2 Samuel 21

ARC · Chapter 21/24

1E houve em dias de David uma fome de tres annos, de anno em anno; e David consultou ao Senhor, e o Senhor lhe disse: É por causa de Saul e da sua casa sanguinaria, porque matou os gibeonitas.

2Então chamou o rei aos gibeonitas, e lhes fallou (ora os gibeonitas não eram dos filhos de Israel, mas do resto dos amorrheos, e os filhos de Israel lhes tinham jurado, porém Saul procurou feril-os no seu zelo á causa dos filhos de Israel e de Judah).

3Disse pois David aos gibeonitas: Que quereis que eu vos faça? e que satisfação vos darei, para que abençoeis a herança do Senhor?

4Então os gibeonitas lhe disseram: Não é por prata nem oiro que temos questão com Saul e com sua casa; nem tão pouco pretendemos matar pessoa alguma em Israel. E disse elle: Que é pois que quereis que vos faça?

5E disseram ao rei: O homem que nos destruiu, e intentou contra nós que fossemos assollados, sem que podessemos subsistir em termo algum de Israel,

6De seus filhos se nos dêem sete homens, para que os enforquemos ao Senhor em Gibeah de Saul, o eleito do Senhor. E disse o rei: Eu os darei.

7Porém o rei poupou a Mephiboseth, filho de Jonathan, filho de Saul, por causa do juramento do Senhor, que entre elles houvera, entre David e Jonathan, filho de Saul.

8Porém tomou o rei os dois filhos de Rispa, filha d'Aia, que tinha parido a Saul, a saber a Armoni e a Mephiboseth; como tambem os cinco filhos da irmã de Michal, filha de Saul, que parira a Adriel, filho de Barzillai, meholathita.

9E os entregou na mão dos gibeonitas, os quaes os enforcaram no monte, perante o Senhor; e cairam estes sete juntamente: e foram mortos nos dias da sega, nos dias primeiros, no principio da sega das cevadas.

10Então Rispa, filha d'Aia, tomou um panno de cilicio, e estendeu-lh'o sobre uma penha, desde o principio da sega, até que distillou a agua sobre elles do céu: e não deixou as aves do céu pousar sobre elles de dia, nem os animaes do campo de noite.

11E foi dito a David o que fizera Rispa, filha d'Aia, concubina de Saul.

12Então foi David, e tomou os ossos de Saul, e os ossos de Jonathan seu filho, dos moradores de Jabéz-gilead, os quaes os furtaram da rua de Beth-san, onde os philisteos os tinham pendurado, quando os philisteos feriram a Saul em Gilboa.

13E fez subir d'ali os ossos de Saul, e os ossos de Jonathan seu filho: e ajuntaram tambem os ossos dos enforcados.

14Enterraram os ossos de Saul, e de Jonathan seu filho na terra de Benjamin, em Zela, na sepultura de seu pae Kis, e fizeram tudo o que o rei ordenara; e depois d'isto Deus se aplacou com a terra.

15Tiveram mais os philisteos uma peleja contra Israel: e desceu David, e com elle os seus servos: e tanto pelejaram contra os philisteos, que David se cançou.

16E Isbi-benob, que era dos filhos do gigante, e o peso de cuja lança tinha trezentos siclos de peso de cobre, e que cingia uma espada nova, este intentou ferir a David.

17Porém Abisai, filho de Zeruia, o soccorreu, e feriu o philisteo, e o matou: então os homens de David lhe juraram, dizendo: Nunca mais sairás comnosco á peleja, para que não apagues a lampada de Israel.

18E aconteceu depois d'isto que houve em Gob ainda outra peleja contra os philisteos: então Sibbechai, o husatita, feriu a Saph, que era dos filhos do gigante.

19Houve mais outra peleja contra os philisteos em Gob: e El-hanan, filho de Jaaré-oregim, o beth-lehemita feriu Goliath, o getheo, de cuja lança era a haste como orgão de tecelão.

20Houve ainda tambem outra peleja em Gath, onde estava um homem d'alta estatura, que tinha em cada mão seis dedos, e em cada pé outros seis, vinte e quatro por todos, e tambem este nascera do gigante.

21E injuriava a Israel: porém Jonathan, filho de Simea, irmão de David, o feriu.

22Estes quatro nasceram ao gigante em Gath: e cairam pela mão de David e pela mão de seus servos.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A three-year famine leads David to discover it is punishment for Saul's breaking of an ancient treaty with the Gibeonites. Seven of Saul's descendants are handed over for reparation, and Rizpah, mother of two of them, keeps a moving vigil over their bodies. The chapter ends with battles against Philistine giants.

