God's New Revelations

The Second Book of Samuel

Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic

- Chapter 21 -

1
There was a famine in Israel for three years that occurred in the time that David ruled. David prayed to Yahweh about it. And Yahweh said, “In order for the famine to end, Saul’s family needs to be punished because Saul killed many people from the city of Gibeon.”
2
The people of Gibeon were not native born Israelites. They were a small group of the Amor people group whom the Israelites had solemnly promised to protect when they invaded the land of Canaan. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he was very eager to enable the people of Judah and Israel to be the only ones living in that land. So the king summoned the leaders of Gibeon
3
and said to them, “What should I do for you? How can I make up for what Saul did to your people, in order that you will bless us who belong to Yahweh and have so many good things from him?”
4
They replied, “You cannot settle our quarrel with Saul and his family by giving us silver or gold. And we do not have the right to kill any Israelites.” So David asked, “Then what do you say that I should do for you?”
5
They replied, “Saul wanted to get rid of us. He wanted to annihilate all of us, in order that none of us would live anywhere in Israel.
6
Put seven of Saul’s descendants into our hands. We will hang them where Yahweh is worshiped in Gibeon, our city, the city where Saul, whom Yahweh chose to be king, lived.” The king replied, “Very well, I will hand them over to you.”
7
The king did not hand over Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth to them, because of what he and Mephibosheth’s father Jonathan had solemnly promised to each other.
8
Instead, he took the two sons of Rizpah and Saul, named Armoni and Mephibosheth, Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah and had been Saul’s slave wife; David also took the five sons of Merab, Saul’s daughter. Merab’s husband was Adriel son of Barzillai, was from the city of Meholah.
9
David handed these men over to the people of Gibeon. They took those seven men to Gibeon and hanged them on a hill where they worshiped Yahweh. They died during the time of the year that the people started to harvest the barley.
10
Then Rizpah took coarse cloth made from goats’ hair, and spread it on the rock where the corpses lay. She stayed there from the time that people started to harvest the barley until the rains started. She did not allow any birds to come near the corpses during the day, and she did not allow any animals to come near during the night.
11
Someone told David what Rizpah had done.
12
So he went with some of his servants to Jabesh in the region of Gilead and got the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The people of Jabesh had stolen their bones from the plaza in the city of Beth Shan, where the men from Philistia had hanged them on the day that they had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa.
13
David and his men took the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and they also took the bones of the seven men from Gibeon who had been hanged.
14
David’s servants went to the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, in the city of Zela in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. There they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan also. In this way, they did all that the king had commanded them to do. After that, because God saw that Saul’s family had been punished to pay for Saul’s murder of many people from Gibeon, he answered the Israelites’ prayers for their land, and caused the famine to end.

Four Battles against the Philistines

(1 Chronicles 20:4–8)
15
The army of Philistia again started to fight against the army of Israel. And David and his soldiers went to fight them. During the battle, David became tired.
16
One of the Philistine men thought that he could kill David. His name was Ishbi-Benob. He was a descendant of a group of giants. He carried a bronze spear that weighed almost three and one-half kilograms, and he also had a new sword.
17
But Abishai came to help David, and attacked the giant and killed him. Then David’s soldiers forced David to promise that he would not go with them into a battle again. They said to him, “If you die, and none of your descendants become king, that would be like extinguishing the last light in Israel.”
18
Some time after that, there was a battle with the army of Philistia near the village of Gob. During the battle, Sibbekai, from the clan of Hushah, killed Saph, one of the descendants of the Rapha giants.
19
Later there was another battle with the army of Philistia at Gob. During that battle, Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem, killed the brother of Goliath from Gath, whose spear shaft was very thick, like the bar on a weaver’s loom.
20
Later there was another battle near Gath. There was a huge man there who liked to fight in battles. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was descended from the Rapha giants.
21
But when he insulted the men in the Israelite army, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s older brother, killed him.
22
Those four men were some of the descendants of the Rapha giants who had lived in Gath, who were killed by David and his soldiers.
1
There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
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 should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless the LORD’s inheritance?”
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, “I will do for you whatever you say.”
5
They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted 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 the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” 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 bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab 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 on the mountain before the LORD, and all seven of them fell 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 herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
11
David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12
So 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. They also 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 answered prayer for the land.

Four Battles against the Philistines

(1 Chronicles 20:4–8)
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 bronze in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought he would kill 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, “Don’t go out with us to battle any more, so that you don’t quench the lamp of Israel.”
18
After this, 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 Jaare-Oregim 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 there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot, twenty-four 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.