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 the
Gibeonites.
2 And
the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not
of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children
of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah.)
3 Wherefore
David said unto the Gibeonites, 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 kill any man in Israel. And he said, What
ye shall say, that will I do for you.
5 And
they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we
should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
6 Let
seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the
LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king
said, I will give them.
7 But
the king spared 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 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 of 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 the first days, in the beginning of barley
harvest.
10 And
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the
rock, from the beginning of harvest until 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 David 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 Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan,
where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in
Gilboa:
13 And
he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son;
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 was intreated for the land.
15 Moreover
the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his
servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.
16 And
Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight
of whose spear weighed three hundred 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 the light of Israel.
18 And
it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines
at 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 Goliath the Gittite, the staff of
whose spear was like
a weaver's beam.
20 And
there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature,
that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty
in number; and he also was born to the giant.
21 And
when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew
him.
22 These
four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the
hand of his servants.
