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2 Samuel 21:1-14
New English Translation

The Gibeonites Demand Revenge

21 During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord.[a] The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family,[b] because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

2 So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke with them. (Now the Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel; they were a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had made a promise to[c] them, but Saul tried to kill them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.) 3 David said to the Gibeonites, “What can I do for you, and how can I make amends so that you will bless[d] the Lord’s inheritance?”

4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We[e] have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family,[f] nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel.” David asked,[g] “What then are you asking me to do for you?” 5 They replied to the king, “As for this man who exterminated us and who schemed against us so that we were destroyed and left without status throughout all the borders of Israel— 6 let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute[h] them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the Lord’s chosen one.”[i] The king replied, “I will turn them over.”

7 The king had mercy on Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, in light of the Lord’s oath that had been taken between David and Jonathan son of Saul. 8 So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah whom she had born to Saul, and the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab[j] whom she had born to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them[k] died[l] together; they were put to death during harvest time—during the first days of the beginning[m] of the barley harvest.

10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on them,[n] she did not allow the birds of the air to feed[o] on them by day, nor the wild animals[p] by night. 11 When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 12 he[q] went and took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan[r] from the leaders[s] of Jabesh Gilead. (They had secretly taken[t] them from the plaza at Beth Shan. It was there that Philistines[u] publicly exposed their corpses[v] after[w] they[x] had killed Saul at Gilboa.) 13 David[y] brought the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there; they also gathered up the bones of those who had been executed.

14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the grave of his father Kish. After they had done everything[z] that the king had commanded, God responded to their prayers[aa] for the land.

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Notas al pie

  1. 2 Samuel 21:1 tn Heb “sought the face of the Lord.”
  2. 2 Samuel 21:1 tn Heb “and the house of bloodshed.”
  3. 2 Samuel 21:2 tn Heb “swore an oath to.”
  4. 2 Samuel 21:3 tn After the preceding imperfect verbal form, the subordinated imperative indicates purpose/result. S. R. Driver comments, “…the imper. is used instead of the more normal voluntative, for the purpose of expressing with somewhat greater force the intention of the previous verb” (S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 350).
  5. 2 Samuel 21:4 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading לָנוּ (lanu, “to us”) rather than the MT לִי (li, “to me”). But for a contrary opinion see S. R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text and the Topography of the Books of Samuel, 53, 350.
  6. 2 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “house.”
  7. 2 Samuel 21:4 tn Heb “and he said”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  8. 2 Samuel 21:6 tn The exact nature of this execution is not altogether clear. The verb יָקַע (yaqaʿ) basically means “to dislocate” or “alienate.” In Gen 32:26 it is used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh. Figuratively it can refer to the removal of an individual from a group (e.g., Jer 6:8; Ezek 23:17) or to a type of punishment the specific identity of which is uncertain (e.g., here and Num 25:4); cf. NAB “dismember them”; NIV “to be killed and exposed.”
  9. 2 Samuel 21:6 tc The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord” (cf. 21:9). The present translation follows the MT, although a number of recent English translations follow the LXX reading here (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).
  10. 2 Samuel 21:8 tc The MT reads “Michal” here, but two Hebrew manuscripts read “Merab,” along with some LXX manuscripts. Cf. 1 Sam 18:19.
  11. 2 Samuel 21:9 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁבַעְתָּם (shevaʿtam, “the seven of them”) rather than MT שִׁבַעְתִּים (shivaʿtim, “seventy”).
  12. 2 Samuel 21:9 tn Heb “fell.”
  13. 2 Samuel 21:9 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בִּתְחִלַּת (bitkhillat, “in the beginning”) rather than MT תְחִלַּת (tekhillat, “beginning of”).
  14. 2 Samuel 21:10 tn Heb “until water was poured on them from the sky.”
  15. 2 Samuel 21:10 tn Heb “rest.”
  16. 2 Samuel 21:10 tn Heb “the beasts of the field.”
  17. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “David.” For stylistic reasons the name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation.
  18. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son.” See also v. 13.
  19. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “lords.”
  20. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “stolen.”
  21. 2 Samuel 21:12 tc Against the MT, this word is better read without the definite article. The MT reading is probably here the result of wrong word division, with the letter ה (he) belonging with the preceding word שָׁם (sham) as the he directive (i.e., שָׁמָּה, samah, “to there”).
  22. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “had hung them.”
  23. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “in the day.”
  24. 2 Samuel 21:12 tn Heb “Philistines.”
  25. 2 Samuel 21:13 tn Heb “he”; the referent (David) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
  26. 2 Samuel 21:14 tc Many medieval Hebrew mss have here כְּכֹל (kekhol, “according to all”).
  27. 2 Samuel 21:14 tn Heb “was entreated.” The verb is an example of the so-called niphal tolerativum, with the sense that God allowed himself to be supplicated through prayer (cf. GKC 137 §51.c).
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2 Samuel 21:1-14
American Standard Version

21 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. 2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); 3 and David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of Jehovah? 4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; [a]neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. 5 And they said unto the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, [b]that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6 let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah. And the king said, I will give them.

7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Jehovah’s oath that was between them, 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, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of [c]Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 9 and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Jehovah, and they fell all seven together. And they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the 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 men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the [d]street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa; 13 and he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.

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Notas al pie

  1. 2 Samuel 21:4 Or, neither for us shalt thou put any man to death in Israel
  2. 2 Samuel 21:5 Or, so that we have been destroyed
  3. 2 Samuel 21:8 In 1 Sam. 18:19, Merab.
  4. 2 Samuel 21:12 Or, broad place
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