1Then there was a famine in the days of David three years , year after year ; and David enquired of the LORD . And the LORD answered , It is for Saul , and for his bloody house , because he slew the Gibeonites . 2And the king called the Gibeonites , and said unto 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 unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah .) 3Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites , What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement , that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD ? 4And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul , nor of his house ; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel . And he said , What ye shall say , that will I do for you. 5And they answered the king , The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel , 6Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul , whom the LORD did choose . And the king said , I will give them .
The Execution of Saul's Descendants
7But the king spared Mephibosheth , 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 . 8But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah , whom she bare unto Saul , Armoni and Mephibosheth ; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul , whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite : 9And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites , and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD : and they fell all seven together , and were put to death in the days of harvest , in the first days , in the beginning of barley harvest .
The Burial of the Remains
10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth , and spread it for her upon the rock , from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven , and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day , nor the beasts of the field by night . 11And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah , the concubine of Saul , had done . 12And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead , which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan , where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa : 13And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son ; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged . 14And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah , in the sepulchre of Kish his father : and they performed all that the king commanded . And after that God was intreated for the land .
David's Mighty Men
15Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel ; and David went down , and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines : and David waxed faint . 16And Ishbi-benob , which was of the sons of the giant , the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight , he being girded with a new sword , thought to have slain David . 17But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine , and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying , Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle , that thou quench not the light of Israel . 18And it came to pass after this , that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob : then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph , which was of the sons of the giant . 19And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines , where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim , a Beth-lehemite , slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite , the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam . 20And there was yet a battle in Gath , where was a man of great stature , that had on every hand six fingers , and on every foot six toes , four and twenty in number ; and he also was born to the giant . 21And when he defied Israel , Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him. 22These four were born to the giant in Gath , and fell by the hand of David , and by the hand of his servants .