II Samuel 21

1. And there was a famine in the days of David for 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 killed the Gibeonites.”

2. And the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (And the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites. And the children of Israel had sworn to spare them. But Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

3. And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I atone for this, so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”

4. And the Gibeonites said to him, “We will have no silver nor gold from Saul, nor from his house. Also, we will have no man in Israel put to death.” And he said, “What you shall say, I will do for you.”

5. And they answered the king, “The man who destroyed 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 the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” And 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. And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they hanged them in the hill before the LORD. And they fell, 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 Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven. And she did not allow either 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 Aiah, 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 Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the plaza of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa.

13. And he brought the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son up from there. And they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

14. And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of his father Kish. And they did all that the king commanded. And afterward God heeded prayer for the land.

15. And again the Philistines warred with Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David became faint.

16. And Ishbi-Benob, who was of the sons of the giant (the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze), being girded with a new sword, thought to kill David.

17. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall not go out to battle with us any more, so that you do not put out the light of Israel.”

18. Now it came to pass after this there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob.Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.

19. And there was again a battle with the Philistines in Gob, where Elhanan of Bethlehem, the son of Jaare-Oregim, killed one of the sons of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

20. And there was yet again a battle in Gath. And there was a man of stature who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number. And he also was born to the giant.

21. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, killed 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.