1
Then there was a famine in the days of Davidthreeyears,yearafteryear; and Davidenquiredof the LORD. And the LORDanswered, It is for Saul, and for his bloodyhouse, because he slew the Gibeonites.
2
And the kingcalled the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saulsought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)
3
Wherefore Davidsaid unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?
4
And the Gibeonitessaid unto him, We will have no silver nor goldofSaul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
5
And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
6
Let sevenmen of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the kingsaid, I will give them.
7
But the kingsparedMephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD'Soath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8
But the kingtook the twosons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul,Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the fivesons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
9
And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hillbefore the LORD: and they fell all seven*together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barleyharvest.
10
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiahtooksackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until waterdropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
12
And Davidwent and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead*, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slainSaul in Gilboa:
14
And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his sonburied they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the kingcommanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.