[1] In the days of David they were short of food for three years, year
after year; and David went before the Lord for directions. And the Lord
said, On Saul and on his family there is blood, because he put the
Gibeonites to death. [2] Then the king sent for the Gibeonites; (now the
Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were the last of the
Amorites, to whom the children of Israel had given an oath; but Saul, in
his passion for the children of Israel and Judah, had made an attempt on
their lives:) [3] So David said to the Gibeonites, What may I do for you?
how am I to make up to you for your wrongs, so that you may give a blessing
to the heritage of the Lord? [4] And the Gibeonites said to him, It is not
a question of silver and gold between us and Saul or his family; and it is
not in our power to put to death any man in Israel. And he said, Say, then,
what am I to do for you? [5] And they said to the king, As for the man by
whom we were wasted, and who made designs against us to have us completely
cut off from the land of Israel, [6] Let seven men of his family be given
up to us and we will put an end to them by hanging them before the Lord in
Gibeon, on the hill of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them. [7]
But the king did not give up Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan,
because of the Lord's oath made between David and Jonathan, the son of
Saul. [8] But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Saul
to whom Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had given birth; and the five sons of
Saul's daughter Merab, whose father was Adriel, the son of Barzillai the
Meholathite: [9] And he gave them up to the Gibeonites, and they put them
to death, hanging them on the mountain before the Lord; all seven came to
their end together in the first days of the grain-cutting, at the start of
the cutting of the barley. [10] And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took
haircloth, placing it on the rock as a bed for herself, from the start of
the grain-cutting till rain came down on them from heaven; and she did not
let the birds of the air come near them by day, or the beasts of the field
by night. [11] And news was given to David of what Rizpah, the daughter of
Aiah, one of Saul's wives, had done. [12] And David went and took the bones
of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had taken
them away secretly from the public place of Beth-shan, where the
Philistines had put them, hanging up the bodies there on the day when they
put Saul to death in Gilboa: [13] And he took the bones of Saul and his son
Jonathan from that place; and they got together the bones of those who had
been put to death by hanging. [14] And they put them with the bones of Saul
and his son Jonathan in the resting-place of Kish, his father, in Zela in
the country of Benjamin; they did all the king had given them orders to do.
And after that, God gave ear to their prayers for the land. [15] And the
Philistines went to war again with Israel; and David went down with his
people, and while they were at Gob they had a fight with the Philistines:
[16] And there came against David one of the offspring of the Rephaim,
whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, and having a new
sword, he made an attempt to put David to death. [17] But Abishai, the son
of Zeruiah, came to his help, and, turning on the Philistine, gave him his
death-blow. Then David's men took an oath, and said, Never again are you to
go out with us to the fight, so that you may not put out the light of
Israel. [18] Now after this there was war with the Philistines again at
Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite put to death Saph, one of the offspring of
the Rephaim. [19] And again there was war with the Philistines at Gob, and
Elhanan, the son of Jair the Beth-lehemite, put to death Goliath the
Gittite, the stem of whose spear was like a cloth-worker's rod. [20] And
again there was war at Gath, where there was a very tall man, who had
twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on his hands and six toes on his
feet; he was one of the offspring of the Rephaim. [21] And when he was
purposing to put shame on Israel, Jonathan, the son of Shimei, David's
brother, put him to death. [22] These four were of the offspring of the
Rephaim in Gath; and they came to their end by the hands of David and his
servants.
