[1] There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year;
and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for
his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. [2] The king
called the Gibeonites, and said to 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 to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the
children of Israel and Judah); [3] and David said to the Gibeonites, What
shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may
bless the inheritance of Yahweh? [4] The Gibeonites said to him, It is no
matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it
for us to put any man to death in Israel. He said, What you shall say, that
will I do for you. [5] They said to the king, The man who consumed us, and
who devised against us, [that] we should be destroyed from remaining in any
of the borders of Israel, [6] let seven men of his sons be delivered to us,
and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.
The king said, I will give them. [7] But the king spared Mephibosheth, the
son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh`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 bore to Saul, Armoni and
Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she
bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: [9] He delivered them
into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain
before Yahweh, and they fell [all] seven together. They were put to death
in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley
harvest. [10] Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for
her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on
them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on
them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. [11] It was told David
what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. [12]
David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son
from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of
Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the
Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; [13] and he brought up from there the
bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the
bones of those who were hanged. [14] They buried the bones of Saul and
Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish
his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God
was entreated for the land. [15] The Philistines had war again with Israel;
and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the
Philistines. David grew faint; [16] and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of
the giant, the weight of whose spear was 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 helped him, and struck the Philistine,
and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go no
more out with us to battle, that you don`t quench the lamp of Israel. [18]
It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines
at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of
the giant. [19] There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and
Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the
Gittite`s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver`s beam. [20]
There was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, who 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] When he defied Israel,
Jonathan the son of Shimei, David`s brother, killed him. [22] These four
were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by
the hand of his servants.
