1 There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after
year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and
for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. 2 The king
called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the
children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of
Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the
children of Israel and Judah); 3 and David said to the Gibeonites, What
shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may
bless the inheritance of Yahweh? 4 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. 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 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. The king said, I will give them. 7 But the king spared
Mephibosheth, 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 He
delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the
mountain before Yahweh, 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 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah 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 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 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 killed 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 who were hanged. 14 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. After that God was entreated
for the land. 15 The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went
down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David
grew faint; 16 and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, 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 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 go no
more out with us to battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Israel.
18 It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the
Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the
sons of the giant. 19 There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and
Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's
brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. 20 There was
again war at Gath, 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 giant. 21 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of
Shimei, David's brother, killed 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
servants.
World English Bible - Public Domain |
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