the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
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Hebrew Names Version
2 Samuel 21
1 There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, It is for Sha'ul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Giv`onim. 2 The king called the Giv`onim, and said to them (now the Giv`onim were not of the children of Yisra'el, but of the remnant of the Amori; and the children of Yisra'el had sworn to them: and Sha'ul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Yisra'el and Yehudah); 3 and David said to the Giv`onim, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD? 4 The Giv`onim said to him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Sha'ul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Yisra'el. 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 Yisra'el, 6 let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gevah of Sha'ul, the chosen of the LORD. The king said, I will give them. 7 But the king spared Mefivoshet, the son of Yonatan the son of Sha'ul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Yonatan the son of Sha'ul. 8 But the king took the two sons of Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah, whom she bore to Sha'ul, Armoni and Mefivoshet; and the five sons of Mikhal the daughter of Sha'ul, whom she bore to `Adri'el the son of Barzillai the Mecholati: 9 He delivered them into the hands of the Giv`onim, and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, 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 Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah 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 Ritzpah the daughter of Ayah, the concubine of Sha'ul, had done. 12 David went and took the bones of Sha'ul and the bones of Yonatan his son from the men of Yavesh-Gil`ad, who had stolen them from the street of Beit-Shan, where the Pelishtim had hanged them, in the day that the Pelishtim killed Sha'ul in Gilboa; 13 and he brought up from there the bones of Sha'ul and the bones of Yonatan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. 14 They buried the bones of Sha'ul and Yonatan his son in the country of Binyamin 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 Pelishtim had war again with Yisra'el; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Pelishtim. David grew faint; 16 and Yishbi-Benov, who was of the sons of the Rafa, 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 Avishai the son of Tzeru'yah helped him, and struck the Pelishti, 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 Yisra'el. 18 It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Pelishtim at Gov: then Sibbekhai the Hushatite killed Saf, who was of the sons of the Rafa. 19 There was again war with the Pelishtim at Gov; and Elchanan the son of Ya`are-Oregim the Beit-hallachmite killed Golyat the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. 20 There was again war at Gat, 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 Rafa. 21 When he defied Yisra'el, Yonatan the son of Shim`i, David's brother, killed him. 22 These four were born to the Rafa in Gat; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
