Famine, the Gibeonites and Rizpah’s vigil
United Kingdom · Draft · BSB
Content revision: d0beb52fd4b2623b · No editorial review date recorded
Date: During David’s reign · Position within the reign unknown
A famine is linked to Saul’s attack on the Gibeonites despite Israel’s oath. David hands over seven of Saul’s descendants, who are killed. Rizpah guards the bodies until David arranges burial for them and for Saul and Jonathan.
This account belongs somewhere within David’s reign, not necessarily after Absalom. It raises difficult questions about covenant violation, collective consequences and the deaths of descendants. The text reports the Gibeonites’ demand and David’s decision; it does not turn them into a general law overriding Deuteronomy 24:16.
Primary Scripture
21:1 During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”
21:2 At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)
21:3 So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”
21:4 The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.
21:5 And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel,
21:6 let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.
21:7 Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul.
21:8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
21:9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
21:10 And 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 from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
21:11 When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done,
21:12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.
21:13 So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
21:14 And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.
Related Scripture
Joshua records the oath protecting the Gibeonites.
Moses forbids putting children to death for their parents; read this difficult narrative alongside that requirement.
Location evidence
The proposed Gibeah site represents the location requested in verse 6. Neither the hill of execution nor the family tomb at Zela is identified.
Event map marker: Proposed site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.230718, 31.823113]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Gibeah of Benjamin: Proposed site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.230718, 31.823113]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible · Gibeah of Benjamin
OpenBible · Gibeah of Benjamin
For the class
How does Rizpah’s action draw attention to people whose suffering the political settlement might overlook?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/united-kingdom.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm