faraway country.
23. Now, your people will have many troubles. All of your people will be slaves—they will have to cut wood and carry water for the house of God.”
24. The Gibeonites answered, “We lied to you because we were afraid you would kill us. We heard that God commanded his servant Moses to give you all this land. And God told you to kill all the people who lived in this land. That is why we lied to you.
25. Now we are your servants. You can do whatever you think is right.”
26. So the Gibeonites became slaves, but Joshua let them live. He did not allow the Israelites to kill them.
27. He made them slaves of the Israelites. They cut wood and carried water for the Israelites and for the altar of the Lord—wherever the Lord chose it to be. They are still slaves today.