1
Then there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, "It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."
2
And the king called 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, but Saul sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah)"
3
therefore David said 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 Gibeonites said unto him, "We will have no silver nor gold of Saul 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 who consumed us and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,
6
let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD chose." And the king said, "I will give them."
7
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD'S oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons 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 on the hill before 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 barley harvest.
10
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.
11
And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.