2 Samuel 21:1–14

The Famine Brings Justice

21There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David inquired of Yahweh,^a and Yahweh said, “The bloodguilt is on Saul and on his household, because he killed the Gibeonites.” ²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not from the Israelites;^b they were from the remainder of the Amorites. Now the Israelites^c had sworn to them,^d but Saul tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the Israelites^e and Judah. ³So David asked the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you, and with what can I make amends that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?” ⁴Then the Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter for us of^f silver or gold with Saul or with his household. It is not for us to put to death anyone in Israel.” He asked, “What are you saying that I should do for you all?” ⁵Then they said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us so that we were destroyed from existing in all of the territory of Israel, ⁶let seven men from his sons be given over to us, and we will execute them before Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen one of Yahweh.” Then the king said, “I will give them over.” ⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the sworn oath of Yahweh which was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸So the king took two of the sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, namely Armoni and Mephibosheth, and five of the sons of Michal the daughter of Saul whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹He gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they executed them on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, and the seven fell together. Now they were put to death in the days of the harvest, at the beginning of the harvest of barley.

¹⁰Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took the sackcloth, and she spread it for herself on the rock at the beginning of the harvest until water gushed forth on them from heaven, but she did not allow the birds of heaven to rest on them by day nor the animals of the field by night. ¹¹David was told about what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. ¹²So David left and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the rulers of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines hung them when^g the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. ¹³He brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there, and they gathered the bones of the executed. ¹⁴And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin at Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. They did all that the king had commanded, and afterward God was entreated for the land.