29 Bible Verses about Treaty

Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his [own] soul. Jonathan stripped off the robe {that he was wearing} and gave it to David, along with his fighting attire, and even his sword, his bow, and his belt.

And it happened [that] at that time, Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, said to Abraham, "God [is] with you, in all that you do. So now, swear to me here by God [that] you will not deal with me falsely, or with my descendants, or my posterity. According to the kindness that I have done to you, you shall [pledge] to do with me and with the land where you have dwelled as an alien." And Abraham said, "I swear."read more.
Then Abraham complained to Abimelech on account of the well of water that servants of Abimelech had seized. And Abimelech said, "I do not know who did this thing, neither did you tell me, nor have I heard [of it] except for today." And Abraham took sheep and cattle and gave [them] to Abimelech. And the two of them {made} a covenant. Then Abraham set [off] seven ewe-lambs of the flock by themselves. And Abimelech said to Abraham, "What [is the meaning of] these seven ewe-lambs that you have set [off] by themselves?" And he said, "You shall take the seven ewe-lambs from my hand {as proof on my behalf} that I dug this well." Therefore that place is called Beersheba, because there the two of them swore an oath. And they {made} a covenant at Beersheba. And Abimelech, and Phicol his army commander stood and returned to the land of the Philistines.

Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath his friend and Phicol his army commander. And Isaac said to them, "Why have you come to me? You hate me and sent me away from you." And they said, "We see clearly that Yahweh has been with you, so we thought let there be an oath between us--between us and you--and let us {make} a covenant with youread more.
that you may not do us harm just as we have not touched you, but have only done good to you and sent you away in peace. You [are] now blessed by Yahweh." So he made a meal for them, and they ate and drank. And they arose early in the morning and each one swore to the other, and Isaac sent them away. And they left him in peace.

So you must show loyal love to your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you. But if there [is] guilt in me, [then] kill me yourself! But why should you bring me to your father?"

For all of you have conspired against me, and {no one discloses to me} the {making} [of an agreement] between my son and the son of Jesse! None of you have had sympathy for me or {disclosed to me} [that] {my son commissioned my servant against me to ambush me} as [has been done] this day!"

Then the two of them {made} a covenant before Yahweh. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went to his house.

Abner sent messengers to David {where he was}, saying, "To whom does the land [belong]? {Make your covenant with me}! Look, my hand [is] with you to bring all of Israel over to you!" He said, "Good. {I will make a covenant with you}. I am asking only one thing from you: You shall not see my face unless you bring Michal the daughter of Saul when you come to see {me}."

Yahweh gave wisdom to Solomon as he promised to him, and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon, and the two of them {made} a covenant. Then King Solomon conscripted a forced labor from all Israel, and the forced labor [numbered] thirty thousand men. He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand {every month}; the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor.read more.
Solomon had seventy thousand {common laborers} and eighty thousand stone craftsmen in the hill country. Besides the chiefs of the officers Solomon had, there were three thousand three hundred having charge over the people who were doing the work. When the king commanded, they quarried great stones [and] precious stones to lay [the] foundation of the house [with] hewn stones. So Solomon's builders and Hiram's builders and the Gebalites hewed [stones], and they prepared the timber and the stone to build the house.

Asa took all of the silver and gold remaining in the storerooms of the house of Yahweh and in the treasury rooms of the house of the king, and he gave them into the hand of his servants; so King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, "[Let there be] a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel that he may go up [away] from me."

Highways are deserted; [the] traveler [on the] road ceases. One breaks a treaty, he rejects [the] cities, he does not hold man in high regard.

So Hezekiah king of Judah sent [word] to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, "I have done wrong. Withdraw from me. What you impose on me I will bear." So the king of Assyria imposed on Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.

"Say now to the rebellious house of Israel, 'Do you not know what these [are]?' Say, 'Look! The king of Babylon will come [to] Jerusalem, and he will take its king and its officials, and he will bring them to himself, [to] Babylon. And he took from the seed of the kingship, and he made with him a covenant, and {he brought him under oath}, and he took the rulers of the land, so that [they would] be a humble kingdom and not lift itself up to keep his covenant {in order for it to stand}.

But the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua did to Jericho and Ai, and they acted on their part with cunning: they went and prepared provisions, and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys and old wineskins [that were] torn and mended. The sandals on their feet [were] patched and old, their clothes [were] old, and their food was dry and crumbled.read more.
And they went to Joshua at the camp [at] Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, "We have come from a far land; so then {make a covenant with us}." And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you [are] living among us; how can we {make a covenant} with you?" They said to Joshua, "We [are] your servants." And Joshua said to them, "Who [are] you, and from where do you come?" And they said to him, "Your servants have come from a very far land because of the name of Yahweh your God; we have heard of his reputation, of all that he did in Egypt, and of all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who [were] beyond the Jordan--to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan, who [was] in Ashtaroth. So our elders said to us and all the inhabitants of our land, 'Take in your hand provisions for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, "We [are] your servants; so then {make a covenant with us}." ' This [is] our bread; [it was] hot [when] we took it from our houses as provisions on the day we set out to come to you. But now, look, it is dry and crumbled. These [are] the wineskins that we filled new, but look, they have burst; and these [are] our clothes and sandals that have worn out from the very long journey." So the leaders took from their provisions, but {they did not ask direction from Yahweh}. And Joshua made peace with them, and {he made a covenant with them} to allow them to live happily, and the leaders of the congregation swore [an oath] to them. And it happened that at the end of three days, after they made a covenant with them, they heard that {they were their neighbors} and living among them.

