II Samuel 21 Famine in Israel, and its cause

 II Samuel 21

Famine in Israel, and its cause

1 And there was in the days of David a famine of three years, from year to year; and David inquired of the LORD, and the LORD said unto him, It is because of Saul and his bloodthirsty house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

2 Then the king called the Gibeonites, and spoke to them (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the rest of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them, but Saul sought to smite them in his zeal for the children of Israel and of Judah).

3 Then David said to the Gibeonites, What do you want me to do for you? And what satisfaction shall I give you, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

4 Then the Gibeonites said to them, It is not for silver or gold that we have a dispute with Saul and his house; nor do we intend to kill anyone in Israel. And he said, What then do you want me to do for you?

5 And they said to the king, As for the man who destroyed us, and sought to make us desolate, so that we could not exist in any part of Israel.

6 Give us seven men of his sons, that we may hang them up before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the Lord's chosen one: And the king said, I will give them.

7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan, Saul's son, because of the oath of the Lord, which was between them, between David and Jonathan, Saul's son.

8But the king took the two sons of Ripzah, daughter of Ahia, whom she had borne to Saul, namely Armoni and Mephibosheth; as well as the five sons of the sister of Michal, daughter of Saul, which she had by Adriel, son of Barzillai, Meholathite.

9 And he delivered them into the hand of the Gibeonites, who hanged him on the mountain before the LORD; and these seven fell together: and they were slain in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of the barley harvest.

10 Then Rizpah, daughter of Ahijah, took a sackcloth of sackcloth, and spread it over a rock from the beginning of the harvest, until water dropped on them from the sky: and she did not let the birds of the sky rest on them by day. , nor the beasts of the field by night.

11 And it was told to David what Rizpa, daughter of Aia, Saul's concubine, had done.

12 Then David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, who stole him from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them, when the Philistines smote Saul. in Gilboa.

13 And he brought up from there the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered also the bones of those hanged.

14 They buried the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they did all that the king commanded; and after this God was appeased towards the earth.