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the reign of David, there was a famine that lasted for three years, year after year, so David inquired of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his blood-stained house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel, but rather a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had promised on oath to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to wipe them out. 3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How can I make expiation, so you may bless the Lord’s inheritance?”
4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We have no claims for silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.”
David said, “Whatever you ask, I will do for you.”
5 They answered the king, “As for the man who massacred us and plotted to exterminate us so we would have no place left in Israel, 6 let seven men descended from him be handed over to us, so we may hang them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.”
The king answered, “I will hand them over.”
7 The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathon, the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord that was between David and Jonathan son of Saul. 8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them died together. They were put to death during the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10 Now Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rains poured down on the bodies from the heavens, she did not let the birds of the air come down on them by day or the wild animals by night. 11 When David was told what Saul’s concubine, Rizpah daughter of Aiah, had done, 12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathon from the men of Jabesh-gilead. They had stolen them from the public square of the Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung them after the Philistines struck down Saul at Gilboa. 13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathon from there. They also recovered the bones of those who had been hanged.
14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan at Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish; so they did everything the king commanded. After this, God answered prayer for the land.
15 The Philistines again went to war with Israel, and David went down with his soldiers, and he fought against the Philistines. But when David became exhausted, 16 Ishbi-benob tried to kill David. Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the Raphah. His spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze and he wore new armour. 17 But Abishai son of Zeruiah came and rescued David. He struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore an oath to him, telling him, “You will not go out with us into battle anymore, lest you extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
18 After this, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Raphah.
19 There was another battle with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver’s beam.
20 There was again another battle, this time at Gath. There was a huge man, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He was also descended from the Raphah. 21 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son Shimei, David’s brother, killed him.
22 These four were descended from the Raphah in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.