Chapter 21

And there is a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and David seeketh the face of Yehovah, and Yehovah saith, `For Saul and for the bloody house, because that he put to death the Gibeonites.`

And the king calleth for the Gibeonites, and saith unto them -- as to the Gibeonites, they are not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorite, and the sons of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul seeketh to smite them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah --

yea, David saith unto the Gibeonites, `What do I do for you? and with what do I make atonement? and bless ye the inheritance of Yehovah.`

And the Gibeonites say to him, `We have no silver and gold by Saul and by his house, and we have no man to put to death in Israel;` and he saith, `What ye are saying I do to you.`

And they say unto the king, `The man who consumed us, and who devised against us -- we have been destroyed from stationing ourselves in all the border of Israel --

let there be given to us seven men of his sons, and we have hanged them before Yehovah, in the height of Saul, the chosen of Yehovah.` And the king saith, `I do give;`

and the king hath pity on Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the oath of Yehovah that is between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul;

and the king taketh the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal daughter of Saul whom she bare to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite,

and giveth them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hang them in the hill before Yehovah; and the seven fall together, and they have been put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, the commencement of barley-harvest.

And Rizpah daughter of Aiah taketh the sackcloth, and stretcheth it out for herself on the rock, from the commencement of harvest till water hath been poured out upon them from the heavens, and hath not suffered a fowl of the heavens to rest upon them by day, or the beast of the field by night.

And it is declared to David that which Rizpah daughter of Aiah, concubine of Saul, hath done,

and David goeth and taketh the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the possessors of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the broad place of Beth-Shan, where the Philistines hanged them, in the day of the Philistines smiting Saul in Gilboa;

and he bringeth up thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gather the bones of those hanged,

and bury the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the burying-place of Kish his father, and do all that the king commanded, and God is entreated for the land afterwards.

And again have the Philistines war with Israel, and David goeth down, and his servants with him, and they fight with the Philistines; and David is weary,

and Ishbi-Benob, who is among the children of the giant -- the weight of his spear is three hundred shekels weight of brass, and he is girded with a new one -- speaketh of smiting David,

and Abishai son of Zeruiah giveth help to him, and smiteth the Philistine, and putteth him to death; then swear the men of David to him, saying, `Thou dost not go out again with us to battle, nor quench the lamp of Israel.`

And it cometh to pass afterwards, that the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, then hath Sibbechai the Hushathite smitten Saph, who is among the children of the giant.

And the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim, the Beth-Lehemite, smiteth a brother of Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear is like a beam of weavers.

And the battle is again in Gath, and there is a man of stature, and the fingers of his hands are six, and the toes of his feet are six, twenty and four in number, and he also hath been born to the giant,

and he reproacheth Israel, and smite him doth Jonathan son of Shimeah, brother of David;

these four have been born to the giant in Gath, and they fall by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.