2 Samuel 21

2 Samuel 21:1

IV. APPENDIX (Chaps. 2124) The remainder of 2 Samuel is really an appendix highlighting various incidents in the reign of David, though not in chronological order. (The chronological order continues again in 1 Kings 1.) A. The Famine and Its Termination (Chap. 21)21:1 The first event was the famine, which lasted for three years. When David inquired of the LORD as to the cause, he was told that it was because . . . Saul had broken the covenant with the Gibeonites. These heathen inhabitants of the land had tricked Joshua into making a treaty with them. Saul had broken the treaty by trying to destroy the Gibeonites, a fact not mentioned previously in the OT.

The term “bloodthirsty house” may imply that Saul’s descendants had an active part in the slaughter of the Gibeonites, in which case their punishment (vv. 2-9) was just. It may seem harsh that the nation should suffer for the crime of a man now dead, but centuries earlier Israel had sworn a solemn oath to the Gibeonites (Jos_9:19-20), and the famine came because that oath had been broken. Time does not dull God’s memory or His sense of justice. 21:2-9 David approached the Gibeonites to find out what they would accept as satisfaction for Saul’s offense. They explained that they didn’t want any of Saul’s silver or gold, and that they had no right to put any man to death in Israel. Nothing would do but the execution of seven of Saul’s male descendants, and David consented to this. The seven sons were: the two sons of RizpahArmoni and Mephibosheth (not Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan)and the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab (v. 8, NKJV marg.). Two reasons for rejecting “Michal” as the proper reading here are that Michal was married to Palti, not Adriel (see 1Sa_25:44), and she was childless (2Sa_6:23). The Barzillai mentioned here is not the same man who later helped David when he fled from Absalom (2Sa_17:27). 21:10 Rizpah, Saul’s loyal concubine, set up a watch by the bodies, day and night, so that neither vultures nor wild beasts could touch them. She kept this vigil from the beginning of harvest until God sent rain and thus ended the famine which had led to these deaths. 21:11-14 When David heard of her devotion, he took steps to give decent burial to these seven bodies and also to the bones of Saul and of Jonathan, which had been buried in Jabesh Gilead. The bones of Saul and Jonathan were laid to rest in the tomb of Kish in Benjamin. 21:15-22 This passage describes various battles against Philistine giants. In the first one, David was almost slain by Ishbi-Benob, but Abishai rescued him and killed . . . the Philistine. From then on the people would not let David . . . go out with them to battle. In the second battle, at Gob (or Gezer), another son of a giant was slain by Sibbechai. In the third battle, Elhanan . . . killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, named Lahmi cf. 1Ch_20:5. The fourth battle resulted in the death of a giant who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. Pliny mentions certain six-fingered (sedigiti) Romans, and this peculiarity is hereditary in some families.