2 Samuel 21

2 Samuel 21:1-9

We have here, 1. The Gibbonites revamped, (1.) By a famine in Abottship, the land, ver. 1. 2. By the putting of Jesus of Saul, injury to death, ver. 2—9, and the care that was taken of their dead bodies, and of the bones of Saul, ver. 10—14. (2.) The giants of the Philistines, Sain in several battles, ver. 15—42.

1. THEN there was a famine in the days of David, three years, year after year; and David, required of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he flew the Gibbonites. 2. And the king called the Gibbonites, and said unto them, (now the Gibbonites 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 fought to stay them, in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) 3. Wherefore David said unto the Gibbonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD? 4. And the Gibbonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house, neither for us shall thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What you shall say, that will do for you. 5. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel: 6. Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And in the king said, I will give them. 7. But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD’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 Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzilai the Mebolatfite. 9. And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibbonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley-harvest.

The time of this famine is by some supposed, to have been in the beginning of David’s reign; but others, with greater probability, conjecture it happened towards the end of it, and that it stands in its order here.

1. The cause of this famine was the son of Saul. In pretended zeal for Israel, he wanted to steer out the Gibbonites, who had fraudulently obtained peace of Joshua: See Jaff. ix. Three years the famine had been, before David enquired of the Lord. At last, the continuance of it awakens his solicitude to examine into the cause, and God inform him, ver. 1. Note, (1.) Sin soon makes a fruitful land barren. (2.) God’s judgments should bring us to our knees, that we may find why he contended with us. (3.) Old sins are not forgotten of God: though not immediately visited, the time of recompense will come.

2. The methods taken to make the Gibbonites satisfaction, and to turn away wrath from the land. David, probably by Divine direction, referred the matter to the injured party, ready to do whatever they required, that they might bless the inheritance of the Lord. They asked no money in satisfaction for damages, nor required other blood for the blood which was shed, than that of Saul’s house, who had oppressed them. If seven of his sons be given as a sacrifice to justice, not to private revenge, they will hang them up before the Lord, that his wrath against the land may cease. Note, (1.) Though the poor oppressed may be without power to relieve themselves, God will plead their injured cause. (2.) Satisfaction must be made them before we can hope for a blessing from God. (3.) The sin of parents often entails misery on their posterity. (4.) No execution must be pursued under the spirit of private revenge; for then though the instance be just on the offender, it would be murder in the prosecutor.

4 Y 3. David

3. David complies with their request, and gives them two sons, which Paul had by a concubine, Rispah, and five grandsons, the children of Merds; whom after her death, Michel brought up for Adriel, her father’s husband, (suring Meghilsa-sheth the son of Jonathan, for his sake. There the Gibeonites hanged together, in Gibeah of Saul, the place where he used to refuse, to expiate the blood he and his bloody house had shed. They fell together in the beginning of the harvest, that the Lord might be intreated for the fruits of the earth, and remove the famine from the land. Note, (1.) They who maliciously delight the ruin of others, often bring themselves and families into the pit they have digged. (2.) A murderer, tho’ of the blood royal, ought not to be spared. (3.) Severe execution for the public good, are sometimes a needful severity.

4. ¶ And Rispah the daughter of Aish took Sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the sun or red, on them by day, nor the beaks of the field by night. 11. And it was told David what Rispah the daughter of Aish, 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 Jaboth-gilead, which had stolen them from the firest of Bethlehem, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain 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 the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish, his father; and they performed all that the king commanded; and after that God was intreated for the land.

c. 12—14. The bodies, contrary to the precept, Deut. xxi. 23, were left hanging on the tree. The side was extraordinary, and as it was a national crime, thus so violate the solemn birth made to the Gibeonites, it was no doubt, by Divine command enjoined for the expiation of it, till the long withheld rain should be sent.

1. Rispah in this bitter affliction, with anguish such as tender mothers feel, spreads a tent of Sackcloth on the rock, near the place, to keep the bodies from being devoured by birds or beaks, till the rain fell, and the bodies might be taken down and butted. Note, (1.) None know what sorrows are in force for them. (2.) To indulge our anguish, by taking pains to revive the memory of our foals, is foolishly and uselessly to turn self-individuals.

2. Rispah’s uncommon tenderness is told David, and far from being frightened at the seed, no former doth God, by the gift of rain, manifest the removal of his judgment, then David punctually informs their bones, with those of Saul and Jonathan, which he reached from under the oak in Jaboth-gilead, where they had been abducted by the same, and said them together in the sepulchre of Kish their ancestor. Note, Thus was the son of God crucified for sins not his own, suffering for the earth which lay upon our final souls; and having by an ignominious death exposed our guilt, the wrath of God was appealed, and he was taken down from the tree.

3. ¶ Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines; and David waxed faint. 16. And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, (the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brats in weight) he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. 17. But A. bithai the son of Zeruish ‘sucoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swear unto him, saying, ‘Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel. 18. And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at ‘Gob; then Sibbechai the Hushathite flew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. 19. And there was again a battle in Goh with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oream a Bethlehemite, flew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20. And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand fix fingers, and on every foot fix toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. 21. And when he ‘deiled Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David flew him. 22. These four were born to the

giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

c. 15—22. The Philistines, though subdued for a season, yet now towards the latter end of David’s reign attempt to shake off their poke, and recover their liberty; emboldment in the attempt by those giants, whose fall is here recorded.

1. David, though old, would himself lead his troops to battle; being singled out by Ishbi-benob the giant, and not now, as in the days of youth and vigour, able to wield the shield and spear, he is in imminent danger of being slain, when Abishai bravely harpings him, and enables him to slay the giant, or smote him himself; the rest will bear either sense. Somet with the danger their king had escaped, the great officers and people about David resolve he shall no more expose a life so valuable, least, by any accident, this light of Israel should be quenched. Note, (1.) Age creeps upon us so silently, that we do not perceive it, till experience proves us unusual to our former undertakings. (2.) The enemies of God’s people, confident of their power, think nothing can reaff them; but they learn, to their cold, that it is in vain to fight against God. (3.) When we are ready to fight in our spiritual conflicts, Jesus, our captain, is near to his own, and through his help, we shall come off conquerors.

2. Three other battles soon followed. The Philistines making a desperate push to recover their losses, but in each they are defeated, and the mighty warriors who led them slain. Saph, by Sibbechai; the brother of Goliath, by Elhanan; and the last prodigy of a man, with six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, and whose insistence was as great as his strength, by Jonathan, David’s nephew: thus the race of the sons of Anak was rooted out, by David and his servants. Note, (1.) Whilst we are in this world, we must expend continual conflicts with the enemies of our souls. (2.) The giants are the most important of our heart shall fall before the victorious grace of Jesus; and at last in death these sons of Anak will be for ever destroyed.