1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, “It is because of Saul and because of the house of bloodshed, in that he put the Gibeonites to death.”
2So the king called the Gibeonites and said to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the sons of Israel had sworn to them, but Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah.)
3David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you, and with what shall I make atonement, so that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?”
4The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” And he said, “Whatever you say I will do for you.”
5They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining within any territory of Israel—
6let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will hang them before Yahweh at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
7But the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul, because of the oath of Yahweh that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.
8So the king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul—Armoni and Mephibosheth—and the five sons of Michal daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
9He gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before Yahweh; and the seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of the harvest until water was poured out on them from the heavens; and she did not allow the birds of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
11It was told to David what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine, had done.
12So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the lords of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them up on the day the Philistines struck down Saul at Gilboa.
13He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
14They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they did all that the king commanded. After that God responded to entreaty for the land.
15There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and they fought against the Philistines; and David grew weary.
16And Ishbi-benob, who was among the descendants of the Rapha—the weight of his spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, and he was girded with a new sword—said he would strike David down.
17But Abishai son of Zeruiah helped him and struck the Philistine and put him to death. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out with us to battle, that you may not quench the lamp of Israel.”
18After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was among the descendants of the Rapha.
19There was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite struck down Goliath the Gittite, whose spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam.
20There was again war at Gath, and there was a man of great stature, and the fingers of his hands and the toes of his feet were six and six, twenty-four in number; and he too had been born to the Rapha.
21When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down.
22These four had been born to the Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.
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