2 Samuel 21:12

12 he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)

2 Samuel 21:12 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 21:12

And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of
Jonathan his son, from the men of Jabeshgilead
Which, according to Bunting ^F20, was fifty two miles from Jerusalem; though perhaps David did not go thither in person to fetch them, but by his messengers, see ( 2 Samuel 21:14 ) ;

which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the
Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in
Gilboa;
the history of all which see in ( 1 Samuel 31:8-13 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Travels p. 122, 143.

2 Samuel 21:12 In-Context

10 Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.

11 When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done,

12 he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)

13 So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.

14 Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God ended the famine in the land.