2Sa 21 | Lees | STEP | And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David besought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, On account of Saul, and on account of the house of blood, is this; because he hath slain the Gib’onites.

‏ 2 Samuel 21

1 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David besought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, On account of Saul, and on account of the house of blood, is this; because he hath slain the Gib’onites. 2 And the king called for the Gib’onites, and said unto them: now the Gib’onites are not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Emorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them; but Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel in Judah: 3 Wherefore David said unto the Gib’onites, 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 Gib’onites said unto him, We have no concern of silver or gold with Saul and with his house: nor do we wish to kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye say, will I do for you. 5 And they said to the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed, so that we should have no footing in all the boundaries of Israel. 6 Let there be delivered unto us seven men of his sons, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gib’ah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them. 7 But the king had pity on 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. 8 And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Ayah, whom she had born unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she had brought up for ‘Adriel the son of Barzillai the Mecholathite: 9 And he delivered them into the hand of the Gib’onites, and they hanged them on the mount before the Lord; and they fell, these seven, together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest, in the beginning of the barley-harvest. 10 And Rizpah the daughter of Ayah took sackcloth, and spread out it for herself upon the rock, from the beginning of the harvest until water dropped down upon them out of heaven, and she suffered neither the birds of heaven to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 And it was told to David what Rizpah the daughter of Ayah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12 And David then went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Yabeshgil’ad, who had stolen them from the market-place of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them up, at the time the Philistines had smitten Saul at Gilboa’: 13 And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered up the bones of those that had been hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin at Zela’, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king had commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land. 15 And the Philistines had again a war with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David became fatigued. 16 And Yishbi at Nob, who was of the children of the Raphah, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of copper, he being girded with a new armor, thought to slay David. 17 But Abishai the son of Zeruyah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then swore the men of David unto him, saying, Thou shalt go out no more with us to battle, that thou mayest not quench the lamp of Israel. 18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle at Gob, with the Philistines: then smote Sibbechai the Chushathite Saph, who was of the children of the Raphah. 19 And there was again a battle at Gob with the Philistines, when Elchanan the son of Ya’are-oregim, the Bethlechemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20 And there was again a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, in all four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the Raphah. 21 And he defied Israel; but Jonathan the son of Shim’ah, the brother of David, slew him. 22 These four were born to the Raphah in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.