Chapter 21

1 The three years’ famine for the Gibeonites ceaseth, by hanging seven of Saul’s sons. 10 Rizpah’s kindness unto the dead. 12 David burieth the bones of Saul and Jonathan in his father’s sepulchre. 15 Four battles against the Philistines, wherein four valiants of David slay four giants.

1. Then there was a famine. Literally, “And there was a famine.”

In the days of David. This phrase is too vague to warrant the conclusion that this famine must have followed immediately the events of ch. 20. There is no evidence as to exactly when this famine took place. There is no reason to doubt that it was one of the troubles that beset David toward the close of his reign, although it could have happened at any time after David’s kindness to Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth (v. 7). Not all the events in David’s reign are recorded in strict chronological sequence.

Enquired of the Lord. David concluded that there must be some reason for the famine. The Lord had told His people that if they were disobedient He would withhold His blessings (Deut. 28:15, 23, 24), and David now sought the Lord for the reason for this present famine.

He slew the Gibeonites. This is the only record of Saul’s offense against the Gibeonites. At the time of the conquest of Canaan the Gibeonites had succeeded through guile in making a league with Joshua. According to the terms of this league they were to be allowed to live with Israel in a state of servitude (Joshua 9:3–27).

2. The Amorites. According to Joshua 9:7; 11:19 the people of Gibeon were Hivites, who in many enumerations of the native inhabitants of Palestine are listed separately from the Amorites (Gen. 10:16, 17; Joshua 9:1; 11:3; 12:8). But the term “Amorite” is often employed in a more comprehensive sense, somewhat equivalent to “Canaanite,” as meaning any of the inhabitants of Canaan (Gen. 15:16; Deut. 1:27). “Amorites” sometimes denotes more particularly the inhabitants of the hill country of Palestine as distinct from the Canaanites of the plain (Num. 13:29; Deut. 1:7, 20). The Hivites would thus be included in this latter usage of “Amorites” to mean hill dwellers of Canaan.

Had sworn unto them. See Joshua 9:15, 19–21. Joshua, together with the princes of the congregation, had made a solemn oath that the Gibeonites would not be slain but that they would be permitted to abide in the land. The leaders of Israel regarded themselves as bound by this solemn oath, and accordingly they would realize that serious consequences must inevitably follow if they violated the oath.

To the children of Israel. Or, “for the children of Israel.” In this offense Saul was not alone. As the king of Israel he was acting with the people and in their behalf. The people were doubtless in sympathy with him in his campaign to exterminate the Gibeonites, and thus the guilt rested upon them as well as upon the king. This would explain why the Lord allowed the punishment for Saul’s offense to fall upon David and his people. The whole nation was involved in the violation of the solemn oath given by Joshua and the princes of the congregation more than 400 years before. Under the cloak of Saul’s nationalistic zeal existed a spirit of selfishness, pride, and arrogance that was utterly foreign to the humility, disinterestedness, and loftiness of purpose that God required of His children.

3. Wherewith shall I make the atonement? David should have addressed this question to God, even as he had addressed the previous inquiry concerning the cause of the famine. The record does not state that David took this matter to the Lord, nor does it affirm that what the Gibeonites demanded and what David carried out in response was in harmony with what God would have required in order to rectify the situation.

Saul’s offense had been a gross misrepresentation of the religion of Jehovah. His attitude probably reflected that of the Israelites at large, who, even after Saul’s death, continued to show hostility to these foreigners in their midst whom they had pledged to protect. It was highly essential that the religion of God be vindicated. Precisely what God would have demanded by way of achieving this end is not revealed.

One of the chief objects of confessing faults to the ones harmed is to nullify to the greatest possible extent the evil influence of the misdeed. Men have become completely discouraged and their souls have been lost as a result of the errors of their fellow men. It is the duty of the one who has been the stumbling block to try to remove the cause of offense to the best of his ability.

Bless the inheritance. Unless the offense against the Gibeonites were removed, Israel could not hope to enjoy the blessing of the Lord. Hence if the wrong against the Gibeonites were atoned for, these people would prove to be the means of bringing back blessings to the nation of Israel.

