2 Samuel 21:9-12
Contemporary English Version
9 turned them over to the Gibeonites, who hanged[a] all seven of them on the mountain near the place where the Lord was worshiped. This happened right at the beginning of the barley harvest.[b]
Rizpah Takes Care of the Bodies
10 Rizpah spread out some sackcloth[c] on a nearby rock. She wouldn't let the birds land on the bodies during the day, and she kept the wild animals away at night. She stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until it started to rain.[d]
The Burial of Saul and His Descendants
11-12 (A) Earlier the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa and had hung their bodies in the town square at Beth-Shan. The people of Jabesh in Gilead had secretly taken the bodies away, but David found out what Saul's wife[e] Rizpah had done, and he went to the leaders of Jabesh to get the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 21.9 hanged: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
- 21.9 This … harvest: This would have been late in April.
- 21.10 sackcloth: See the note at 3.31.
- 21.10 started to rain: This may have been the beginning of the rainy season in September or October. It usually didn't rain from May to September. Or, it may have been a sign that now there would be enough rain again.
- 21.11,12 wife: See the note at 3.7.
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