My Daily Meditation
Today’ Reading
The Second Book of Samuel
Chapter 21:1-22
1 Then there was a famine in the days of David, three years together: and David asked counsel of the Lord, and the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.
2 Then the King called the Gibeonites, and said unto them, (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites, unto whom the children of Israel had sworn: but Saul sought to slay them for his zeal toward the children of Israel and Judah)
3 And 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?
4 The Gibeonites then answered 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.
5 Then they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that imagined evil against us, so that we are destroyed from remaining in any coast of Israel,
6 Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the Lord’s chosen, And the king said, I will give them.
7 But the king had compassion on Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath, that was between them, even between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, even Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of [h]Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
9 And he delivered them unto the hands of the Gibeonites, which hanged them in the mountain before the Lord: so they died all seven together: and they were slain in the time of harvest: in the first days, and in the beginning of barley harvest.
10 Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and hanged it up for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them from the heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to light on them by day, nor beasts of the field by night.
11 And it was told David, what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done.
12 And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son from the citizens 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.
13 So he brought thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.
14 And the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the grave of Kish his father: and when they had performed all that the King had commanded, God was then appeased with the land.
15 Again the Philistines hath war with Israel: and David went down, and his servants with him, and they fought against the Philistines, and David fainted.
16 Then Ishbi-Benob which was of the sons of Haraphah (the head of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass) even he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then David’s men swore unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, lest thou quench the light of Israel.
18 And after this also there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was one of the sons of Haraphah.
19 And there was yet another battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim, a Bethlehemite slew Goliath the Gittite: the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
20 Afterward there was also a battle in Gath, where was a man of a great stature, and had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number: who was also the son of Haraphah.
21 And when he reviled Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.
22 These four were born to Haraphah in Gath, and died by the hand of David, and by the hands of his servants.
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