David Avenges the Gibeonites
1During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of Yahweh.
And Yahweh said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
- 2SA 21:1[NOTE]THE GIBEONITES tricked Joshua into a peace treaty, Joshua 9, and Israel swore by Yahweh to spare them. Saul broke that oath. See the Big Question pages Saul's Sons and 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 Yahweh?”
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 before Yahweh at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.”
“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 Yahweh 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 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 Yahweh. 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.
- 2SA 21:8[TEXT]MERAB OR MICHAL? Most Hebrew copies say Michal. A few Hebrew copies and some Greek copies say Merab, and this Bible follows them. Merab was the one who married Adriel, 1 Samuel 18:19. Michal had no children, 6:23.
- 2SA 21:9[NOTE]NOT CHILD SACRIFICE. These were grown men put to death for the bloodshed of Saul's house, not children offered to a god.
10And 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 Saul’s 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 Saul’s father Kish.
After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.
Four Battles against the Philistines// 1 Chronicles 20:4–8
15Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.
- 2SA 21:15[DEMONIC]Four giants of Gath, descendants of Rapha, killed by David's men: Ishbi-benob, Saph, Goliath's brother, and the six fingered man
16Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed 7½ pounds 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 David’s 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, a descendant of Rapha.
19Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
- 2SA 21:19[TEXT]WHO KILLED GOLIATH? The Hebrew says Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite. This Bible adds the brother of, from 1 Chronicles 20:5, like the King James. See Who Killed Goliath? on the David and Goliath Big Question pages in 1 Samuel.
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 David’s brother Shimei killed him.
22So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.