The Gibeonites Hang Saul's Descendants
1 While David was king, there were three years in a row when the nation of Israel could not grow enough food. So David asked the Lord for help, and the Lord answered, “Saul and his family are guilty of murder, because he had the Gibeonites killed.”
2 The Gibeonites were not Israelites; they were descendants of the Amorites. The people of Israel had promised not to kill them, but Saul had tried to kill them because he wanted Israel and Judah to control all the land.
David had the Gibeonites come, and he talked with them. 3 He said, “What can I do to make up for what Saul did, so that you'll ask the Lord to be kind to his people again?”
4 The Gibeonites answered, “Silver and gold from Saul and his family are not enough. On the other hand, we don't have the right to put any Israelite to death.”
David said, “I'll do whatever you ask.”
5 They replied, “Saul tried to kill all our people so that none of us would be left in the land of Israel. 6 Give us seven of his descendants. We will hang these men near the place where the Lord is worshiped in Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the Lord's chosen king.”
“I'll give them to you,” David said.
7 David had made a promise to Jonathan with the Lord as his witness, so he spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul. 8 But Saul and Rizpah the daughter of Aiah had two sons named Armoni and Mephibosheth. Saul's daughter Merab had five sons whose father was Adriel the son of Barzillai from Meholah. David took Rizpah's two sons and Merab's five sons and 9 turned them over to the Gibeonites, who hanged all seven of them on the mountain near the place where the Lord was worshiped. This happened right at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Rizpah Takes Care of the Bodies
10 Rizpah spread out some sackcloth on a nearby rock. She wouldn't let the birds land on the bodies during the day, and she kept the wild animals away at night. She stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until it started to rain.
The Burial of Saul and His Descendants
11-12 Earlier the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa and had hung their bodies in the town square at Beth-Shan. The people of Jabesh in Gilead had secretly taken the bodies away, but David found out what Saul's wife Rizpah had done, and he went to the leaders of Jabesh to get the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. 13-14 David had their bones taken to the land of Benjamin and buried in a side room in Saul's family burial place. Then he gave orders for the bones of the men who had been hanged to be buried there. It was done, and God answered prayers to bless the land.
The Descendants of the Rephaim
(1 Chronicles 20.4-8)15 One time David got very tired when he and his soldiers were fighting the Philistines. 16 One of the Philistine warriors was Ishbibenob, who was a descendant of the Rephaim, and he tried to kill David. Ishbibenob was armed with a new sword, and his bronze spearhead alone weighed about three and a half kilograms. 17 But Abishai came to the rescue and killed the Philistine.
David's soldiers told him, “We can't let you risk your life in battle anymore! You give light to our nation, and we want that flame to keep burning.”
18 There was another battle with the Philistines at Gob, where Sibbecai from Hushah killed a descendant of the Rephaim named Saph.
19 There was still another battle with the Philistines at Gob. A soldier named Elhanan killed Goliath from Gath, whose spear shaft was like a weaver's beam. Elhanan's father was Jari from Bethlehem.
20 There was another war, this time in Gath. One of the enemy soldiers was a descendant of the Rephaim. He was as big as a giant and had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. 21 But when he made fun of Israel, David's nephew Jonathan killed him. Jonathan was the son of David's brother Shimei.
22 David and his soldiers killed these four men who were descendants of the Rephaim from Gath.
1 Then there was a famine in the dayes of Dauid, three yeeres together: and Dauid asked counsell of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloodie house, because hee slewe the 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 And Dauid said vnto the Gibeonites, What shall I doe for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may blesse the inheritance of the Lord? 4 The Gibeonites then answered him, Wee will haue no siluer nor golde of Saul nor of his house, neither for vs shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I doe 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 seuen men of his sonnes be deliuered vnto vs, and we will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the Lordes chosen. And the King said, I will giue 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 tooke the two sonnes of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whome shee bare vnto Saul, euen Armoni and Mephibosheth and the fiue sonnes of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whome shee bare to Adriel the sonne of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 And hee deliuered them vnto the handes of the Gibeonites, which hanged them in the mountaine before the Lord: so they died all seuen together, and they were slaine in the time of haruest: in the first dayes, and in the beginning of barly haruest. 10 Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah tooke sackecloth and hanged it vp for her vpon the rocke, from the beginning of haruest, vntill water dropped vpon them from the heauen, and suffered neither the birdes of the aire to light on the by day, nor beasts of the fielde 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 of Ionathan his sonne buried they in the coutrey of Beniamin in Zelah, in the graue of Kish his father: and when they had perfourmed all that the King had commanded, God was then appeased with 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 Then Ishi-benob which was of the sonnes of Haraphah (the head of whose speare wayed three hundreth shekels of brasse) euen he being girded with a newe sword, thought to haue slaine Dauid. 17 But Abishai the sonne of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistim, and killed him. Then Dauids men sware vnto him, saying, Thou shalt goe no more out with vs to battell, lest thou quench the light of Israel. 18 And after this also there was a battell with the Philistims at Gob, then Sibbechai the Hushathite slewe Saph, which was one of ye sonnes of Haraphah. 19 And there was yet another battel in Gob with the Philistims, where Elhanah the sonne of Iaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite slewe Goliath the Gittite: the staffe of whose speare was like a weauers beame. 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.