2 Samuel 21:1–9

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David ^ainquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, “It is because of Saul and his ¹bloodthirsty house, because he killed the Gibeonites.” ²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but ^bof the remnant of the Amorites; the children of Israel had sworn protection to them, but Saul had sought to kill them ^cin his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.

³Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless ^dthe inheritance of the Lord?”

⁴And the Gibeonites said to him, “We will have no silver or gold from Saul or from his house, nor shall you kill any man in Israel for us.”

So he said, “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”

⁵Then they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the territories of Israel, ⁶let seven men of his descendants be delivered ^eto us, and we will hang them before the Lord ^fin Gibeah of Saul, ^gwhom the Lord chose.”

And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷But the king spared ^hMephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of ⁱthe Lord’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of ^jRizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of ²Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she ³brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill ^kbefore the Lord. So 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.