A famine and the Gibeonites’ revenge on Saul’s descendants
21
📚Then there was a famine 📖 in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, “It is on account of Saul and on account of his house of bloodshed, because he killed the Gibeonites”.2 📚And the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites 📖 were not a part of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel had sworn to spare them, but Saul sought to strike them down in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah. 3 📚Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement 📖, so that you may bless the inheritance 📖 of the LORD?”
4 📚And the Gibeonites said to him, “For us it is not a matter of silver or gold with Saul or with his house; nor should any man in Israel be put to death for us”.
And he said, “I will do for you whatever you say”.
5 📚And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us, and who planned that we should be ruined with no place remaining for us in any of the territories of Israel, 6 📚let seven men among his offspring be handed over to us, and we will hang them up before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD”.
21:5-6 Gen 9:5-6; Num 25:4; 35:31. Saul himself was dead, so retribution was made on his descendants. Many more than seven Gibeonites had been killed, but they were willing to accept the death of seven of Saul’s descendants as a just retribution. Was it right for Saul’s descendants to pay the penalty of sin committed by Saul? In this case it was right, for God accepted it and stopped the famine (v 14), and certainly we may say that God would not have done so if the action by David had not been right. At first sight this all seems contrary to God’s word in Ezekiel chapter 18. But there sin is regarded as a personal matter; in Saul’s case God regarded it as a national matter, as in the case of Achan. Also, for all we know, it may be that Saul’s descendants had guilty knowledge of Saul’s wicked deed, were one with him in it, were wicked people themselves.⚜
And the king said, “I will hand them over”.
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. 8 📚But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to 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, 9 📚and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. And all seven of them fell together, and were put to death during the first days of harvest, in the beginning of the barley harvest.
10 📚And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock there, from the beginning of harvest until rain 📖 fell on them from the sky, and did not let either the birds of the air come on them by day or the beasts of the field by night. 11 📚And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12 📚And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them after the Philistines had killed Saul in Gilboa. 13 And David brought the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son up from there; and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
14 📚And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish, and they did all that the king commanded. And after that God heard prayer 📖 for the land.
Wars with the Philistines
15 📚Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines, and David became exhausted. 16 📚And Ishbi-benob, who was one of the descendants of a giant, and the weight of whose spear was three hundred bronze shekels 📖 in weight, and who was girded with a new sword, said he would kill David. 17 📚But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the light 📖 of Israel”.
The Giants Slain by David's Men
18 📚And it happened after this, that again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai, the Hushathite, killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of a giant.
19 📚And again there was a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan, the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
20 📚And there was another battle in Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he too had been born to a giant. 21 📚And when he defied Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimeah the brother of David, killed him.
22 📚These four were born to a giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.