Treaty

A treaty in Scripture is a sworn arrangement between parties — most often between rulers, tribes, or nations — that binds the signatories before a witness. The Bible records treaties of friendship, treaties of trade, treaties for the cession of territory, and treaties of submission and rescue. It also records prohibitions: Israel was warned away from political pacts with the surrounding peoples whose worship would corrupt her, and the prophets indict the kings who reached for foreign alliances instead of for Yahweh. The same Hebrew and Greek vocabulary that names the divine covenant names these human treaties; the texts use the words "covenant" and "league" interchangeably for them.

Treaties Between Persons

The earliest treaty in the canon is private. Abraham and Abimelech settle a dispute over a well, and the patriarch ratifies the agreement with a gift of livestock: "And Abraham took sheep and oxen, and gave them to Abimelech. And the two made a covenant" (Gen 21:27). The same vocabulary covers the bond between Jonathan and David — "Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul" (1 Sam 18:3) — and the covenant by which David is recognized as king at Hebron: "So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh: and they anointed David king over Israel" (2 Sam 5:3). Whether the parties are two private men, a prince and his friend, or a king and his elders, the form is recognizable: a sworn arrangement entered into in the open and witnessed.

Treaties Between Nations

The classic Israelite treaty narrative is Joshua's pact with the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites disguise themselves as ambassadors from a distant country and approach the camp at Gilgal: "We have come from a far country: now therefore make a covenant with us" (Josh 9:6). Joshua and the elders accept their story without inquiring of Yahweh — "And the men took of their provision, and didn't ask counsel at the mouth of Yahweh" (Josh 9:14) — and the treaty is sealed: "And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live: and the princes of the congregation swore to them" (Josh 9:15).

A second class of treaty is reciprocal trade. When Solomon prepares to build the temple, Hiram of Tyre supplies cedar and fir in exchange for grain and oil, and the chronicler closes the transaction with the formal language of treaty: "And Yahweh gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised him; and there was peace between Hiram and Solomon; and the two made a league together" (1 Kings 5:12). The terms are itemized in the chapter — Sidonian woodcutters, sea-rafts to a chosen port, twenty cors of wheat and twenty cors of pure oil year by year (1 Kings 5:1-12) — so that the league is not abstract goodwill but an annual exchange.

A third class is the cession of territory. After twenty years of building, Solomon deeds twenty Galilean cities to Hiram, and Hiram in turn sends one hundred and twenty talents of gold (1 Kings 9:10-14). After Ahab's victory at Aphek, Ben-hadad of Damascus offers a counter-cession on the same model: "The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you will make streets for yourself in Damascus, as my father made in Samaria. And I, [said Ahab], will let you go with this covenant. So he made a covenant with him, and let him go" (1 Kings 20:34).

The Sacredness of a Sworn Treaty

Once sworn, a treaty binds even when it has been obtained by deceit. Three days after the Gibeonite oath the Israelites discover that the supposed "far country" is in fact a cluster of nearby Hivite cities, and the congregation murmurs against the princes for letting them live (Josh 9:16-18). The princes refuse to break the oath: "We have sworn to them by [the Speech of] Yahweh, the God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them, and let them live; lest wrath be on us, because of the oath which we swore to them" (Josh 9:19-20). The Gibeonites are made cutters of wood and drawers of water for the congregation (Josh 9:21), but their lives are protected, because the name of Yahweh has been pledged. A treaty sworn by his name is enforceable against the swearers' own interest.

Forbidden Alliances with Idolatrous Nations

The Sinai legislation rules out one class of treaty in particular. As Israel approaches the land, Yahweh warns: "You be careful not to make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you go, or else it will be for a snare in the midst of you" (Ex 34:12). The danger is concretely religious — shared sacrifice and shared meals leading to shared worship: "Or else, if you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, who go whoring after their gods and sacrifice to their gods, they will call you. And you will eat of their sacrifice" (Ex 34:15).

