Ver. 23. Now, therefore, ye are cursed, &c.— "Notwithstanding the oath which we have sworn to you, ye shall not utterly escape that sentence of malediction which the Lord of the whole earth has pronounced upon the Canaanitish nations, to which you belong." The base and vile service to which they were about to be for ever subjected, well deserved the odious epithet of a curse. The Gibeonites, in fact, ceased to be free men, and masters of themselves, by reason of the servile offices to which they were put. They did not, however, properly speaking, become absolute slaves.
Hewers of wood, and drawers of water, for the house of my God— This is the limitation of their servitude; to carry wood and water for the use of the tabernacle, and afterwards of the temple, or for such other like purposes, as need or circumstances required: for instance, Solomon is thought to have employed them among the hewers of stone, and carriers of burdens, in the building of his magnificent structure. See 1 Chronicles 22:2. 2 Chronicles 2:17-18. Grotius has well expressed their condition: "They were subjected to certain personal servitude; whereas, had they but acted sincerely, they might have been received upon the footing of simple tributaries:" De B. & P. l. ii. c. 13. sect. 4. n. 2. Or, in some generations to come, they might have been even associated with the people of God. See on Deuteronomy 23:2. The author of the Observations remarks, that the labour enjoined the Gibeonites was also what females were wont to perform, and do to this day in those countries. So Dr. Shaw (p. 241 of his Travels) mentions the going out of the women at evening to fetch water, as still the custom of the Arabs of Barbary; and he cites Genesis 24:11 to prove that it was the custom anciently; to which he might have added 1 Samuel 9:11 and John 4:7. The author of the History of the Piratical States of Barbary assures us also, (page 47.) that they cut the fuel. "Amongst the Arabs of the kingdom of Algiers, the care of the cattle belongs to the women and children; they also provide food for the family, cut wood, fetch water, and, when their domestic affairs allow them, tend their silk-worms." D'Arvieux likewise, in his voyage to Palestine, by Roque, p. 230 represents the daughters of the Turcmen of Palestine as fetching wood as well as water. As the women of these countries cut fuel now, as well as fetch water, we may believe that they did so formerly, and that they are both equally ancient customs: a supposition very much confirmed by Jeremiah 7:18 and Lamentations 5:13 which speak of the children's fetching wood,—the young women. The bitterness then of the doom of the Gibeonites does not seem to have consisted in the laboriousness of the service enjoined them, as has been commonly understood; for it was usual for the women and children to perform what was required of the Gibeonites; but in its degrading them from the characteristic employments of men. The not receiving them as allies, was bitter; the disarming them who had been warriors, and condemning them to the employment of females in those days, was worse; but the extending this degradation to their posterity, bitterest of all; insomuch that it is no wonder, under these circumstances, that they are said to have been cursed.