1During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”[ † ]2 Samuel 8:18
2At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)[ † ]Numbers 27:212 Samuel 5:19Joshua 9:3-15-20
3So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?”[ † ]Exodus 34:11-16
4The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.
5And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel,
6let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.[ † ]1 Samuel 26:192 Samuel 20:19Numbers 25:41 Samuel 10:26
7Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul.[ † ]1 Samuel 10:24Hosea 13:112 Samuel 4:42 Samuel 9:10 8But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.[ † ]1 Samuel 18:31 Samuel 20:12-171 Samuel 23:182 Samuel 9:1-7 9And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.[ † ]2 Samuel 3:7
10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.[ † ]2 Samuel 6:172 Samuel 3:72 Samuel 21:8
11When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done, 12he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.[ † ]Deuteronomy 21:231 Samuel 31:11-13
13So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
14And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.[ † ]1 Samuel 31:8Joshua 18:28
15Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.
16Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David.[ † ]Joshua 7:262 Samuel 24:25
17But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel may not be extinguished.”[ † ]Numbers 13:22-28Joshua 15:142 Samuel 21:18-222 Samuel 20:6-102 Samuel 18:3
18Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.[ † ]2 Samuel 22:291 Kings 11:361 Chronicles 20:4-8
19Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.[ † ]1 Chronicles 11:291 Chronicles 27:112 Samuel 23:24
20And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,[ † ]1 Samuel 17:41 Chronicles 20:5 21and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him.[ † ]1 Chronicles 20:6
22So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.[ † ]1 Samuel 17:10