2 Samuel 21

Jubilee Bible 2000

21 ¶ Then there was a famine in the days of David for three consecutive years, and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is because of Saul and because of 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 sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the sons of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

³ Therefore, David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make reconciliation that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

⁴ And the Gibeonites replied unto him, We have no quarrel regarding silver nor gold with Saul, nor with his house; neither do we desire that anyone in Israel should die. And he said unto them, 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, let us destroy him that nothing of him remains in any of the borders of Israel.

⁶ Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will disjoint them, hanging them from a tree, 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 gave birth unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she had given birth unto Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite;

⁹ and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they disjointed them hanging them from a tree 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 upon the rock from the beginning of harvest until water rained upon them out of heaven and allowed 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 Then David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabeshgilead, who had stolen them from the plaza of Bethshan where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa;

¹³ and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son; and they gathered the bones of those that had been disjointed by being hanged from a tree,

¹⁴ and they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the land 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 ¶ And the Philistines made war again with Israel; and David went down, and his slaves with him, and fought against the Philistines; and David became weary.

¹⁶ And Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, and the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, was girded with a new sword and had determined to kill David.

¹⁷ But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped David, and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore unto him, saying, From now on thou shalt not go out with us to battle that thou not quench the light of Israel.

¹⁸ And after this, there was a second war with the Philistines at Gob; then Sibbechai, the Hushathite, slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.

¹⁹ And there was another war in Gob with the Philistines where Elhanan, the son of Jaareoregim of Bethlehem, slew Goliath, the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰ And after that there was another war in Gath where there was a man of great stature, that had six fingers on every hand, and six toes on every foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was of the sons of the giant.

²¹ And when he dishonoured 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 slaves.