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¹ And there was a famine in the days of David, three years, year after year. And David sought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is for Saul and for his bloody house, because he killed the Gibeonites.² And the king called for the Gibeonites and said to them (as to the Gibeonites, they were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had sworn to them)and Saul sought to strike them in his zealfor the sons of Israel and Judah.³ And David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I atone, and you bless the inheritance of Jehovah?⁴ And the Gibeonites said to him, We will have neither silver nor gold by Saul and by his house. Also, we will have no man in Israel put to death. And he said, What you say, I will do for you.⁵ And they said to the king, The man who destroyed us and schemed against us that we be wasted from standing in all the border of Israel was Saul .⁶ Let be given to us seven men of his sons to us. And we will expose them to Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah. And the king said, I will deliver them.⁷ But the king spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth the son of Saul because of the oath of Jehovah that was between them, between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.⁸ And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth. And he took the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.⁹ And he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they exposed them in the mountain before Jehovah. And the seven fell together. And they were executed in the days of harvest, in the firstharvest.

¹⁰ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and stretched it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens. And she did not allow a bird of the heavens to rest on them byday nor the beast of the field by night.¹¹ And that which Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Saul's concubine, had done was told to David.¹² And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of his son Jonathan from the rulers of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the plaza of Beth-shan, there where the Philistines hanged them in the day the Philistines struck Saul inGilboa.¹³ And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from there, and they gathered up the bones of those hanged.¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the burying place of his father Kish, and did all that the king had commanded. And afterward God heard prayer for the land.

¹⁵ And again the Philistines warred with Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him. And they fought with the Philistines. And David was weary.¹⁶ And Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of Rapha the giant , the weight of his spear being three hundred bronze shekels in weight, and was girded with a new sword, even he said to strike David.¹⁷ And Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall not again go out with us to battle, that you not cause the lamp of Israel to go out.¹⁸ And it happened after this that the battle was again in Gob of the Philistines. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite struck Saph, who was among the sons of Rapha.¹⁹ And again the battle was in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite struck one of Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear was like a weaver's beam.²⁰ And again the battle was in Gath, and there was a man of stature, and the fingers of his hands were six, and the fingers of his feet six, twenty four in number. And he also had been born to Rapha.²¹ And he cursed Israel; and Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimeah, struck him.²² These four here born to Rapha the giant in Gath. And they fell by the hand of David, by the hand of his servants.