2 Samuel 21

Revised Geneva Translation

21 Then there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David asked counsel of the LORD. And the LORD answered: “It is for Saul, and for his bloody House, because he killed the [c]Gibeonites.”

² Then the king called the Gibeonites, and said to them…(Now, the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites, with whom the children of Israel had sworn peace. But Saul sought to kill them for his zeal toward the children of Israel and Judah.)

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

⁴ The Gibeonites then answered him, “We will have no silver or gold from Saul, nor from his house. Nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us.” And he said, “Whatever you say, that will I do for you.”

⁵ Then they answered the king, “The man who consumed us, and who imagined evil against us, so that we have been destroyed from remaining in any territory of Israel,

⁶ “let seven men of his sons be delivered to us. And we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the LORD’s chosen.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king had compassion 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 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul (Armoni and Mephibosheth) and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite.

⁹ And he delivered them to the hands of the Gibeonites, who hanged them on the mountain, before the LORD. So they died, seven altogether. And they were killed in the time of harvest, in the first days, and in the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Then Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and hung it up for herself upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them from the sky, and allowed neither the birds of the air to light on them by day nor beasts of the field by night.

¹¹ And it was told to 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 citizens of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan where the Philistines had hanged them when the Philistines had killed Saul in Gilboa.

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

¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and of Jonathan, his son, in the country of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the grave of Kish, his father. And when they had performed all that the king had commanded, God was then appeased with the land.

¹⁵ Again, the Philistines had war with Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him. And they fought against the Philistines. And David fainted.

¹⁶ Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giants whose spears weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, girded a new sword and thought to kill David.

¹⁷ But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, helped him and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench the light of Israel.”

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

¹⁹ And there was yet another battle with the Philistines in Gob, where Elhanan, the son of Jaare-Oregim, a Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰ Afterward, there was also a battle in Gath, where there was a man of stature, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot (twenty-four in number) who was also the son of giants.

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

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