2 Samuel 21
A Mother Who Watched Over the Dead Until the Rain
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The Famine and the Gibeonites
21:1There was a famine in David’s days for three years, year after year. David sought the Lord’s face. The Lord said, “Injustice rests upon Saul and his house because of his bloody killing, in that he put the Gibeonites to death.”
21:2King David called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. The Gibeonites were not Israelites but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn an oath to them, yet Saul sought to strike them down in his zeal for Israel and Judah.
21:3David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? With what shall I make atonement, so that you bless the Lord’s inheritance?”
21:4The Gibeonites said to him, “We have no claim for silver or gold against Saul or his house, nor have we anyone in Israel to put to death.” He said, “What do you say I should do for you?”
21:5They said to the king, “The man brought destruction upon us and pursued us, scheming to destroy us. Let us wipe him out, so that he does not remain anywhere within Israel’s borders.
21:6Let him give us seven men from his descendants. We will expose them to the sun before the Lord at Gibeon of Saul, chosen ones of the Lord.” The king said, “I will give them.”
21:7The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul because of the oath by the Lord between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.
21:8The king took Rizpah daughter of Aiah’s two sons whom she bore to Saul, Ermoni and Mephibosheth, and Michal daughter of Saul’s five sons whom she bore to Esriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
21:9He gave them into the Gibeonites’ hand. They exposed them to the sun on the hill before the Lord, and all seven fell together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Rizpah Keeps Watch over the Slain
21:10Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and fixed it for herself against the rock at the beginning of the barley harvest, until water dripped on them from heaven. She did not let the birds of heaven settle on them by day or the beasts of the field by night.
21:11David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine, had done. They grew weak, and Dan son of Ioa, one of the descendants of the giants, overtook them.
The Bones of Saul and Jonathan Buried
21:12David went and took Saul’s bones and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead. They had stolen them from the square of Beth-shan, where the foreigners had set them up on the day the foreigners struck Saul down at Gilboa.
21:13He brought Saul’s bones and the bones of his son Jonathan up from there. He gathered the bones of those who had been exposed to the sun.
21:14They buried Saul’s bones, the bones of his son Jonathan, and the bones of those exposed to the sun in Benjamin’s land, on the slope, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. They did everything the king commanded. Afterward God listened to the land.
The Wars with the Descendants of Rapha
21:15War arose again between the foreigners and Israel. David went down with his servants, and they fought the foreigners. David grew weak.
21:16Jesbi, one of Rapha’s descendants, had a spear weighing three hundred shekels of bronze and was belted with a club. He intended to strike David down.
21:17Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the foreigner, and killed him. Then David’s men swore, “You must no longer go out with us to battle, and you must certainly not extinguish Israel’s lamp.”
21:18Afterward war arose again at Gath with the foreigners. Then Sebocha the Astatothite struck down Seph, one of Rapha’s descendants.
21:19War arose at Gob with the foreigners. Elhanan son of Ariorgim the Bethlehemite struck down Goliath the Gittite, whose spear-shaft was like a weaver’s beam.
21:20War arose again at Gath. There was a man named Madon with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number. He too was born to Rapha.
21:21He taunted Israel, and Jonathan son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down.
21:22These four were born as descendants of the giants at Gath, a house belonging to Rapha, and they fell by David’s hand and by his servants’ hand.
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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V2 · working draft awaiting specialist review.