So Abraham took sheep and oxen and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a covenant.
Then one who had escaped came, and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner; these were allies of Abram.
Abimelech said, “I do not know who has done this thing; you did not tell me, and I have not heard of it until today.”
Abraham set seven ewe lambs of the flock apart.
Come now, let us make a covenant, you and I; and let it be a witness between you and me.”
A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers.
A man's gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.
There are friends who pretend to be friends, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.
A gift in secret averts anger; and a bribe in the bosom, strong wrath.
But he who is noble devises noble things, and by noble things he stands.
And he took one of the seed royal and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. (The chief men of the land he had taken away,
foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.
To give a human example, brethren: no one annuls even a man's will, or adds to it, once it has been ratified.
Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.