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2 Samuel 21
1 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites 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 slay them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah);3 and David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and how shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?4 And 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. And he said, What you shall say, that I will do for you.5 And they said to the king, The man that consumed us, and that 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 Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. And the king said, I will give them.7 But the king spared Mephibaal, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh'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 Michal 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 mountain before Yahweh, and they fell [all] seven together. And they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from heaven; and she allowed neither the birds of the heavens 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 street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa;13 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those that were hanged.14 And 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. And after that God was entreated for the land.
15 And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his slaves with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David waxed 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 girded with a new [sword], thought to have slain David.17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall not go out with us to battle anymore, that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.19 And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jari the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.20 And there was again war at 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.21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, slew 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 slaves.
Updated Bible Version
Scripture quotations are from the UPDV® Updated Bible Version 1.9, Copyright © 2003-4 by Updated Publishers. Used by permission. All Rights Reserved.