Book of Samuel 21

The Avenging of the Gibeonites
1	Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gib’e-onites.
2	And the king called the Gib’e-onites, and said unto them; (now the Gib’e-onites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: Josh. 9.3-15 and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah:)
3	wherefore David said unto the Gib’e-onites, 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 Gib’e-onites 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 Gib’e-ah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.
7	¶ But the king spared Mephib’osheth, 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. 1 Sam. 20.15-17 · 2 Sam. 9.1-7
8	But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Ai’ah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armo’ni and Mephib’osheth; and the five sons of Michal 1 Sam. 18.19 the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for A’dri-el the son of Barzil’lai the Meho’lathite:
9	and he delivered them into the hands of the Gib’e-onites, 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 Ai’ah 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 Ai’ah, 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 Ja’besh–gil’e-ad, which had stolen them from the street of Beth–shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilbo’a: 1 Sam. 31.8-13
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 entreated for the land.
Abishai Rescues David from the Giant
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 Ish’bi–be’nob, 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 Ab’ishai the son of Zeru-i’ah succored 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.
The Giants Slain by David’s Men
1 Chr. 20.4-8
18	¶ And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sib’bechai the Hu’shathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.
19	And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elha’nan the son of Ja’are–o’regim, a Beth’lehemite, slew the brother of Goli’ath 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 Shim’e-ah 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.

Published by The American Bible Society

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