The Second Book of Samuel, otherwise called the Second Book of the Kings
2 Samuel 21
Chapter XXI · Vol. II, pp. 706–708
1 The three years' famine for the Gibeonites ceaseth by hanging seven of Saul's sons. 10 Rizpah's kindness unto the dead. 12 David burieth the bones of Saul and Jonathan in his father's sepulchre. 15 Four battles against the Philistines, wherein four mighty men of David slay four giants.
1 Then there was a afamine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David binquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, cIt is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.1
B.C. 1018.
b Heb. sought the face, &c. Nu.27.21. Ju.1.1. 1 Sa.23.2,4,11. ch.5.19,23. Ps.50.15; 91.15.
c Jos.7.1,2. 1 Sa.22.16. Re.6.10. Ex.20.5.
1 This slaughter of the Gibeonites, though not before expressly mentioned in Scripture, is nevertheless clearly implied in 1 Sa.22.19, where Saul is said to have destroyed the whole ecclesiastical city of Nob. Now the Gibeonites, as 'hewers of wood and drawers of water,' Jos.9.22,23, for the 'house of God,' dwelt at Nob, and were cruelly and unjustly put to death in the general massacre of the city.—C.
2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but dof the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them2 ine his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah:)
A.M. 2986. B.C. 1018.
d Jos.9.3,16,17. Ju.11.35. Pr.20.25. He.6.16.
2 In violation of the national faith he sought to extirpate them, ver.5, to satisfy the hereditary and unappeasable prejudices and hatred of the people, thus offering a bloody sacrifice to popularity, not even under pretence of justice.—C.
e De.7.16. 1 Sa.14.44, with 15.8. Ga.4.18. Ro.10.2.
3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may fbless the inheritance of the LORD?
4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, gWe 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.
g Or, it is not silver nor gold that we have to do with Saul or his house, neither pertains it to us to kill, &c. Es.9.10,16. Nu.35.31-33.
5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that hdevised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
6 Let iseven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, kwhom the LORD did choose.3 And the king said, I will give them.4
7 But the king spared lMephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of them LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8 But the king took the two sons of nRizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of oMichal5 the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up6 for Adriel, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:
n ch.3.7. Ex.20.5. Is.14.20,21.
o Or, Michal's sister, 1 Sa.18.19.
5 As Michal had no children of her own, ch.6.23, some consider her name an error of a transcriber, and some translations ascribe the children to Merab. Others think Michal merely educated the children of whom Merab was mother; while some consider the name of the one Michal, and of the other Michal Merab, and by abbreviation Michal. We adopt the latter view, which is perfectly consonant with Hebrew practice, inasmuch as the word translated brought up seems to us to signify bare as a mother.—C.
6 Heb. bare to Adriel.
9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them pin 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, qin the beginning of barley harvest.7
p ch.6.17. He did not thus extirpate Saul's family, and so kept his oath, 1 Sa.24.21.
q Ru.1.17,22.
7 At the time of the passover, in the month of April.—P.
10 And rRizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her8 upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them9 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.1
r ch.3.7. Being not properly malefactors, but a kind of expiation, they were left hanging on the gibbets till the Lord marked his reconcilement, Nu.25.4,5. 1 Ki.18.40,41.
8 'Made it a tent for her.' A beautiful instance of woman's constitutional courage, where tenderness forms its support.—C.
9 In countries approaching the tropics, the times of the periodical rains are very regular, and it is probable the sentence of the king was that the dead bodies should hang till the rain came.—C.
1 Some have supposed she must have had assistants to effect this. It may have been so. But little wot they of the sleeplessness of affliction who doubt the possibility of one being able to effect the work described. A fire, occasionally revived, would itself become a sufficient night-watch against the beasts.—C.
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 sbones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:
s 1 Sa.31.1,8-13. ch.2.5-7. 1 Ch.10.11,12.
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 tthe bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, uin the sepulchre of Kish his 2father; and they performed all that the king commanded: and after that xGod was entreated for the land.
A.M. 2986. B.C. 1018.
t ch.2.5,6; 3.32; 4.12.
2 Hence we see the probability that David may have removed the body of Absalom from the wood of Ephraim to the valley of Jehoshaphat, where his tomb is now shown. See note on ch.18.18. C.——David showed by these funeral honours that he had not acted out of personal disrespect to Saul or his family, but solely with a view to fulfil the desire of the Gibeonites by God's command.—I.
x ch.24.25. Jos.7.26. Zec.6.8. Es.8.10. Jonah 1.15. Nu.25.13. 1 Ki.18.40,41.
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 Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of ythe giant,3 (the weight of whose 4spear weighed three hundred5 shekels of brass[≈ 3.4 kg · 7.5 lb] in weight,) he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
y Or, Rapha, Ge.6.4. 1 Sa.17.5.
3 'Who was of the sons of Rapha.' Rapha was the tribe-father, the progenitor of the gigantic Rephaim, who formed part of the aboriginal inhabitants of Palestine. Only a few families of them remained in the days of Moses, and these appear to have settled among the Philistines.—P.
4 Heb. the staff or the head.
5 i.e. 9½ pounds avoirdupois.
17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah zsuccoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, aThou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou bquench not the light6 of Israel.
z Ge.22.14. Ps.46.1. ch.22.19.
a ch.18.3.
b ch.14.7. 1 Ki.11.36; 15.4. Ps.132.17.
6 Heb. candle or lamp.
18 Andc it came to pass after this, that there was again7 a battle with the Philistines at 8Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.9
19 And there was again1 a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where dElhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath2 the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.
20 And ethere 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.
e 1 Ch.20.6,7.
Notes
[Ver. 4. What ye shall say, that will I do for you. Clarke very thoughtlessly blames David for leaving the selection of the punishment to the Gibeonites. He should first have shown that God had not so directed. That God had done so is plain from his subsequent approval of the punishment upon Saul's 'bloody house.' C.]
Ver. 10. [Rain in harvest was regarded in Palestine as miraculous; rain during the summer months is unknown. It would appear that this faithful woman must have watched over the ghastly skeletons of her sons from April till the beginning of October—then when the rain fell it was a sign that the plague of drought which had afflicted the land was removed, and that the Lord's anger was appeased. P.]
Reflections.—The obligations of public oaths and covenants are lasting and solemn; and the breaches of them, be the pretexts what they will, are highly provoking to God. Wicked and murderous magistrates are a great plague to nations. God may long defer his judgments without averting them: but old sins are not forgotten by him. The time of recompense will come at last; and may soon turn a fruitful land into barrenness. God's judgments should therefore make us search out and bewail our own and our fathers' iniquities. The sins of parents often entail misery on their posterity. And though the poor oppressed should have no power to relieve themselves, God will plead their cause: nor till satisfaction be made them can we hope for a blessing from God. Thus they who maliciously designed the ruin of others bring themselves and families to misery! and how unsearchable are the judgments of God in ruining the families of his wrath! Severe executions for the public good are sometimes necessary. Many parents are long spared to meet with sad scenes of anguish and grief: and often survivors, by taking pains to revive the memory of lost friends, prove their own self-tormentors. Fidelity to sovereigns in moments of danger is extremely honourable. Strength of body is of no use to resist God or withstand death. But let God's people be attacked as often as they may by their enemies, they will come off more than conquerors through him who loveth them.
Measures in square brackets are modern equivalents added for this edition. They are not in the King James text or in Brown’s notes. They use common scholarly estimates: a cubit is about 45.7 cm (18 in), a shekel about 11.4 g (0.4 oz), an ephah about 22 litres. Money values give the worth of the silver or gold at spot prices on 28 October 2026, not what the sum would buy in the ancient world.