The pasuk states (Shmuel 2, 21, 10), "Ritzpah daughter of Ayah took sackcloth and spread it for herself over the rock...''

Question: What is the meaning of 'over the rock'?

Answer (R. Hoshiyah): She would (justify the Divine judgment and) say "The Rock! Perfect is his work'' (Devarim 32, 4).

R. Aba bar Zimna citing R. Hoshiyah: Sanctifying His name (Kidush Hash-m) is greater than disgracing it (Chilul Hash-m) (meaning that if there is a situation that involves both of them, we do not stop the Mitzvah of sanctifying it in order to prevent disgracing it)...About Chilul Hash-m, the pasuk states (Devarim 21, 23), "His corpse shall not remain hanging overnight on the gallows''. About Kidush Hash-m, the pasuk states above (Shmuel 2, 21, 10), "...from the beginning of the harvest until water fell on them (the corpses)''. This teaches us that they were hanging from the 16th of Nisan until the 17th of Marcheshvan and the passersby would say, "How did these people sin that they received Divine judgement (despite the prohibition to leave a corpse overnight)?'' They answered that they had raised a hand against converts. They said, "If these (Givonim) did not convert for the sake of Heaven and Hash-m brought justice for their blood; if one converted for the sake of Heaven, certainly Hash-m will bring justice for his blood!''

Many people converted at that time, as the pasuk states (Divrei Hayamim 2, 2, 16-17), "Shlomo counted all of the converts...and he made seventy thousand of them carriers and eighty thousand of them stonecutters.''

Rav Huna: In the days of R. Elazar ben Azaryah, they desired to bring the Givonim close (and allow them to marry regular Jews).

R. Abahu: On the contrary, it was before his time that they desired to bring them close but then R. Elazar ben Azaryah prohibited it. They said, "(We can permit our part, but) who can permit the part of the Altar (that they were decreed to chop wood and draw water both for us and for the altar)? This shows that Yehoshua was the one who distanced them (by decreeing a prohibition to marry them and that they would be slaves). (If it was David who distanced them, there should be no mention of the Altar, as David only prohibited marrying them.)

Rejection: Even if it was Yehoshua, did he distance them for anything but marriage?! If you say that they were prohibited to marry because of their status of slaves, if a man would have relations with a Nesinah, there should be no penalty payment (of 50 shekels) for rape; but the Mishnah (in Kesuvos) teaches that there is a penalty payment?!

R. Elazar: They were cursed like the serpent, as the pasuk states (Yehoshua 9, 23), "Now you are cursed''; and the pasuk states (ibid, pasuk 7), "The men of Israel said to the Chivite'' - were they Chivites? Rather, they acted like the Chivi (serpent).

The serpent said, "I know that Hash-m said (Bereishis 2, 17), 'for on the day that you eat from it you shall surely die'. So I will go and fool them into eating it and they will be punished and I will inherit the world for myself''.

Similarly, the Givonim said, "We know that Hash-m told Yisrael (Devarim 20, 17), 'You should completely destroy them, the Chiti, the Emori and the Perizi, as Hash-m your G-d commanded you'. And another pasuk states (Devarim 7, 2), "...you shall not seal a pact with them''. We will go and fool them and they will seal a pact with us. Either way - if they kill us, they have broken their oath; if they keep us, they have broken the decree. Either way, they will be punished and we will inherit the land.

Rav Nachman bar Yitzchak: We accept converts from the Karduim and the Tadmorim (and we are not concerned that there are Mamzerim amongst them from their men having relations with Jewish women).

Proof from a Mishnah (R. Abahu citing R. Yochanan): All (menstrual blood) stains that come from Rekem are pure (as they are certainly from gentiles who do not have ritual impurity and there is also no concern that they might be Jewish). This shows that converts from Tadmur are Kasher.