2 Samuel 21:1-9 ▼

1 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three consecutive years, so David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, |There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he murdered the Gibeonites.|

2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites, and spoke 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, but Saul sought to exterminate them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.)

3 And David said to the Gibeonites, |What can I do for you? And how can I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?|

4 The Gibeonites said to him, |It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, nor is it our place to put anyone to death in Israel.| Then he said, |What do you want? For I will do it for you.|

5 So they said to the king, |The man who opposed us and persecuted us, who meant to eradicate us from having a place anywhere in the territory of Israel,

6 let seven of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them before the LORD at Gibeon on the mountain of the LORD.| And the king replied, |I will do it.|

7 But the king spared Mippibaal, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD’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 Mippibaal; and the five sons of Merob 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 on the mountain before the LORD, and all seven of them fell together. And they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.