²³ You are now under a curse:^(A) You will never be released from service as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God.”

²⁴ They answered Joshua, “Your servants were clearly told^(B) how the Lord your God had commanded his servant Moses to give you the whole land and to wipe out all its inhabitants from before you. So we feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we did this. ²⁵ We are now in your hands.^(C) Do to us whatever seems good and right^(D) to you.”

²⁶ So Joshua saved them from the Israelites, and they did not kill them. ²⁷ That day he made the Gibeonites^(E) woodcutters and water carriers^(F) for the assembly, to provide for the needs of the altar of the Lord at the place the Lord would choose.^(G) And that is what they are to this day.

¹⁹ Except for the Hivites^(A) living in Gibeon,^(B) not one city made a treaty of peace^(C) with the Israelites, who took them all in battle.

¹⁹ When all the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with the Israelites and became subject^(A) to them.

So the Arameans^(B) were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.