1   In David's reign there was a famine that lasted year after year for three years. So David consulted the Lord, and he answered, ‘Bloodguilt rests on Saul and on his family because he put the Gibeonites to death.’ 2   (The Gibeonites were not of Israelite descent; they were a remnant of Amorite stock whom the Israelites had sworn that they would spare. Saul, however, had sought to exterminate them in his zeal for Israel and Judah.) King David summoned the Gibeonites, therefore, and said to them, ‘What can be done for you? 3   How can I make expiation, so that you may have cause to bless the Lord's own people?’ 4   The Gibeonites answered, ‘Our feud with Saul and his family cannot be settled in silver and gold, and there is no one man in Israel whose death would content us.’ ‘Then what do you want me to do for you?’ asked David. 5   They answered, ‘Let us make an end of the man who caused our undoing and ruined us, so that he shall never again have his place within the borders of Israel. 6   Hand over to us seven of that man's sons, and we will hurl them down to their death before ^note the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the Lord's chosen king.’ The king agreed to hand them over, 7   but he spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the oath that had been taken in the Lord's name by David and Saul's son Jonathan. 8   The king then took the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons whom Merab, ^note Saul's daughter, had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai of Meholah. 9   He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they flung them down from the mountain before the Lord; the seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of the barley harvest. 10   Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out as a bed for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until the rains came and fell from heaven upon the bodies. She allowed no bird to set upon them by day nor any wild beast by night. 11   When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done, 12   he went and took the

Various events of David's reign bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square at Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them on the day they defeated Saul at Gilboa. 13   He removed the bones of Saul and Jonathan from there and gathered up the bones of the men who had been hurled to death. 14   They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the territory of Benjamin at Zela, in the grave of his father Kish. Everything was done as the king ordered, and thereafter the Lord was willing to accept prayers offered for the country.

15   Once again war broke out between the Philistines and Israel. David and his men went down to the battle, but as he fought with the Philistines he fell exhausted. 16   Then Benob, one of the race of the Rephaim, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels ^note and who wore a belt of honour, ^note took David prisoner and was about to kill him. 17   But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's help, struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David's officers took an oath that he should never again go out with them to war, for fear that the lamp of Israel might be extinguished.

18    ^noteSome time later war with the Philistines broke out again in Gob: it was then that Sibbechai of Hushah killed Saph, a descendant of the Rephaim. 19   In another war with the Philistines in Gob, Elhanan son of Jair ^note of Bethlehem killed Goliath of Gath, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver's beam. 20   In yet another war in Gath there appeared a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all. 21   He too was descended from the Rephaim; and, when he defied Israel, Jonathan son of David's brother Shimeai killed him. 22   These four giants were the descendants of the Rephaim in Gath, and they all fell at the hands of David and his men.

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