2 Samuel 21:5-15

5 The Gibeonites said, "Saul made plans against us and tried to destroy all our people who are left in the land of Israel.

6 So bring seven of his sons to us. Then we will kill them and hang them on stakes in the presence of the Lord at Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the Lord's chosen king." The king said, "I will give them to you."

7 But the king protected Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the promise he had made to Jonathan in the Lord's name.

8 The king did take Armoni and Mephibosheth, sons of Rizpah and Saul. (Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah.) And the king took the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab. (Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite was the father of Merab's five sons.)

9 David gave these seven sons to the Gibeonites. Then the Gibeonites killed them and hung them on stakes on a hill in the presence of the Lord. All seven sons died together. They were put to death during the first days of the harvest season at the beginning of barley harvest.

10 Aiah's daughter Rizpah took the rough cloth that was worn to show sadness and put it on a rock for herself. She stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on her sons' bodies. During the day she did not let the birds of the sky touch her sons' bodies, and during the night she did not let the wild animals touch them.

11 People told David what Aiah's daughter Rizpah, Saul's slave woman, was doing.

12 Then David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh Gilead. (The Philistines had hung the bodies of Saul and Jonathan in the public square of Beth Shan after they had killed Saul at Gilboa. Later the men of Jabesh Gilead had secretly taken them from there.)

13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from Gilead. Then the people gathered the bodies of Saul's seven sons who were hanged on stakes.

14 The people buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan at Zela in Benjamin in the tomb of Saul's father Kish. The people did everything the king commanded. Then God answered the prayers for the land.

15 Again there was war between the Philistines and Israel. David and his men went out to fight the Philistines, but David became tired.

2 Samuel 21:5-15 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.