2 Samuel 21 There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. the LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. the LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” ² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not from the Israelites; they were from the remainder of the Amorites. Now the Israelites had sworn to them, but Saul tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah. ³ David asked the Gibeonites, "What am I to do for you? And how shall I make atonement so that you will bless the LORD's heritage?" ⁴ And the Gib’onites said unto him, We have no concern of silver or gold with Saul and with his house: nor do we wish to kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye say, will I do for you. ⁵ And they answered the king, The man who destroyed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, ⁶ let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD." The king said, "I will give them." ⁷ And the king spared Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹ and he handed them over to the Gibeonites, who hanged them on the mountain in the presence of the LORD. All seven of them died at the same time. They were executed during the first days of harvest, just as the barley began to be gathered in. ¹⁰ Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. ¹¹ And it was told David,—what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine, had done. ¹² David took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. They had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shean, where the Philistines hung them the day they killed Saul at Gilboa. ¹³ He brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there along with the bones of those who had been hanged, ¹⁴ Then they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin, at Zela, in the tomb of Saul's father Kish. They did everything the king ordered. After that God answered the prayers for the land. ¹⁵ Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David and his men went to fight the Philistines. David became exhausted. ¹⁶ And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of the Raphah, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, who was armed with a new sword, thought he could kill David. ¹⁷ And Abishai son of Zeruiah helped him, and he struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore by an oath, saying, You shall not come forth still with us into battle, that in no way the lamp of Israel should be extinguished. ¹⁸ And there was yet, after this, battle with the Philistines at Nob, in which Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph of the sons of Haraphah. ¹⁹ And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. And Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. ²⁰ There was also another battle at Geth, and there was a smooth man who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty four in all, and he was a descendant of Rapha, ²¹ When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him. ²² These four were born of Arapha in Geth, and they fell by the hand of David, and of his servants.