⁴⁷ ‘Now if a sojourner or stranger close to you becomes rich, and one of your brethren who dwells by him becomes poor, and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner close to you, or to a member of the stranger’s family,

¹⁶ And ^(A)if it happens that he says to you, ‘I will not go away from you,’ because he loves you and your house, since he prospers with you,

¹⁷ then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear to the door, and he shall be your servant forever. Also to your female servant you shall do likewise.

¹¹ Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, “We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.” ’ ¹² This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy. ¹³ And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.”

¹⁴ Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; ^(A)but they ^[a]did not ask counsel of the Lord. ¹⁵ So Joshua ^(B)made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live; and the rulers of the congregation swore to them.

¹⁶ And it happened at the end of three days, after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors who dwelt near them. ¹⁷ Then the children of Israel journeyed and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were ^(C)Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath Jearim. ¹⁸ But the children of Israel did not ^[b]attack them, ^(D)because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel. And all the congregation complained against the rulers.

¹⁹ Then all the rulers said to all the congregation, “We have sworn to them by the Lord God of Israel; now therefore, we may not touch them. ²⁰ This we will do to them: We will let them live, lest ^(E)wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them.” ²¹ And the rulers said to them, “Let them live, but let them be ^(F)woodcutters and water carriers for all the congregation, as the rulers had ^(G)promised them.”