2 Samuel 21

Now {there} was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year. And David sought the face of God, and God said, “To Saul and to the house {is} blood, because he killed the Gibeonites.” \*

And the king called to the Gibeonites, and he spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites {were} not from the sons of Israel. Rather, they {were} from the remnant of the Amorite. And the sons of Israel had sworn to them, but Saul sought to strike them when he was jealous for the sons of Israel and Judah.)

And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you, and with what shall I atone, then bless the inheritance of God?” \*

And the Gibeonites said to him, “{There is} no silver or gold for us with Saul or with his house. And {there is} not for us a man to kill in Israel.” \* And he said, “What are you saying I shall do for you?” \*

And they said to the king, “The man who ended us and who intended against us {that} we should be destroyed from stationing ourselves in all of the border of Israel,

let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will hang them before God at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of God.” \* And the king said, “I, I will give.” \*

Now the king had compassion on Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of God that {was} between them, between David and between Jonathan, the son of Saul.

But the king took two of the sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and five of the sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

And he gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill to the face of God, and the seven of them fell together. And they, they were killed in the days of the harvest, in the first {days}, at the beginning of the harvest of barley. \*

And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth, and she spread it for herself against a rock, from the beginning of the harvest until water was poured on them from the heavens. And she did not allow a bird of the heavens to rest on them by day or a beast of the field by night.

And it was declared to David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. \*

And David went, and he took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the lords of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the open area of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them there on the day the Philistines struck Saul at Gilboa.

And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of the hanged ones. \*

And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And God was entreated for the land after this. \*

Now war was to the Philistines again with Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him, and they fought the Philistines. And David wearied.

And Ishbi Benob, who {was} among the children of Rapha, and the weight of his spear {was} 300 {shekels} of bronze in weight, and he was girded {with} a new {weapon}, and he said to strike David.

But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped him, and he struck the Philistine, and he killed him. Then the men of David adjured him, saying, “You shall not go out with us to battle anymore, so you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel.” \*

And it happened after this that {there} was a battle again with the Philistines, at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck Saph, who {was} among the children of Rapha. \*

And {there} was battle again with the Philistines at Gob. And Elhanan, the son of Jaare Oregim the Bethlehemite, struck Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear {was} like the beam of weavers. \*

And {there} was battle again at Gath, and {there} was a man of stature, and the digits of his hands and the digits of his feet {were} six and six, 24 {in} number. And he also was born to Rapha.

And he taunted Israel, and Jonathan, the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, struck him. \*

These four were born to Rapha in Gath. And they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants. \*