¹¹ The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, “What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?”

The Gibeonites Avenged

21 During the reign of David, there was a famine^(A) for three successive years; so David sought^(B) the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

² The king summoned the Gibeonites^(C) and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) ³ David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”^(D)

⁴ The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.”^(E)

“What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.

⁵ They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, ⁶ let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed^(F) before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen^(G) one.”

So the king said, “I will give them to you.”

² the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners^(A) and said, “What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place.”

³ They answered, “If you return the ark of the god of Israel, do not send it back to him without a gift;^(B) by all means send a guilt offering^(C) to him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why his hand^(D) has not been lifted from you.”

¹¹ Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad^(A) the prophet, David’s seer:^{(B) 12} “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’”

¹³ So Gad went to David and said to him, “Shall there come on you three^[a] years of famine^(C) in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague^(D) in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me.”