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 theThinking to gratify the people, because these were not of the seed of Abraham.Gibeonites.

² Then ye King called the Gibeonites and said vnto them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites, vnto whom ye children of Israel had sworne: but Saul sought to slay them for his zeale toward the children of Israel and Iudah)

³ Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites,With what may your wrath be appeased, that you may pray to God to remove this plague from his people.What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

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 killSave only of Saul's stock.any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, [that] will I do for you.

⁵ Then they answered the King, The man that consumed vs and that imagined euill against vs, so that we are destroyed from remaining in any coast of Israel,

⁶ Let seven men of hisOf Saul's kinsmen.sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them upTo pacify the Lord.unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, [whom] the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give [them].

⁷ But the King had compassion on Mephibosheth the sonne of Ionathan the sonne of Saul, because of the Lordes othe, that was betweene them, euen betweene Dauid and Ionathan the sonne of Saul.

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 ofHere Michal is named for Merab Adriel's wife, as it appears in (1Sa_18:19) for Michal was the wife of Paltiel, (1Sa_25:44) and never had a child (2Sa_6:23).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 in the hill before the LORD: and they fell [all] seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in theWhich was in the month Abib or Nisan which contained part of March and part of April.first [days], in the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah tookTo make her a tent in which she prayed to God to turn away his wrath.sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest untilBecause drought was the cause of this famine, God by sending rain showed that he was pacified.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.

¹¹ And it was told Dauid, what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah ye concubine of Saul had done.

¹² And Dauid went and tooke the bones of Saul and the bones of Ionathan his sonne from the citizens of Iabesh Gilead, which had stollen them from the streete of Beth-shan, where the Philistims had hanged them, when the Philistims had slaine Saul in Gilboa.

¹³ So hee brought thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Ionathan his sonne, and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

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 wasFor where the government permits faults to go unpunished, there the plague of God lies on the land.intreated for the land.

¹⁵ Againe the Philistims had warre with Israel: and Dauid went downe, and his seruants with him, and they fought against the Philistims, and Dauid fainted.

¹⁶ And Ishbibenob, which [was] of the sons ofOr, of Haraphah, the race of giants.the giant, the weight of whose spear [weighed] three hundredWhich amounts to 9 3/4 pounds.[shekels] of brass in weight, he being girded with a new [sword], thought to have slain David.

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 theFor the glory and wealth of the country stands in the preservation of the godly magistrate.light of Israel.

¹⁸ And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines atCalled Gezer, and Saph is called Sippai, (1Ch_20:4).Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which [was] of the sons of the giant.

¹⁹ And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew [the brother of]That is, Lahmi the brother of Goliath, whom David slew, (1Ch_20:5).Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear [was] like a weaver's beam.

²⁰ Afterward there was also a battel in Gath, where was a man of a great stature, and had on euerie hand sixe fingers, and on euerie foote sixe toes, foure and twentie in nomber: who was also the sonne of Haraphah.

²¹ And when hee reuiled Israel, Ionathan the sonne of Shima the brother of Dauid slewe him.

²² These foure were borne to Haraphah in Gath, and died by the hande of Dauid and by the hands of his seruants.