1
There was a famine in Israel for three years that occurred in the time that David ruled. David prayed to Yahweh about it. And Yahweh said, “In order for the famine to end, Saul’s family needs to be punished because Saul killed many people from the city of Gibeon.”
2
The people of Gibeon were not native born Israelites. They were a small group of the Amor people group whom the Israelites had solemnly promised to protect when they invaded the land of Canaan. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he was very eager to enable the people of Judah and Israel to be the only ones living in that land. So the king summoned the leaders of Gibeon
3
and said to them, “What should I do for you? How can I make up for what Saul did to your people, in order that you will bless us who belong to Yahweh and have so many good things from him?”
4
They replied, “You cannot settle our quarrel with Saul and his family by giving us silver or gold. And we do not have the right to kill any Israelites.” So David asked, “Then what do you say that I should do for you?”
5
They replied, “Saul wanted to get rid of us. He wanted to annihilate all of us, in order that none of us would live anywhere in Israel.
6
Put seven of Saul’s descendants into our hands. We will hang them where Yahweh is worshiped in Gibeon, our city, the city where Saul, whom Yahweh chose to be king, lived.” The king replied, “Very well, I will hand them over to you.”
7
The king did not hand over Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth to them, because of what he and Mephibosheth’s father Jonathan had solemnly promised to each other.
8
Instead, he took the two sons of Rizpah and Saul, named Armoni and Mephibosheth, Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah and had been Saul’s slave wife; David also took the five sons of Merab, Saul’s daughter. Merab’s husband was Adriel son of Barzillai, was from the city of Meholah.
9
David handed these men over to the people of Gibeon. They took those seven men to Gibeon and hanged them on a hill where they worshiped Yahweh. They died during the time of the year that the people started to harvest the barley.
10
Then Rizpah took coarse cloth made from goats’ hair, and spread it on the rock where the corpses lay. She stayed there from the time that people started to harvest the barley until the rains started. She did not allow any birds to come near the corpses during the day, and she did not allow any animals to come near during the night.
11
Someone told David what Rizpah had done.
12
So he went with some of his servants to Jabesh in the region of Gilead and got the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The people of Jabesh had stolen their bones from the plaza in the city of Beth Shan, where the men from Philistia had hanged them on the day that they had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa.
13
David and his men took the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and they also took the bones of the seven men from Gibeon who had been hanged.
14
David’s servants went to the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, in the city of Zela in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. There they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan also. In this way, they did all that the king had commanded them to do. After that, because God saw that Saul’s family had been punished to pay for Saul’s murder of many people from Gibeon, he answered the Israelites’ prayers for their land, and caused the famine to end.
Four Battles against the Philistines
(1 Chronicles 20:4–8)
15
The army of Philistia again started to fight against the army of Israel. And David and his soldiers went to fight them. During the battle, David became tired.
16
One of the Philistine men thought that he could kill David. His name was Ishbi-Benob. He was a descendant of a group of giants. He carried a bronze spear that weighed almost three and one-half kilograms, and he also had a new sword.
17
But Abishai came to help David, and attacked the giant and killed him. Then David’s soldiers forced David to promise that he would not go with them into a battle again. They said to him, “If you die, and none of your descendants become king, that would be like extinguishing the last light in Israel.”
18
Some time after that, there was a battle with the army of Philistia near the village of Gob. During the battle, Sibbekai, from the clan of Hushah, killed Saph, one of the descendants of the Rapha giants.
19
Later there was another battle with the army of Philistia at Gob. During that battle, Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem, killed the brother of Goliath from Gath, whose spear shaft was very thick, like the bar on a weaver’s loom.
20
Later there was another battle near Gath. There was a huge man there who liked to fight in battles. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was descended from the Rapha giants.
21
But when he insulted the men in the Israelite army, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s older brother, killed him.
22
Those four men were some of the descendants of the Rapha giants who had lived in Gath, who were killed by David and his soldiers.
Copyright © Door43 - licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0