4. No silver nor gold of Saul. The smiting of the Gibeonites probably involved the confiscation of their property. It was only right that in a sincere effort to make restitution, what had been taken from them should be returned. The Gibeonites insisted, however, that they were not concerned with worldly goods. They were willing to forgo the matter of restitution in kind.

Kill any man in Israel. Israel as a nation was responsible for the slaughter of the Gibeonites at the hand of Saul. But the people as a whole would not now be asked to pay the price of the blood that had been shed. The Gibeonites were of the opinion that the guilt should rest primarily upon the house of Saul and that by it expiation should be made.

5. Consumed us. Saul must have wrought widespread havoc among the Gibeonites. As a people they were probably all but destroyed, with only a remnant remaining, probably scattered here and there throughout the land. Since Saul was primarily responsible for this crime, the Gibeonites now asked that his house should carry the blame.

6. Hang them up. The Gibeonites may have had in mind the incident recorded in Num. 25:4, where the heads of the people guilty of the crime of Baal-peor were to be hung “up before the Lord,” that “the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.” The present situation was different, however, for instead of the guilty themselves being punished, the children were substituted.

Gibeah. The LXX reads “Gibeon,” which some regard as correct (see RSV). However, there is good reason to retain the reading of the Hebrew text. Gibeah was the home of Saul. (1 Sam. 10:26; 11:4). It would seem fitting that expiation for Saul’s crime be made at his ancestral home. It is true that at that time there was a national shrine at Gibeon, the place where the tabernacle then stood and where the Israelites offered sacrifices (1 Kings 3:4; 1 Chron. 16:39, 40; 2 Chron. 1:3). But there is no reason to believe that the execution of these descendants of Saul was regarded as a propitiatory human sacrifice and that it therefore had to be carried out at Gibeon, as if it would be more acceptable there.

7. Because of the Lord’s oath. See 1 Sam. 18:3; 20:12–17. The solemn oath that David had sworn to Jonathan required that he exempt the son of Jonathan from the proposed vengeance of Gibeon. The fact that the violation of the solemn oath of the leaders of Israel to the men of Gibeon (Joshua 9:15, 19–21), had brought this great calamity upon Israel, would cause David to be particularly careful that there would be no violation of the oath he had made to Jonathan.

8. Two sons of Rizpah. Rizpah was one of the concubines of Saul, with whom Abner had been charged with committing adultery (ch. 3:7).

Whom she brought up. Literally, “whom she bore.” There is no valid reason for is translating the Hebrew verb, yalad, employed in this phrase, “to bring up.” The difficulty, of course, is that Adriel was the husband of Merab, not of Michal (1 Sam. 18:19). The simplest solution seems to be to accept the reading of two Hebrew manuscripts, one of the recesions of the LXX, and the Syriac, which here read “Merob” for “Michal.” Merab was the one who was originally to be given to David, but who was given to Adriel instead, David receiving Michal (1 Sam. 18:20–27). Unless Michal had children through her marriage to Phalti (1 Sam. 25:44), she died childless (2 Sam. 6:23).

9. Beginning of barley harvest. This was immediately after the Passover (Lev. 23:10, 11, 14), and would be the middle to the end of our April.

10. Took sackcloth. The sackcloth was probably spread out as a tent to form a rough shelter for Rizpah during her long vigil.

Until water dropped. The usual dry season in Palestine lasted from spring until fall. Under normal conditions there would be no rain during this period (see p. 110). Whether at this time an unreasonable rainfall occurred, breaking the drought that had probably been responsible for the three-year famine, we are not told. The wheat harvest follows the barley harvest (Ex. 9:31, 32; Ruth 1:22; 2:23), and rain is exceedingly rare at that season (1 Sam. 12:17, 18; Prov. 26:1). The recording of this incident indicates that Rizpah’s devoted watch was of long duration.

Neither the birds. The bodies of the slain men were left exposed to the elements. Ordinarily bodies of men who were thus executed were to be buried the day they were hanged (Deut. 21:22, 23), but in this instance their bodies were apparently left exposed, perhaps till such a time as the fall of rain would give evidence of God’s restored blessing. In the East a body left in the open would almost immediately become the victim of wild beasts or flocks of vultures (see 1 Sam. 17:44, 46; 1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:23, 24; Matt. 24:28). Through this long ordeal, day and night, Rizpah kept a devoted vigil over the bodies of her sons.

