5
They said to the king, "The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel,
6
let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the LORD at
1Gibeah of Saul,
2the chosen of the LORD." And the king said, "I will give them."
7
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of
3the oath of the LORD that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8
The king took the two sons of
4Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom
5she bore to
6Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite;
9
and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the LORD, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest,
7at the beginning of barley harvest.
10
8Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night.
11
When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done,
12
David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead,
9who had stolen them from the public square of
10Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.
13
And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
14
And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in
11Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that
12God responded to the plea for the land.
War with the Philistines
15 There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary.