2 Samuel 21

¹ Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David besought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah answered, It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he had killed the Gibeonites.

² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. The children of Israel had sworn peace to them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.)

³ Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Jehovah?

⁴ And the Gibeonites said to him, We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us. So he said, Whatever you say, I will do for you.

⁵ And they answered the king, As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us, that we should be annihilated from remaining in any of the territories of Israel,

⁶ let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them before Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, whom Jehovah chose. And the king said, I will deliver them.

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of Jehovah that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

⁸ So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to 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 Jehovah. So they fell, all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Now Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until the waters poured on them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the heavens to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.

¹¹ And David was told 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 town square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, after the Philistines had struck down Saul in Gilboa.

¹³ And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. Thus they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.

¹⁵ And the Philistines were at war again with Israel. And David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint.

¹⁶ And Ishbi-Benob, who was of the sons of the giants, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze, who was bearing a new sword, intended to kill David.

¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go out no more with us to battle, that you not quench the lamp of Israel.

¹⁸ And it happened after this that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giants.

¹⁹ Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed one from Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰ Yet again there was war at 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 also was born to the giants.

²¹ And when he reproached Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him.

²² These four were born to the giants in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.