1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year
after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD
answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he
slew the Gibeonites.
2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now
the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the
remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn
unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah.)
3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for
you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may
bless the inheritance of the LORD?
4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor
gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill
any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I
do for you.
5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that
devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining
in any of the coasts of Israel,
6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will
hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD
did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son
of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them,
between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah,
whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five
sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for
Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and
they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and 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.
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it
for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until
water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither
the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of
the field by night.
11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the
concubine of Saul, had done.
12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of
Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had
stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines
had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in
Gilboa:
13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones
of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that
were hanged.
14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the
country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his
father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And
after that God was intreated for the land.
15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and
David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against
the Philistines: and David waxed faint.
16 And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight
of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in
weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have
slain David.
17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the
Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto
him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that
thou quench not the light of Israel.
18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle
with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite
slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.
19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines,
where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the
brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was
like a weaver's beam.
20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great
stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot
six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to
the giant.
21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah the
brother of David slew him.
22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the
hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
|
