David Avenges the Gibeonites

1 Then there was a famine in the dayes of Dauid three yeeres, yeere after yeere, and Dauid enquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloodie house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said vnto them, (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworne vnto them: and Saul sought to slay them, in his zeale to the children of Israel and Iudah)

3 Wherefore Dauid said vnto the Gibeonites, What shall I doe for you? and wherwith shall I make the atonement, that ye may blesse the inheritance of the Lord ?

4 And the Gibeonites saide vnto him, We will haue no siluer nor golde of Saul, nor of his house, neither for vs shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What you shall say, that will I doe for you.

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed vs, and that deuised against vs, that we should be destroied from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

6 Let seuen men of his sonnes bee deliuered vnto vs, and wee will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, whome the Lord did chuse. And the king said, I will giue them.

7 But the king spared Mephibosheth the sonne of Ionathan the sonne of Saul, because of the Lords othe that was between them, betweene Dauid, and Ionathan the sonne of Saul.

8 But the king tooke the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare vnto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the fiue sonnes of Michal the daughter of Saul, whome she brought vp for Adriel the sonne of Barzillai the Meholathite.

9 And hee deliuered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord: and they fell all seuen together, and were put to death in the dayes of haruest, in the first dayes, in the beginning of barley haruest.

10 ¶ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah tooke sackecloth, and spread it for her vpon the rocke, from the beginning of haruest, vntill water dropped vpon them out of heauen, and suffered neither the birds of the aire to rest on them by day, nor the beastes of the fielde by night.

11 And it was tolde Dauid what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done.

12 ¶ And Dauid went and tooke the bones of Saul, and the bones of Ionathan his sonne from the men of Iabesh Gilead, which had stollen them from the street of Bethshan where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slaine Saul in Gilboa.

13 And hee brought vp from thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Ionathan his sonne, and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

14 And the bones of Saul and Ionathan his sonne buried they in the countrey of Beniamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they perfourmed all that the king commanded: and after that, God was entreated for the land.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16).

Agere Sequitur Esse