2Sa 21:1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after
year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and
for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
2Sa 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.)
2Sa 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?
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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,
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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:
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 21:11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine
of Saul, had done.
2Sa 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:
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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 entreated for the land.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 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.
2Sa 21:21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the brother of
David slew him.
2Sa 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.