seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Samuel 21:1During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) 3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”
4 The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.
5 They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, 6 let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen one.”
So the king said, “I will give them to you.”
7 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. 8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.
10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. 11 When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) 13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.
14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
Here's the link to the commentary I use.And David inquired of the LORD: David wisely sought God in the face of chronic problems. David was concerned after the first year of famine, and even more after the second — but two years of famine didn’t make him look to a spiritual cause. Yet after three years of famine, David inquired of the LORD.
In the days of Joshua — more than 400 years before David’s time — Israel swore not to harm the Gibeonites, a neighboring tribe (Joshua 9). God expected Israel to keep its promise, even though the Gibeonites tricked Israel into making the agreement. Saul’s crime was not only in killing the Gibeonites but also in breaking this ancient and important oath.
The king called the Gibeonites: David knew he had to do something about this and so he initiated a resolution with the Gibeonites.
Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah: We normally think of such zeal as something good. Yet Saul’s misguided zeal was a sin and brought calamity on Israel.
Let seven men of his descendants be delivered to us: In those ancient times the request of the Gibeonites was considered reasonable. Instead of money or an “eye for an eye” they only asked for justice against Saul through his descendants. David agreed to this (I will give them).
The king spared Mephibosheth: Mephibosheth was the most notable living descendant of Saul and it made the most sense to put him as the first of the seven to be delivered to the Gibeonites for execution. Yet David promised to protect and bless Mephibosheth and he would not fulfill one promise at the expense of another.
They hanged them on the hill before the LORD: David chose seven male descendants of Saul to give over to the Gibeonites and they executed them by public hanging. The phrase before the LORD implies God approved of their execution.
Spread it for herself on the rock... until the late rains poured on them from heaven: Rizpah — the mother of two of the seven delivered for execution — held a vigil over the bodies until the late rains came. The coming of rain showed that the famine was over, that justice was satisfied, and that Israel was delivered.
This means that the bodies of these men were deliberately left unburied. This was to emphasize the fact that these men were executed as an act of judgment.
They gathered the bones: David gave these seven a public burial, together with the remains of Saul and Jonathan.
According to the first verse... There was a famine.I just don't know what to say about these verses. I guess the murder of seven men would be better than a war that would take 100's of thousands.
I think this was cruel, but then again it was just and merciful.
Check out verse 9. If there had been gunpowder back in the days of David, I would think they fell to a firing squad. That's how it would have been done in the Old West. But there was no gunpowder 1000 years before Jesus was born. These men were killed upfront and personal, with a spear, sword, dagger, or stone.
My heart goes out to Rizpah. Two of her sons were taken. She held a vigil to make sure the birds didn't pick their bones clean. Poor woman.... first, she was Saul's wife.... a queen...with two proud sons... and now she's stuck shooing vultures away from her sons and her step-sons. Poor, poor woman.
I've been trying to imagine how this would happen in today's society. I don't think the world today would stand for letting a man's dead body lay for days or weeks or months. That woman sat by her sons until it rained causing the famine to end.
I think the only way this would happen in the world today; it would have to be "over-civilized". These men would have to be arrested for high crimes and misdemeanors. Lawyers would argue that these men committed no crime. The lawyers would argue that Saul was the murderer and these men should be let free. Extradition would have been a problem. World media would bring attention to the matter, so it would have to be "over-civilized". They would have to spend time in the courts, then prison, and then they would be put to death.
David made it right. Saul left the witnesses. David made it right.
Rizpah fought the buzzards and vultures.
