2 Samuel 21:1-14 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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1 Samuel 21-24. These Chapter s form an appendix of material from various sources. One of the editors, perhaps the one to whom the book substantially owes its present form, seems to have met with difficulties in an attempted rearrangement of some of the material; finding no other convenient place for 2 Samuel 21:1-14,2 Samuel 24, he added them at the end, as a kind of appendix. He or someone else inserted between them the catalogue of heroes (2 Samuel 21:15-22; 2 Samuel 23:8-39); later on someone inserted 1 Samuel 22 and 1 Samuel 23:8-29 in the middle of the catalogue. The reader must remember that ancient editors and scribes had no assistance from divisions of Chapter s and verses or headings; and that only the consonants were written, so that it was not possible to see at a glance where was the most suitable place for an addition.

The proper continuation of ch. 20 is 1 Kings 1.

1 Samuel 21:1-14. The Story of Rizpah (J). (Cf. above.) This section and ch. 24 are probably by the same hand They are no doubt ancient, but do not belong to the same source as 1 Samuel 9-20. We have here striking illustrations of the primitive theology of Israel: misfortune, e.g. famine, is regarded as necessarily the punishment of sin. When misfortune comes, the obvious course is to inquire what sin has caused it. Owing to the solidarity of the nation and the family, punishment of sin may fall on the fellow-countrymen or the kinsfolk of the sinner. Saul treacherously massacres the Gibeonites; therefore Israel is afflicted with a famine till the Gibeonites and Yahweh are appeased by the execution of seven of Saul's sons and grandsons. This event probably happened not long after David became king of all Israel.

2 Samuel 21:1-9. To ascertain the cause of a prolonged famine, David seeks the face of Yahweh, i.e. inquires of an oracle; and learns that it is due to Saul having massacred the Gibeonites in spite of their covenant (Joshua 9), with Israel. In 2 Samuel 21:1 read with LXX, The guilt of blood rests on Saul and on his house. The Gibeonites decline compensation in money, and demand seven descendants of Saul, to be put to death at the sanctuary at Gibeon as a sacrifice to Yahweh. (So generally ICC, on the basis of LXX.) The meaning of the word, RV hang, denoting the mode of execution, is unknown. Their request was granted and the famine ceased. [J. G. Frazer thinks that the execution was not a mere punishment, but that it partook of the nature of a rain-charm, since magical ceremonies to procure rain are often performed with dead men's bones (Adonis Attis Osiris, i. 22). The famine was no doubt due to lack of rain. A. S. P.] In 1 Samuel 8 read Merab (1 Samuel 18:19) for Michal.

2 Samuel 21:10-14. Rizpah, the mother of five of the victims, watches day and night over their remains till David has them buried with the bones of Saul and Jonathan.

Related Commentaries of 2 Samuel 21:1

2 Samuel 21:1-14

1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquireda of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew 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 to the children of Israel and Judah.)

3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, 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 Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devisedb 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 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 Michalc the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, 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.

10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah 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 air 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 Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, 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.