1 Now there was AGen 12:10; 26:1; 42:5a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and BNum 27:21David sought the presence of the Loʀᴅ. And the Loʀᴅ said, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites, and AJosh 9:3, 15-20the sons of Israel 1Lit had sworn tomade a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to 2Lit smitekill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah). 3 Thus David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And how can I make atonement that you may bless A1 Sam 26:19; 2 Sam 20:19the inheritance of the Loʀᴅ?” 4 Then the Gibeonites said to him, “ANum 35:31, 32We have no concern of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” 5 So they said to the king, “A2 Sam 21:1The man who consumed us and who planned 1Lit against us that we should be exterminatedto exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel, 6 let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will 1Lit expose themhang them ANum 25:4before the Loʀᴅ in Gibeah of Saul, B1 Sam 10:24the chosen of the Loʀᴅ.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

7 But the king spared A2 Sam 4:4; 9:10Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, B1 Sam 18:3; 20:12-17; 23:18; 2 Sam 9:1-7because of the oath of the Loʀᴅ which was between them, between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. 8 So the king took the two sons of A2 Sam 3:7Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of 1So Gr and Heb mssB1 Sam 18:19Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the C1 Kin 19:16Meholathite. 9 Then he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they 1Lit exposed themhanged them in the mountain before the Loʀᴅ, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at AEx 9:31, 32the beginning of barley harvest.

10 ADeut 21:23And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until 1Lit water was pouredit rained on them from the sky; and B1 Sam 17:44, 46she 2Lit gaveallowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 When it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, 12 then David went and took A1 Sam 31:11-13the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of BJosh 17:11Beth-shan, C1 Sam 31:10where the Philistines had hanged them on the day D1 Sam 31:3, 4the Philistines struck down Saul in Gilboa. 13 He brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been 1Lit exposedhanged. 14 They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in AJosh 18:28Zela, in the grave of Kish his father; thus they did all that the king commanded, and after that BJosh 7:26; 2 Sam 24:25God was moved by prayer for the land.

15 Now when A2 Sam 5:17-25the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David went down and his servants with him; and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. 16 Then Ishbi-benob, who was ANum 13:22, 28; Josh 15:14; 2 Sam 21:18-22among the descendants of the 1Heb Raphahgiant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, 2Lit and he waswas girded with a new sword, and he 3Lit saidintended to kill David. 17 But A2 Sam 20:6-10Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “B2 Sam 18:3You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish C2 Sam 22:29; 1 Kin 11:36the lamp of Israel.”

18 A1 Chr 20:4-8Now it came about after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob; then B1 Chr 11:29; 27:11Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was among the descendants of the 1Heb Raphahgiant. 19 There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite 1Lit smotekilled 2In 1 Chr 20:5, Lahmi, the brother of GoliathGoliath the Gittite, A1 Sam 17:7the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20 There was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born A2 Sam 21:16, 18to the 1Heb Raphahgiant. 21 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down. 22 A1 Chr 20:8These four were born to the 1Heb Raphahgiant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.