2 Samuel 21

During the time when David ruled, there was a famine in Israel continuously for three years. David asked God why this was happening. God told him, “{There is a famine to show that} you need to punish Saul’s family because Saul killed so many people from the Gibeonite group.” \*

So the king asked the leaders of Gibeon to come and speak with him. (The people of Gibeon were not Israelites. They were instead an Amorite people group that had survived {when the Israelites invaded the land of Canaan and killed the rest of the Amorites}. The Israelites had solemnly promised that they would not kill them. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he eagerly wanted the people of Israel and Judah to be the only ones living in that land.)

David said to the Gibeonite leaders, “What can I do to make up for what Saul did to your people so that you would then ask God to do good things for us Israelites again?” \*

They replied, “You cannot make up for what Saul did to us by having his family pay us any amount of money. And we do not have the right to kill any Israelites.” So David asked, “So what are you asking me to do for you?” \*

They replied, “That man Saul wanted to destroy us so that none of us would live anywhere in Israel. And he killed many of us.

Give us seven of Saul’s descendants {and allow us to execute them}. We will {kill them and} hang up their bodies in public so that God can see that we have punished Saul’s family for what he did. We will do this in the city of Gibeah where Saul lived. God chose him to be the king of Israel {and he should have protected us}.” The king replied, “Very well, I will give them to you {so that you can execute them}.” \*

The king did not give Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth to them. He was Jonathan’s son, and David and Jonathan had made a solemn promise that they would never harm each other’s descendants. They had sworn by God that they would keep that promise.

Instead, he took two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah, had borne to Saul {as his secondary wife}. Their names were Armoni and Mephibosheth. David also took five of the sons of Merab, Saul’s daughter. Merab’s husband was Adriel son of Barzillai. He was from the city of Meholah.

David gave these men to the people of Gibeon {to execute}. They took those seven men to Gibeon and killed them and hanged their bodies up on the hill in that city. That was where people worshiped God and considered him to be present. The Gibeonites killed those seven men at the same time. Those men died at the beginning of the time of year when people harvest their grain, beginning with barley. \*

Then Rizpah took some rough cloth and hung it from a rock {near the bodies} so she could sit under it and have shade from the sun. She stayed there from the time that people started to harvest barley until the autumn rains began. She did not allow any birds to come near the corpses during the day, and she did not allow any wild animals to come near them during the night.

Someone told David what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul’s secondary wife, had done. \*

So he went {with some of his servants} to Jabesh Gilead, where the leaders of that city allowed him to take the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The soldiers from that city had gone stealthily at night and taken their bones from the plaza in the city of Beth Shan. That was where Philistine soldiers had hung them on the day when they had killed Saul {and Jonathan} on Mount Gilboa.

David {and his servants} took the bones of Saul and Jonathan. Some other servants also took the bones of the seven men whom the Gibeonites had hanged. \*

David’s servants went to the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, in the city of Zela in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. There they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan {and the bones of the men whom the Gibeonites had hanged}. In this way, they did all that the king had commanded them to do. After the Gibeonites punished Saul’s family for what he had done, God answered the Israelites’ prayers for their land {and caused the famine to end}. \*

Later the Philistine army began to fight again against the army of Israel. David went with his soldiers to fight them. During the battle, David became tired.

One of the Philistine soldiers in the battle was a man whose name was Ishbi Benob. He was a giant as his ancestors had been. He carried a bronze spear that weighed almost three and a half kilograms. He also had a dangerous weapon. It seemed to him that he was going to be able to kill David.

But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to help David. He attacked the giant and killed him. Then David’s soldiers made David promise that he would not go with them into a battle again. They said that if enemy soldiers killed him in battle, Israel would no longer have him as king to guide them. \*

Later, the Israelite soldiers fought another battle with the Philistines. This happened near Gob. During the battle, Sibbecai, from the clan of Hushah, killed Saph, who was a giant as his ancestors had been.

Later, the Israelite soldiers fought another battle with the Philistines near Gob. During that battle, Elhanan son of Jaare Oregim from Bethlehem killed Goliath from Gath. Goliath had a great spear whose shaft was very thick, like the bar on a weaver’s loom. \*

Later, there was another battle near Gath. One of the Philistine soldiers was very tall. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was a giant as his ancestors had been.

He challenged any Israelite soldier to fight him in single combat. David’s older brother Shimeah had a son whose name was Jonathan. Jonathan accepted the challenge, fought this Philistine soldier, and killed him.

Those four men lived in Gath and were giants as their ancestors had been. David and his soldiers fought them and killed them. \*