2 Samuel 21

David Avenges the Gibeonitesⓘ

Famine and the Gibeonites' request¹During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the Lord.

And the Lord said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

²At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)

³So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?”

⁴The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.”

“Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.

⁵And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel, ⁶let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them^a before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.”

“I will give them to you,” said the king.

⁷Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. ⁸But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab^b daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Rizpah's vigil and the burial of Saul's bones¹⁰And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

¹¹When David was told what Saulʼs concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done, ¹²he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.

¹³So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. ¹⁴And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saulʼs father Kish.

After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.

Four Battles against the Philistinesⓘ

Wars with the Philistine giants¹⁵Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.

¹⁶Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha,^c whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels^d and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David. ¹⁷But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him.

Then Davidʼs men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel may not be extinguished.”

¹⁸Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph,^e one of the descendants of Rapha.

¹⁹Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair^f the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath^g the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaverʼs beam.

²⁰And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, ²¹and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Davidʼs brother Shimei^h killed him.

²²So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.