< 2 Samuel 21 >
1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three consecutive years, so David sought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, "There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he murdered the Gibeonites."
2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites, and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel had sworn to them, but Saul sought to exterminate them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.)
3 And David said to the Gibeonites, "What can I do for you? And how can I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Jehovah?"
4 The Gibeonites said to him, "It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, nor is it our place to put anyone to death in Israel." Then he said, "What do you want? For I will do it for you."
5 So they said to the king, "The man who opposed us and persecuted us, who meant to eradicate us from having a place anywhere in the territory of Israel,
6 let seven of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them before Jehovah at Gibeon on the mountain of Jehovah." And the king replied, "I will do it."
7 But the king spared Mippibaal, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of Jehovah's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mippibaal; and the five sons of Merob the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before Jehovah, and all seven of them fell together. And they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on a rock, from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky. And she did not allow the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the wild animals by night.
11 It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the secondary wife of Saul, had done.
12 Then David went and obtained the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them on the day that the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa;
13 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. And they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
14 And he buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they performed all that the king commanded. After that God responded to prayers for the land.
15 The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. Now David became exhausted,
16 and Dodo son of Joash, of the descendants of the Raphah, captured him. His spear weighed three hundred bronze shekels, and he was girded with a new sword, and he thought he could kill David.
17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David took an oath, saying, "You must not go out to battle with us again, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel."
18 Now it came to pass after this that there was another battle with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of the Raphah.
19 There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
20 There was another battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had on six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty four in number, and he also was a descendant of Raphah.
21 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, David's brother, killed him.
22 These four were descendants of Raphah in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
