Famine and the Gibeonites' Demand; Saul's Descendants Executed
2 Samuel 21:1-14
1And a famine occurred in the days of David for three years, year after year. David sought the face of the LORD, and the LORD said, "It is on account of Saul and the house of blood, because he put the Gibeonites to death."2The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. The Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel; rather they belonged to the remnant of the Amorites, though the sons of Israel had sworn an oath to them. Saul had sought to strike them down because he was jealous on behalf of 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 will bless the inheritance of the LORD?"4The Gibeonites answered him, "We have no claim for silver or gold against Saul or his house, and we have no claim against any man in Israel to be put to death." He said, "What are you saying that I should do for you?"5They said to the king, "It is the man who destroyed us and who plotted our ruin who caused us to be cut off so that we could no longer stand within any border of Israel.6Let seven men from his sons be given to us, and let them be exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD." The king replied, "I myself will give them."7The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul because of the oath of the LORD that existed between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.8The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah whom she bore to Saul—Armoni and Mephibosheth—and the five sons of Michal daughter of Saul whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.9He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who exposed them on the mountain before the LORD. The seven fell together, and they died during the days of harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.10Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself upon the rock from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from heaven. She did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day or the wild animals of the land by night.11When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done,12David 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 open square of Beth-shean, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines struck down Saul at Gilboa.13He brought the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan up from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been exposed.14They buried the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the tomb of Kish his father, and they carried out everything the king had commanded. After this, God responded to prayer for the land.