And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
So the king called for the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but survivors from the Amorite people. The Israelites had made a promise to protect them, but Saul had tried to kill them because he was overly eager to help Israel and Judah.)
King David called the Gibeonites to address how Saul had broken Israel's ancient promise to protect them by trying to destroy them.
📚 Historical Context
In the biblical narrative, the Gibeonites were descendants of the Amorites who tricked the Israelites into a peace treaty during the conquest of Canaan, as described in the Book of Joshua, leading the Israelites to swear an oath to protect them. This oath was meant to be binding, even though it was made under false pretenses. Years later, during Saul's reign, he violated this ancient agreement by attempting to destroy the Gibeonites in his misguided zeal for the people of Israel and Judah, which later caused a famine in David's time.
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