| Chapter
21 |
| 1 | Then
there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David
inquired 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 succored 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 Shimeah 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. |
