2 Samuel 21:1-6

1 In the time of David, there was a famine for three successive years, and David asked the LORD's advice about it. The LORD answered, "It's because of Saul and his family. They are guilty of murder because they killed the people of Gibeon."

2 (The Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were left over from the Amorites. Although the Israelites had sworn [to spare them], Saul, in his eagerness, tried to destroy them for Israel and Judah.) The king called the Gibeonites

3 and asked them, "What can I do for you? What should I [give you] to make peace with you so that you will bless what belongs to the LORD?"

4 "We do not want silver or gold from Saul's family," the Gibeonites answered him. "And none of us wants to kill [anyone] in Israel." The king asked, "What are you saying that I should do for you?"

5 They answered the king, "Give us seven of the male descendants of the man who wanted to finish us off. He planned to wipe us out to keep us from staying anywhere in Israel's territory.

6 We will execute them in the LORD's presence at Saul's town Gibeah." (It was Saul whom the LORD had chosen.) "I will give them [to you]," the king said.

2 Samuel 21:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO SECOND SAMUEL 21

A famine being in the land three years, the Lord was inquired of, to know the reason of it; and it being answered, that it was on account of Saul's slaughter of the Gibeonites, they were summoned by David to know what satisfaction they required for the cruel usage of them, 2Sa 21:1-3; to which they replied, that they only desired seven of Saul's sons to be delivered up to them, to be hanged by them, which was granted, 2Sa 21:4-9; whose bones, with those of Saul and Jonathan, David buried in the sepulchre of their fathers, 2Sa 21:10-14; and the chapter is closed with an account of the various battles fought with the Philistines, in which four of their generals were slain, 2Sa 21:15-22.