Explanation

This episode reflects the Old Testament view that breaking solemn oaths (even ones made generations earlier) carries serious consequences for the whole community — the treaty with the Gibeonites dates back to Joshua 9. Rizpah's vigil, protecting the bodies from birds and animals for months, is one of the most touching displays of a mother's love in the Bible, and it moves David to give Saul and Jonathan's bones a proper burial. The battles against the 'sons of the giant' (descendants of Goliath) show that the Philistine threat, though weakened, still lingered.

Fun facts

  • The Gibeonites were descendants of the Amorites who had made a peace pact with Israel through deception in Joshua 9 — a pact Saul broke centuries later, creating this blood debt.
  • One of the giants killed in this chapter, from Gath, had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot (twenty-four in all), a condition known today clinically as polydactyly.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. 2 Samuel 21:1The three-year famine is attributed to a guilt from an earlier generation: Saul broke an old oath Israel had made to spare the Gibeonites, and the punishment only appears years later, in the following reign — reflecting the ancient idea that a solemn oath bound not only the one who swore it, but the whole people, for generations.
  2. 2 Samuel 21:2The Gibeonites were not Israelites, but an Amorite people who had received an old oath of protection from Israel — an oath Saul broke by trying to exterminate them.
  3. 2 Samuel 21:3David asks the Gibeonites what he can do to make amends for the wrong suffered and win back their blessing over Israel.
  4. 2 Samuel 21:4The Gibeonites say they want no silver or gold, nor to kill anyone at random in Israel — something more specific lies behind their request.
  5. 2 Samuel 21:5They ask for justice against the one who tried to exterminate them, keeping them from surviving anywhere in Israel.
  6. 2 Samuel 21:6They ask that seven of Saul’s descendants be handed over to be executed before the Lord at Gibeah, and David agrees to hand them over.
  7. 2 Samuel 21:7David spares Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, because of the oath of loyalty he had made with Jonathan, his father.
  8. 2 Samuel 21:8David hands over instead two sons of Rizpah and five grandsons of Saul, sons of Michal’s sister, to be delivered to the Gibeonites.
  9. 2 Samuel 21:9Handing over seven of Saul’s descendants to be “hanged up unto the Lord” — likely impaled or hung as an atoning offering — was the way the Gibeonites asked for the bloodshed to be repaid; the text reports the custom without praising it.
  10. 2 Samuel 21:10Rizpah, mother of two of the executed men, keeps watch over the hanging bodies for months, driving away birds and animals — a vigil of mourning so striking that it reaches David’s ears and leads him to give the whole house of Saul a proper burial.
  11. 2 Samuel 21:11News reaches David of what Rizpah had done, watching over her sons’ bodies for so long.
  12. 2 Samuel 21:12David goes to retrieve the bones of Saul and Jonathan, which the people of Jabesh-gilead had secretly rescued from where the Philistines had hung them.
  13. 2 Samuel 21:13David brings back the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and adds to them the bones of the seven men who had been executed.
  14. 2 Samuel 21:14They bury them all in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father, fulfilling the king’s order — and after that God is moved by prayer for the land, ending the chapter’s famine.
  15. 2 Samuel 21:15The Philistines go to war against Israel again, and David goes down into battle with his men, but grows extremely weary in the fighting.
  16. 2 Samuel 21:16Ishbi-benob, a warrior descended from giants, armed with a heavy spear and a new sword, tries to kill David in that moment of weakness.
  17. 2 Samuel 21:17Abishai saves David by killing the Philistine, and the king’s men swear that he must never again go out personally into battle, being too precious to the people.
  18. 2 Samuel 21:18In another battle against the Philistines, at Gob, Sibbecai kills Saph, another descendant of giants.
  19. 2 Samuel 21:19Here it is Elhanan who kills Goliath the Gittite — the same Goliath from David’s duel in 1 Samuel 17. Scholars disagree: it may be a different Goliath, a copying error in the text, or, as 1 Chronicles 20:5 suggests, a mix-up between Goliath and his brother Lahmi.
  20. 2 Samuel 21:20In a new battle at Gath, a giant warrior appears with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all.
  21. 2 Samuel 21:21This giant taunts Israel, but is killed by Jonathan, David’s nephew, son of his brother Shimeah.
  22. 2 Samuel 21:22The text closes the list saying that these four giants of Gath all fell by the hand of David and his soldiers.

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