1  During the time that David ruled, there was a famine in Israel for three years. David prayed to Yahweh about it. And Yahweh said, “ In order for the famine to end, Saul’s family needs to be punished [MTY] because Saul killed many people from Gibeon city.”

2  The people of Gibeon were not Israelis; they were a small group of the Amor people-group whom the Israelis had solemnly promised to protect. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he ◄was very zealous/wanted very much► to enable the people of Judah and Israel to be the only ones living in that land. So the king summoned the leaders of Gibeon 3  and said to them, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends/up for what was done to your people, in order that you will bless us who belong to Yahweh?”

4  They replied, “You cannot settle our quarrel with Saul and his family by giving us silver or gold. And we do not have the right to kill any Israelis.”

So David asked, “Then/So what do you say that I should do for you?” 5  They replied, “Saul wanted to get rid of us. He wanted to annihilate/kill all of us, in order that none of us would live anywhere in Israel. 6  Hand over to us seven of Saul’s descendants. We will hang them where Yahweh is worshiped in Gibeon, our town, the town where Saul, whom Yahweh previously chose to be king, lived.”

The king replied, “Okay, I will hand them over to you.” 7  The king did not hand over to them Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, because of what he and Mephibosheth’s father Jonathan had solemnly promised to each other. 8  Instead, he took Armoni and another man named Mephibosheth, the two sons that Saul’s slave wife Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, had given birth to, and the five sons that Saul’s daughter Merab had given birth to. Merab’s husband was Adriel, the son of a man named Barzillai from Meholah town. 9  David handed those men over to the men from Gibeon. Then they hanged those seven men on a hill where they worshiped Yahweh. They were all killed during the time of the year that the people started to harvest the barley.

10  Then Rizpah took coarse cloth made from goats’ hair, and spread it on the rock where the corpses lay. She stayed there from the time that people started to harvest the barley until the rains started. She did not allow any birds to come near the corpses during the day, and she did not allow any animals to come near during the night. 11  When someone told David what Rizpah had done, 12  he went with some of his servants to Jabesh in the Gilead region and got the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. The people of Jabesh had stolen their bones from the ◄plaza/public square► in Beth-Shan city, where the men from Philistia had hanged them previously, on the day that they had killed Saul and Jonathan on Gilboa Mountain. 13  David and his men took the bones of Saul and Jonathan, and they also took the bones of the seven men from Gibeon whom the men from Philistia had hanged.

14  They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in Zela town in the land of the tribe of Benjamin. Doing all that the king commanded, they buried their bones in the tomb where Saul’s father Kish was buried. After that, because God saw that Saul’s family had been punished to pay for Saul’s murder of many people from Gibeon, he answered the Israelis’ prayers for their land, and caused the famine to end.

15  The army of Philistia again started to fight against the army of Israel. And David and his soldiers went to fight the Philistines. During the battle, David became weary. 16  One of the Philistia men thought that he could kill David. His name was Ishbi-Benob. He was a descendant of a group of giants. He carried a bronze spear that weighed about ◄7-1/2 pounds/3-1/2 kg.►, and he also had a new sword. 17  But Abishai came to help David, and attacked the giant and killed him. Then David’s soldiers forced him to promise that he would not go with them into a battle again. They said to him, “ If you die, and none of your descendants become king, that would be like [MET] extinguishing the last light in Israel.”

18  Some time after that, there was a battle with the army of Philistia near Gob village. During the battle, Sibbecai, from the Hushah clan, killed Saph, one of the descendants of the Rapha giants.

19  Later there was another battle with the army of Philistia at Gob. During that battle, Elhanan, the son of Jaare-Oregim from Bethlehem, killed the brother of Goliath from Gath city; Goliath’s spear shaft/handle was ◄very thick, like the bar on a weaver’s loom/over two inches thick►.

20  Later there was another battle near Gath. There was a ◄huge man/giant► there who liked to fight in battles. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He was descended from the Rapha giants. 21  But when he ◄made fun of/ridiculed► the men in the Israeli army, Jonathan, the son of David’s older brother Shimeah, killed him.

22  Those four men were some of the descendants of the Rapha giants who had lived in Gath, who were killed [MTY] by David and his soldiers.