The historical books supply the cases. Asa pays Ben-hadad of Damascus to break with Israel: "[There is] a league between me and you, between my father and your father: look, I have sent to you a present of silver and gold; go, break your league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me" (1 Kings 15:19). Jehoshaphat ties himself by marriage to the house of Ahab — "Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and he joined affinity with Ahab" (2 Chr 18:1) — and a generation later joins Ahaziah of Israel in a shipping venture: "And after this Jehoshaphat king of Judah joined himself with Ahaziah king of Israel; the same did very wickedly" (2 Chr 20:35). The Maccabean record opens with the same indictment of those Jews who sought political integration with the surrounding nations: "In those days there went out of Israel wicked men, and they persuaded many, saying: Let's go, and make a covenant with the nations that are round about us: for since we departed from them, many evils have befallen us" (1 Mac 1:11).

The Prophetic Critique of Foreign Alliance

The prophets press the point against the southern kingdom's diplomacy. Isaiah denounces the Egyptian embassy: "who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt!" (Isa 30:2). Again: "Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but don't rely on the [Speech] of the Holy One of Israel, neither seek Yahweh!" (Isa 31:1). Jeremiah uses the language of adultery for the same diplomacy: "I have loved strangers, and I will go after them" (Jer 2:25). Hosea pictures the northern kingdom playing the two great powers against each other: "Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind: he continually multiplies lies and violence; and they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt" (Hos 12:1). The prophetic objection is not to diplomacy as such but to a covenant with the nations that displaces covenant with Yahweh.

Hostile Confederacies

A different kind of treaty appears as a coalition formed against Israel. The Canaanite kings combine after hearing of Joshua's victories: "that they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord" (Josh 9:2). The five kings of the Amorites unite in punitive war against Gibeon for its treaty with Israel: "Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped against Gibeon, and made war against it" (Josh 10:5). When Lachish is besieged, Horam of Gezer comes to its aid and is destroyed (Josh 10:33). At Merom an even larger northern confederacy forms (Josh 11:5). In Judges, the Moabite king Eglon recruits Ammon and Amalek into a striking force: "And he gathered to him the sons of Ammon and Amalek; and he went and struck Israel, and they possessed the city of palm-trees" (Judg 3:13).

The Psalter treats such confederacies as a recurring type. "The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against Yahweh, and against his anointed" (Ps 2:2). The enemy "gather themselves together, they hide themselves, They mark my steps" (Ps 56:6). And explicitly in the language of treaty: "For they have consulted together with one consent; Against you they make a covenant" (Ps 83:5). Micah pictures the same scene at the end of the age: "And now many nations are assembled against you, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye see [our desire] on Zion" (Mic 4:11).

The Hellenistic Treaty Diplomacy

The Maccabean books record treaty-making at the level of Hellenistic statecraft. The seleucid pretender Ptolemy seizes the coastal cities and "devised evil designs against Alexander" (1 Mac 11:8); he then proposes a marriage-alliance with Demetrius: "Come, let's make a covenant between us, and I will give you my daughter whom Alexander has, and you will reign in the kingdom of your father" (1 Mac 11:9). The Maccabean narrative reports without endorsement the treaty form by which the Hellenistic kingdoms changed sides. Even Israel's enemies hire mercenaries: "And they have hired the Arabians to help them, and they have pitched their tents beyond the torrent, ready to come to fight against you" (1 Mac 5:39). Beth-zur becomes a place of refuge for Jews who had abandoned the law (1 Mac 10:14) — a settlement under the protection of a foreign treaty rather than under the law.

Wisdom on Joining Oneself to the Wrong Party

Ben Sira draws the personal corollary of the historical and prophetic indictments. The covenant a man enters with the wicked will pull him down: "Do not stick to the wicked or he will overthrow you; And he will turn you out of your house" (Sir 11:34). Practically, this means refusing to arm a treacherous partner: "Do not give him weapons of war. Why should he turn them against you?" (Sir 12:5). And more generally: "So is he who joins with a man of pride And wallows in his iniquities" (Sir 12:14). The wisdom literature thus reads private alliance through the same lens the prophets apply to international alliance.

Treaty in the Internal Life of Israel

Treaties are not only made with outsiders. Zedekiah, late in the kingdom of Judah, swears a covenant with the people of Jerusalem to free their Hebrew slaves — "The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them" (Jer 34:8) — though he and the people will shortly break it. The vocabulary of treaty is at home inside Israel as well, applied to the formal undertakings between a king and his people.

Across the canon the treaty is treated with the same gravity as the personal vow: it is sworn before Yahweh, it binds the swearers to costly performance, and it must not displace the prior covenant with Yahweh that defines Israel as a people.