2 Samuel 21:8

8 And so the king took (the) two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, which she childed to Saul, Armoni, and (another) Mephibosheth; and he took [the] five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul (and he took the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab), which she engendered to Adriel, the son of Barzillai, that was of (the) Meholathites.

2 Samuel 21:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Samuel 21:8

But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah,
&c.] Saul's concubine, ( 2 Samuel 3:7 ) ;

whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth;
of whom we read nowhere else; after the name of the latter, it is probable, Jonathan's son was called, before mentioned:

and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up
for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite;
Michal had no children to the day of her death, nor was she the wife of Adriel, but Merab her sister, ( 1 Samuel 18:19 ) ; wherefore these sons were not whom she "bare", as the word used signifies, but, as we rightly render it, whom she "brought up" or educated, so the Targum, her sister being dead; and so the Jews say ^F11, Merab brought them forth, and Michal brought them up, therefore they were called by her name; or the words may be supplied thus, "and the five sons [of the sister of Michal]", and, as in ( 2 Samuel 21:19 ) , is supplied, "[the brother of] Goliath". Barzillai is here called the Meholathite, to distinguish him from Barzillai the Gileadite, spoken of in a former chapter, see ( 2 Samuel 17:27 ) ( 19:31 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F11 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 19. 2.

2 Samuel 21:8 In-Context

6 Seven men of his sons be given to us, that we crucify them to the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, sometime the chosen man of the Lord. And the king said, I shall give them to you. (Let seven of his kinsmen be given to us, so that we can hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was, at one time, the Lord's chosen man. And the king said, I shall give them to you.)

7 And the king spared Mephibosheth (But the king spared Mephibosheth), the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, for the oath of the Lord, that was betwixt David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.

8 And so the king took (the) two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, which she childed to Saul, Armoni, and (another) Mephibosheth; and he took [the] five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul (and he took the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab), which she engendered to Adriel, the son of Barzillai, that was of (the) Meholathites.

9 And he gave them (up) into the hands of (the) Gibeonites, and they did those seven sons upon (a) cross in an hill before the Lord (and they hanged those seven kinsmen on a hill before the Lord); and (so) these seven fell down slain together in the days of the first reap(ing), when the reaping of barley began.

10 Forsooth Rizpah, (the) daughter of Aiah, took an hair-shirt, and arrayed to herself a place above the stone/and laid it under her(self) upon a stone (and arrayed for herself a place on the rock where their bodies lay), from the beginning of harvest till water dropped on them from (the) heaven(s); and she suffered not (the) birds to tear them by day, neither (the) beasts by night.