David Avenges the Gibeonites. There was famine in the days of David for three consecutive years; and David sought the presence (face) of the LORD [asking the reason]. The LORD replied, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” Sam 21:1
THE REIGN OF DAVID
INTRODUCTION
The Second Book of Samuel is devoted entirely to the reign of David. His coronation, first by Judah and then by all of the tribes, his wars and conquests, his care for the religious life of the people, his sins, and the calamities he suffered, are impartially set forth in vivid and convincing narrative.
“A very notable thing in the books of Samuel,” says James Robertson, “is the prominence given to music and song. There is in these books an unusual number of poetical pieces ascribed to this period, and all the indications put together give ample justification for the fame of David as the sweet singer of Israel, and for the ascription to him of the origin of that volume of sacred song which never ceased in Israel, and has become embodied in the Psalms.”
44. What measures did David take to remove a prolonged famine?
DAVID AVENGES THE GIBEONITES
There was famine in the days of David for three consecutive years; and David sought the presence (face) of the LORD [asking the reason]. The LORD replied, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons (descendants) of Israel but of the remnant (survivors) of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn [an oath] to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah had sought to strike down the Gibeonites).
So David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How can I make it good so that you will bless the LORD’S inheritance (Israel)?”
The Gibeonites said to him, “We will not accept silver or gold belonging to Saul or his household (descendants); nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” David said, “I will do for you whatever you say.”
So they said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to exterminate us from remaining in any territory of Israel,
let seven men [chosen] from his sons (descendants) be given to us and we will hang them before the LORD [that is, put them on display, impaled with broken legs and arms] in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen one of the LORD.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD’S oath that was between David and Saul’s son Jonathan.
So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
He handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD, and the seven died together. They were put to death in the first days of the grain harvest, the beginning of the barley harvest [in the spring].
izpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest [in the spring] until [the autumn] rain fell on them; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on their bodies by day, nor the beasts of the field [to feed on them] by night.
David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
DAVID AVENGES THE GIBEONITES
A DEVOTED MOTHER
The time of this famine cannot be fixed with certainty. Probably it took place before Absalom’s rebellion. The reason for it was found in Saul’s slaughter of the Gibeonites. See 1Sa_22:19, etc. Though their fathers had obtained the promise of immunity from Joshua and the princes by fraud, yet it was regarded as binding, and its violation was looked upon as a grave offense, involving the whole nation in the charge of perjury. The remnant of the Gibeonites were therefore allowed to fix their own terms. This tendency to connect a national calamity with a national crime has always obtained. There seems to be a universal consciousness that uncaused judgments do not befall.
Note that Merab should be substituted for Michal, 2Sa_21:8; 1Sa_18:19. Out of all the scenes of cruelty and blood with which this age was characterized, the love of motherhood shines forth undimmed. It is one of the most precious of God’s gifts to man. But what shall we not say of that divine love which clings to us in our most hopeless condition?
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