2 Samuel 21
1 During the time that David [ruled], there was a famine [in Israel] for three years. David prayed to Yahweh about it. And Yahweh said, “[In order for the famine to end], Saul’s family needs to be punished [MTY] because Saul killed many people from Gibeon [city].”
And a famine occurred, during the days of David, for three years continuously. And David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: “This is because of Saul, and his house of bloodshed. For he killed the Gibeonites.”
2 The people of Gibeon were not Israelis; they were a small group of the Amor people-group whom the Israelis had solemnly promised to protect. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he (was very zealous/wanted very much) 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
Therefore, the king, calling for the Gibeonites, spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but were the remnant of the Amorites. And the sons of Israel had sworn an oath to them, but Saul wished to strike them in zeal, as if on behalf of the sons of Israel and Judah.
3 and said to them, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends/up for what was done to your people, in order that you will bless us who belong to Yahweh?”
Therefore, David said to the Gibeonites: “What shall I do for you? And what shall be your satisfaction, so that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?”
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 Israelis.” So David asked, “Then/So what do you say that I should do for you?”
And the Gibeonites said to him: “There is no quarrel for us over silver or gold, but against Saul and against his house. And we do not desire that any man of Israel be put to death.” The king said to them, “Then what do you wish that I should do for you?”
5 They replied, “Saul [wanted to] get rid of us. He wanted to annihilate/kill all of us, in order that none of us would live anywhere in Israel.
And they said to the king: “The man who unjustly afflicted and oppressed us, we ought to destroy in such manner that not even one of his stock may be left behind in all the parts of Israel.
6 Hand over to us seven of Saul’s descendants. We will hang them where Yahweh is worshiped in Gibeon, our town, the town where Saul, whom Yahweh previously chose to be king, lived.” The king replied, “Okay, I will hand them over to you.”
Let seven men from his sons be given to us, so that we may crucify them to the Lord in Gibeon of Saul, formerly the chosen place of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
7 The king did not hand over to them Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, because of what he and [Mephibosheth’s father] Jonathan had solemnly promised to each other.
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord which had been made between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
8 Instead, he took Armoni and another man named Mephibosheth, the two sons that Saul’s slave wife Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had given birth to, and the five sons that Saul’s daughter Merab had given birth to. Merab’s husband was Adriel, the son of a man named Barzillai from Meholah [town].
And so 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 conceived of Adriel, the son of Barzillai, who was from Meholath,
9 David handed those men over to the men from Gibeon. Then they hanged those seven men on a hill where they worshiped Yahweh. They were all killed during the time of the year that the people started to harvest the barley.
and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they crucified them on a hill in the sight of the Lord. And these seven fell together in the first days of the harvest, when the barley is beginning to be reaped.
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.
Then Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, taking a haircloth, spread it under herself on a rock, from the beginning of the harvest until water dropped from heaven upon them. And she did not permit the birds to tear them by day, nor the beasts by night.
11 When someone told David what Rizpah had done,
And it was reported to David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 he went with some of his servants to Jabesh in [the] Gilead [region] and got the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The people of Jabesh had stolen their bones from the (plaza/public square) in Beth-Shan [city], where the men from Philistia had hanged them previously, on the day that they had killed Saul and Jonathan on Gilboa [Mountain].
And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of his son Jonathan, from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had suspended them after they had slain Saul at 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] whom the men from Philistia had hanged.
And he brought the bones of Saul, and the bones of his son Jonathan, from there. And they collected the bones of those who had been crucified.
14 They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in Zela [town] in the land of [the tribe of] Benjamin. Doing all that the king commanded, they buried their bones in the tomb where Saul’s father Kish [was buried]. 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 Israelis’ prayers for their land, and caused the famine to end.
And they buried them with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan, in the land of Benjamin, to the side of the sepulcher of his father Kish. And they did all that the king had instructed. And after these things, God showed favor again to the land.
15 The army of Philistia again started to fight against the army of Israel. And David and his soldiers went to fight the Philistines. During the battle, David became weary.
Then the Philistines again undertook a battle against Israel. And David descended, and his servants with him, and they fought against the Philistines. But when David grew faint,
16 One of the Philistia 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 about (7-1/2 pounds/3-1/2 kg.), and he also had a new sword.
Ishbibenob, who was of the ancestry of Arapha, the iron of whose spear weighed three hundred ounces, who had been girded with a new sword, strove to strike down David.
17 But Abishai came to help David, and attacked the giant and killed him. Then David’s soldiers forced him 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] [MET] extinguishing the last light in Israel.”
And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, defended him, and striking the Philistine, he killed him. Then David’s men swore an oath to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out to war with us, lest you extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
18 Some time after that, there was a battle with the army of Philistia near Gob [village]. During the battle, Sibbecai, from [the] Hushah [clan], killed Saph, one of the descendants of the Rapha giants.
Also, a second war occurred in Gob against the Philistines. Then Sibbecai from Hushah struck down Saph, from the stock of Arapha, of the ancestry of the giants.
19 [Later] there was another battle with the army of Philistia at Gob. During that battle, Elhanan, the son of Jaare-Oregim from Bethlehem, killed [the brother of] Goliath from Gath [city]; Goliath’s spear shaft/handle was (very thick, like the bar on a weaver’s loom/over two inches thick).
Then there was a third war in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus, a son of the forest, a weaver from Bethlehem, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like the beam used by a cloth maker.
20 Later there was another battle near Gath. There was a (huge man/giant) 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].
A fourth battle was in Gath. In that place, there was a lofty man, who had six digits on each hand and each foot, that is, twenty-four in all, and he was from the origins of Arapha.
21 But when he (made fun of/ridiculed) the men in the Israeli [army], Jonathan, the son of David’s [older] brother Shimeah, killed him.
And he blasphemed Israel. So Jonathan, the son of Shimei, the brother of David, struck him down.
22 Those four men were some of the descendants of the Rapha giants who had lived in Gath, who were killed [MTY] by David and his soldiers.
These four men were born of Arapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and his servants.
