2nd Shamu'AL (2 Samuel) — 21
Daud Avenges the Gibaunites
1 There was a famine during Daud’s reign that lasted for three years, so Daud asked 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH about it. And 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH Dabar to him, “The famine has come because Shaul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibaunites.”
2 So the king summoned the Gibaunites. They were not part of Yashar'AL but were all that was left of the nation of the Amurites. The people of Yashar'AL had sworn not to kill them, but Shaul, in his zeal for Yashar'AL and Yahudah, had tried to wipe them out.
3 Daud asked them, “What can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will barak 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH’s people again?”
4 “And they replied to king Daud; money can not settle this matter between us and the family of Shaul, “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Yashar'AL. “then Daud said to them; What can I do? “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”
5 Then they replied, “It was Shaul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Yashar'AL.
6 So let seven of Shaul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH at Gibaun, on the mountain of 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.” All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”
7 The king spared Yunathan’s son Maphibushath, who was Shaul’s grandson, because of the oath Daud and Yunathan had sworn before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH.
8 But he gave them Shaul’s two sons Armuni and Maphibushath, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. King Daud also gave them the five sons of Shaul’s daughter Marab, the wife of Adrial son of Barzillai from Mehulah.
9 The men of Gibaun executed them on the mountain before 𐤉𐤄𐤅𐤄_YAHUAH. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10 Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.
11 When Daud learned what Rizpah, Shaul’s concubine, had done,
12 he went to the people of Yabash-gilaad and retrieved the bones of Shaul and his son Yunathan. (When the Philistines had killed Shaul and Yunathan on Mount Gilbua, the people of Yabash-gilaad stole their bodies from the public square of Bath-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)
13 So Daud obtained the bones of Shaul and Yunathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibaunites had executed.
14 Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Shaul’s father, at the town of Zala in the land of Banyamin. then 𐤀𐤋𐤅𐤄_ALUAH of Yashar'AL ended the famine in the land.
Battles against Philistine Giants
15 Once again the Philistines were at war with Yashar'AL. And when Daud and his men were in the thick of battle, Daud became weak and exhausted.
16 Ishbi-banub was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword, he had cornered Daud and was about to kill him.
17 But Abishai son of Zaruyahu came to Daud’s rescue and killed the Philistine. Then Daud’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle with us again! Why risk snuffing out the light of Yashar'AL?”
18 After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gub. As they fought, Sibbacai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of the giants.
19 During another battle at Gub, Alhanan son of Yair from Bathlaham killed the brother of Guliath of Gath. The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam!
20 In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants.
21 But when he defied and taunted Yashar'AL, he was killed by Yunathan, the son of Daud’s brother Shimaa.
22 These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but Daud and his warriors killed them.