2 Samuel 21

21 ¹ Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; so David asked our Father about it. And our Father said, "There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death."

² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites; the people of Israel had sworn an oath to spare them, but Saul had tried to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)

³ David said to the Gibeonites, "What can I do for you? How can I make atonement, so that you may bless our Father's people?"

⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, "It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, and we have no right to put anyone in Israel to death." And David said, "Whatever you say, I will do for you."

⁵ They said to the king, "As for the man who wiped us out and who plotted to destroy us, so that we would have no place left within all the territory of Israel, ⁶ let seven men from among his descendants be handed over to us, and we will hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD." 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 oath before our Father between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹ He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before our Father, and the seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

¹⁰ Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of the harvest until the rains poured down from the sky on the bodies; she would not let the birds of the sky settle on them by day, nor the wild animals by night. ¹ 1 v10 Sackcloth was rough, dark cloth worn as a visible sign of mourning and grief.

¹¹ When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Saul's concubine, had done, ¹² he went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them on the day the Philistines struck Saul down on Gilboa.

¹³ He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan, and the bones of those who had been hanged were gathered up. ¹⁴ They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father, and they did all that the king had commanded. And after that, our Father answered the prayers for the land.

David's Warriors Defeat Philistine Giants

¹⁵ Once again there was war between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down with his servants to fight the Philistines; and David grew weary.

¹⁶ And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed about seven and a half pounds and who was armed with a new sword, was about to strike David down. ² 2 v16 Rapha was the ancestor of a clan of unusually large warriors — the giants who fought among the Philistines. ¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David's aid; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, "You must never again go out with us to battle, so that you do not snuff out the lamp of Israel."

¹⁸ After this there was another war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants of Rapha.

¹⁹ There was another war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a large wooden beam.

²⁰ There was another war at Gath, where there was a huge man who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all; he too was descended from Rapha. ²¹ And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down.

²² These four were descended from Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and his servants.