12. Bones of Saul. It was the tender devotion of Rizpah that caused David to show this respect for the descendants of Saul (see v. 13). Wishing to show that he cherished no enmity against the former king, David brought the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh-gilead and gave them an honorable burial in the ancient family sepulcher.

The street. Literally, “the broad open place,” “the plaza.” According to 1 Sam. 31:10–12 the Philistines fastened the bodies of Saul and his sons to the “wall of Bethshan,” evidently on the section of the wall facing the public square. It was from this place that they were recovered at night by the men of Jabesh-gilead (1 Sam. 31:11–13).

14. Zelah. A town of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28). It has not yet been identified but was probably near Gibeah, the ancestral home of Saul (see p. 459).

God was intreated. 2 Sam. 24:25; Gen. 25:21; Isa. 19:22 for similar expressions. Because the text states that “God was intreated” we need not therefore conclude that David had followed God’s plan for atoning for Saul’s evil deed. The Lord might measure an act by the sincerity of heart that prompted it, even though He condemned the act itself.

15. Yet war again. This refers to another war that David had with the Philistines. The writer of Samuel is here giving a number of detached items of which the exact relationship to other events in David’s reign is not known. The incident evidently took place after David had been ruling for some time and was therefore quite advanced in years (v. 17). In 1 Chron. 20:4–8 the parallel account of these struggles with the Philistines, except the first, follows the account of Joab’s destruction of Rabbah of Ammon, which the writer of 2 Samuel places in ch. 12:26–31. The intervening items of 2 Samuel—namely, Ammon’s sin (ch. 13), the return of Absalom from Geshur (ch. 14), the revolts of Absalom (chs. 15–19) and Sheba (ch. 20) and the three-year famine (ch. 21:1–14)—are not found in Chronicles.

16. Three hundred shekels. About 7 lb. (3.4 kg.). The weight of the head of Goliath’s spear was 600 shekels (1 Sam. 17:7).

17. Quench not the light. See 1 Kings 11:36; 15:14; Ps. 132:17. David had frequently endangered his life by engaging in personal combat with his enemies. There came a time, however, when it was no longer wise or necessary for the king to venture into battle with his soldiers, as had been his custom.

18. At Gob. In the parallel text this incident is said to have taken place at Gezer (1 Chron. 20:4). The site of Gob is not known, but it probably was in the neighborhood of Gezer, a strongly fortified bastion overlooking the Philistine plain about 7 mi. (11.2 km.) northeast of Ekron, near the Valley of Aijalon. It is possible that by the time the account in Chronicles was written, the hamlet of Gob had already become almost unknown and that the writer gave the geographical setting in terms of the much better known town of Gezer, now Tell Jezer.

Sibbechai. This name also occurs in the list of David’s heroes (1 Chron. 11:29), but in 2 Sam. 23:27 the name appears as “Mebunnai.” He was the captain of the eighth division of David’s army (1 Chron. 27:11).

Saph. Spelled “Sippai” in the parallel text (1 Chron. 20:4). The statement is also added there that the Philistines were subdued.

19. In Gob. The name of this place is omitted in the parallel passage (1 Chron. 20:5).

Jaare-oregim. Or Jair (1 Chron. 20:5).

The brother of. These words do not appear in the Hebrew of this verse but are taken from the parallel passage (1 Chron. 20:5), where also the name of Goliath’s brother is given as Lahmi.

21. Defied. The same word that is used in 1 Sam. 17:26, 36, 45.

Jonathan. He was thus a nephew of David (see 1 Chron. 20:7; 1 Sam. 16:9), and a brother of Jonadab, the “very subtil man” who was the friend of Amnon (2 Sam. 13:3).

22. Born to the giant. If the word “giant” is considered a collective noun or as designating a certain clan, these four were not necessarily brothers, but simply descendants of the race of the giants in Gath.

His servants. Heb. Фebed, the usual word for “slave” or “servant.” ФEbed is from the root Фabad, meaning “to work” or “to serve.” As here used, the term refers to those who served David as soldiers.