And it happened that when Adoni-Zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua captured Ai and had utterly destroyed it (just as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he did to Ai and its king) and that the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were among them,

[For] many days Joshua made war with all these kings. There was not a city that made peace with the {Israelites} besides the Hivites and the inhabitants of Gibeon--{all were taken in battle}.

Now Nahash the Ammonite went up and encamped against Jabesh Gilead. All the men of Jabesh said to Nahash, "{Make a treaty with us} and we will serve you." But Nahash the Ammonite said to them, "On this [condition] {I will make a treaty} with you, by gouging out the right eye of each of you, so that I can make it a disgrace for all Israel."

Ephraim herds [the] wind and [is] pursuing [the] east wind all day long; he multiplies deception and violence and he {makes a treaty with Assyria}, and oil is brought to Egypt.

But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers [to] Egypt to give to him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Will he escape doing these [things], and can he break [the] covenant and escape? {As I live},' {declares} the Lord Yahweh, '{surely} in the place of the king {who made} him king, who despised his oath and who broke his covenant with him--in the midst of Babylon he will die. And not with a great army and with a great crowd will Pharaoh work with him in the war, at the pouring out of a siege ramp and the building of siege works to destroy many lives.read more.
And he despised [the] oath to break covenant. And, look, he gave his hand [in pledge], and [yet] he did all of these [things]. He will not escape.'

The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after king Zedekiah {made} a covenant with all the people who [were] in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them, to let go each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, the Hebrew and the free Hebrew, [so that] no one among the Judeans [should] enslave his fellow countryman. And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant to let go each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, not enslaving them again, and they obeyed and they let [them] go.read more.
But {afterward} they turned back and they brought back the [male] slaves and the female slaves whom they had let go free, and they subdued them as [male] slaves and female slaves. And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, {saying}, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'I {made} a covenant with your ancestors on the day of my bringing them out from the land of Egypt, from [the] house of slaves, {saying}, "At [the] end of seven years you must let go each one his fellow countryman, the Hebrew who has been sold to you and who has served you six years, and you must let him go free from you." But your ancestors did not listen to me, and they did not incline their ears. And you turned back {recently} and you did right in my eyes, to proclaim release each one to his neighbor, and you {made} a covenant {before me} in the house that is called {by} my name. But you turned back and you profaned my name when you brought back each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, whom you had let go free according to their desire, and you subdued them to be to you as [male] slaves and as female slaves.' "{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I [am] going to proclaim to you a release,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant that they {made} {before me}, [like] the calf which they cut in two and they passed between its parts-- the officials of Judah, and the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf-- and I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of the seekers of their lives, and their dead bodies will become as food for the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the earth.

And {before him} {mighty military forces} will be utterly swept away, and they will be broken, and also [the] leader of [the] covenant. And after an alliance [is made] with him, he will act deceitfully, and he will rise and he will become powerful with few people [backing him]. In [a time of] ease and in [the] rich parts of [the] province, he will come and he will do what {his predecessors} did not do; he will distribute plunder and spoil and possessions to them, and he will devise his plans against fortifications, but [only] {for a time}.

They utter words of vain oaths [when] {making covenants}, and judgment blossoms like a poisonous plant on the furrows of the field.

Thus says Yahweh: "For three transgressions of Tyre and for four I will not revoke [the punishment], because they delivered up a whole community to Edom and they did not remember the covenant of brotherhood! So I will send a fire against the wall of Tyre and it will devour its citadel fortresses."

Brothers, I am speaking according to a human perspective. Nevertheless, [when] the covenant of a man has been ratified, no one declares [it] invalid or adds additional provisions [to it].

"When Yahweh your God brings you into the land that you [are] about to enter {into it} to take possession of it, and he drives out many nations {before you}, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you, and Yahweh your God will give them {over to you} and you defeat them, you must {utterly destroy them}; you shall not make a covenant with them, and you shall not show mercy [to them].

" 'And I will set your boundary from the {Red Sea} and up to the sea of the Philistines and from [the] desert up to the river, because I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out from before you. You will not make a covenant with them and with their gods.

"Keep for yourself what I myself have commanded you today. Look, I [am about to] drive from before you the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. Be careful for yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you are going, lest it be a snare among you.

You shall not promote their welfare or their prosperity all your days {forever}.

[Ben-Hadad] said to him, "The cities which my father took from your father I shall return. You may set up streets with stalls for yourself in Damascus just as my father set up in Samaria." [Then Ahab said], "{On these terms} I will let you go," So he made a covenant with him and let him go.

Therefore, do not give your daughters to their sons, and do not take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek their peace and prosperity so that forever you may be strong and eat the good of the land and may give it as an inheritance to your sons.'