2 Samuel 21

The main narrative of David's reign reaches a resting point in 2 Samuel 20 with the suppression of Sheba's rebellion. Chapter 21 opens the section that follows, chapters 21–24. This section is commonly regarded as an appendix arranged by theme rather than in the order in which the events occurred.

Outline

• Verses 1–2: A famine lasts three years in the days of David. When David inquires of the LORD, he is told that it is because of the bloodshed of Saul, who killed the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were a remnant of the Amorites whom Israel had earlier sworn to spare.
• Verses 3–6: David asks how he may make atonement. The Gibeonites refuse silver and gold and ask instead that seven of Saul's descendants be handed over so that they may hang them in Gibeah, Saul's town.
• Verses 7–9: Because of his oath with Jonathan, David spares Jonathan's son Mephibosheth. Instead he hands over Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah bore to Saul, and the five sons whom Merab bore to Adriel. The seven men die together on the hill at the beginning of the barley harvest.
• Verses 10–14: Rizpah spreads sackcloth on a rock and guards the bodies from birds and wild animals until the rain falls. When David hears of this, he retrieves the bones of Saul and Jonathan, which the men of Jabesh-gilead had secretly taken from the street of Beth-shan. He buries them, together with the bones of those who had been executed, in the tomb of Kish at Zelah in the land of Benjamin. Only after this does God hear the prayers offered for the land.
• Verses 15–17: During a battle with the Philistines, David grows weary, and Ishbi-benob, who carries a bronze spear weighing three hundred shekels, attempts to kill him. Abishai the son of Zeruiah comes to David's aid and kills the giant. David's men then swear an oath, urging the king never again to go out with them to battle.
• Verses 18–22: At Gob, Sibbechai kills Saph, and Elhanan kills Lahmi, the brother of Goliath. At Gath, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, David's brother, kills a giant who has twenty-four fingers and toes in all. All four were descendants of the giant of Gath.

Key Verses

• 2 Samuel 21:1: "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house." The famine is traced to the breaking of an oath sworn long before.
• 2 Samuel 21:10: "[She] suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night." Rizpah's action prompts David to give Saul's family a proper burial.
• 2 Samuel 21:17: "That thou quench not the light of Israel." The king is likened to the lamp of his people.

People and Places

• David, Saul, Jonathan, Mephibosheth: The Mephibosheth of verse 8 is not Jonathan's son but a son whom Rizpah bore to Saul; he is a different man who shares the same name.
• The Gibeonites: Canaanite inhabitants who made a sworn treaty of peace with Israel in the time of Joshua (Joshua 9).
• Rizpah: The daughter of Aiah and a concubine of Saul.
• Merab: Saul's daughter, who married Adriel.
• Abishai: The son of Zeruiah and the brother of Joab.
• Elhanan: The son of Jaare-oregim, a man of Bethlehem.
• Jonathan the son of Shimeah: David's nephew, a different person from Jonathan the son of Saul.
• Jabesh-gilead: A town east of the Jordan River. Its people recovered the bodies of Saul and his sons (1 Samuel 31).
• Gibeah was Saul's hometown, and Zelah was the place in the land of Benjamin where the tomb of Kish was located. Gob and Gath were sites of battles with the Philistines.

Points for Reflection

• The execution of descendants: This episode stands in tension with Deuteronomy 24:16, which forbids putting children to death for the sins of their fathers, and it has given rise to a variety of interpretations. Some read it in light of the ancient Israelite understanding of covenant, in which the guilt of a broken oath extends to the whole community. Others, citing the phrase "his bloody house," hold that the descendants themselves took part in the massacre. Still others argue that the text merely records the executions without approving them. Saul's killing of the Gibeonites is not itself recorded in 1 Samuel.
• Merab in verse 8: The Hebrew Masoretic Text (the standard text transmitted by Jewish scholars) reads "Michal." However, according to 1 Samuel 18:19, the woman who married Adriel was Merab, and so translations such as the Korean Revised Version render the name as "Merab."
• Goliath in verse 19: The Masoretic Text reads "Elhanan killed Goliath the Gittite," which does not agree with 1 Samuel 17, where David kills Goliath. The parallel account in 1 Chronicles 20:5 reads "Lahmi the brother of Goliath," and the Korean Revised Version follows this reading. Proposed explanations for the discrepancy include a scribal error in transmission, a Jewish tradition that identifies Elhanan as another name for David, and the existence of a different person bearing the same name.
• Bodies hung on a tree: This account is sometimes compared with the regulation in Deuteronomy 21 that a body hung on a tree must not remain there overnight. In the New Testament, Paul applies this regulation to the cross of Christ (Galatians 3:10–14).