2 Samuel
21:1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after
year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for
Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
21:2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto 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 unto them: and Saul
sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
21:3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and
wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance
of the LORD?
21:4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of
Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in
Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
21:5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised
against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the
coasts of Israel,
21:6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up
unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king
said, I will give them.
21:7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul,
because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and
Jonathan the son of Saul.
21:8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she
bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the
daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai
the Meholathite:
21:9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged
them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and
were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the
beginning of barley harvest.
21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her
upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon
them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on
them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
21:11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of
Saul, had done.
21:12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his
son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street
of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines
had slain Saul in Gilboa:
21:13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of
Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.
21:14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of
Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they
performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated
for the land.
21:15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went
down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and
David waxed faint.
21:16 And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose
spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded
with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine,
and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt
go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of
Israel.
21:18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the
Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was
of the sons of the giant.
21:19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan
the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the
Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
21:20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature,
that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and
twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.
21:21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of
David slew him.
21:22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of
David, and by the hand of his servants.
