15 Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Joshua made peace with them - Joshua agreed to receive them into a friendly connection with the Israelites, and to respect their lives and properties; and the elders of Israel bound themselves to the observance of it, and confirmed it with an oath. As the same words are used here as in Joshua 9:6, we may suppose that the covenant was made in the ordinary way, a sacrifice being offered on the occasion, and its blood poured out before the Lord. See on Genesis 15:10 (note), etc.
And Joshua made peace with them,.... Upon the report the princes made of having examined what they had said, and which they found to be true, particularly concerning their victuals:
and made a league with them, to let them live; and not destroy them as he did the Canaanites, and was ordered to do; they being supposed not to belong to them by the representation of things they had made:
and the princes of the congregation sware unto them; that they would keep the league and covenant they had made with them inviolable; they ratified it by an oath, which was a sacred solemn thing.
So Joshua made (granted) them peace (vid., Isaiah 27:5), and concluded a covenant with them (להם, in their favour), to let them live; and the princes of the congregation sware unto them. Letting them live is the only article of the league that is mentioned, both because this was the main point, and also with special reference to the fact that the Gibeonites, being Canaanites, ought properly to have been destroyed. It is true that Joshua and the princes of the congregation had not violated any express command of God by doing this; for the only thing prohibited in the law was making treaties with the Canaanites, which they did not suppose the Gibeonites to be, whilst in Deuteronomy 20:11, where wars with foreign nations (not Canaanites) are referred to, permission is given to make peace with them, so that all treaties with foreign nations are not forbidden. But they had failed in this respect, that, trusting to the crafty words of the Gibeonites, and to outward appearances only, they had forgotten their attitude to the Lord their God who had promised to His congregation, in all important matters, a direct revelation of His own will.
To let them live - That is, they should not destroy them. That this league was lawful and obliging, appears, Because Joshua and all the princes, upon the review concluded it so to be, and spared them accordingly. Because God punished the violation of it long after, 2-Samuel 21:1. Because God is said to have hardened the hearts of all other cities, not to seek peace with Israel, that so he might utterly destroy them, Joshua 11:19-20, which seems to imply that their utter destruction did not necessarily come upon them by virtue of any peremptory command of God, but by their own obstinate hardness, whereby they refused to make peace with the Israelites.
*More commentary available at chapter level.