2 Samuel 21:9

9 and handed them over to the Gibeonites. They hanged^[a] them on the hill in the presence of the Lord; the seven of them died together. They were executed in the first days of the harvest at the beginning of the barley harvest.^[b]

2 Samuel 21:9 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 21:9

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites
The two sons of Rizpah and the five sons of Merab, two sons of Saul and five grandsons:

and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord;
in the hill at Gibeah, that they might be seen by all that passed by, and serve to deter from such evils, which brought on them that punishment; gibbetings or crucifixions were commonly made on hills and mountains {l}: the phrase, "before the Lord", is either the same as "unto the Lord", ( 2 Samuel 21:6 ) ; to make atonement to the Lord, and in his sight; or it denotes that it was done publicly before the sun, and in the sight of it; for it cannot mean before the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, for that was not there:

and they fell [all] seven together;
they were hanged together, and died at one and the same time:

and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first [days], in
the beginning of barley harvest;
which began at the passover, the morrow after the first day of the feast, ( Leviticus 23:10 Leviticus 23:11 ) ; which was the sixteenth of Nisan, on which day, the Jews say ^F13, these men were hanged, and which must be about the beginning of our April.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Vid. Lipsium de Cruce, l. 3. c. 13.
F13 Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 190. 1.

2 Samuel 21:9 In-Context

7 David spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between David and Jonathan, Saul's son.

8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, who were the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, and the five sons whom Merabdaughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite

9 and handed them over to the Gibeonites. They hanged them on the hill in the presence of the Lord; the seven of them died together. They were executed in the first days of the harvest at the beginning of the barley harvest.

10 Rizpah, Aiah's daughter, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until the rain poured down from heaven on the bodies. She kept the birds of the sky from them by day and the wild animals by night.

11 When it was reported to David what Saul's concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done,

Footnotes

• [a]. Or impaled, or exposed
• [b]. March-April