Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is because of Saul and because of the House of Bloodguilt, because he put to death the Gibeonites.”
So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but were of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn an oath to them, but Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.
and David said to the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you? And in what way can I make atonement, so that you will bless the inheritance of Yahweh?”
The 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 any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “Whatever you say, I will do that for you.”
So they said to the king, “The man who destroyed us and who intended for us to be wiped out from remaining in any of the territory of Israel,
let seven men of his sons be given to us, and we will impale them in the presence of Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of Yahweh that was between them; between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
And he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites and they impaled them on the mountain in the presence of Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death at the time of the barley harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on a rock from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from heaven. She did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day or the animals of the field by night.
And David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine, had done.
So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung them up on the day that the Philistines killed Saul on Mount Gilboa,
and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of those men who had been impaled.
Then they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, at Zela in the tomb of Kish his father. And when they had done all that the king had commanded them, then God allowed Himself to be entreated for the land.
War with the Philistines
There was war again between the Philistines and Israel. And David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David grew faint,
and Ishbi-benob, who was one of the descendants of Rapha, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze, he being armed with a new sword, intended to kill David.
But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him and struck down the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore an oath to him, saying, “You must not go out with us to battle any more, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
And after this there was war again, at Gob, with the Philistines, and Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph who was a descendant of Rapha.
There was war again with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great size who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, 24 in number, and he also was a descendant of Rapha.
When he mocked Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down.
These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.