2 Samuel 21 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: 2 Sam 21:1-14

1 During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, ‘It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.’

2 The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.) 3 David asked the Gibeonites, ‘What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?’

4 The Gibeonites answered him, ‘We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.’

‘What do you want me to do for you?’ David asked.

5 They answered the king, ‘As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel, 6 let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul – the Lord’s chosen one.’

So the king said, ‘I will give them to you.’

7 The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the Lord between David and Jonathan son of Saul. 8 But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies on a hill before the Lord. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.

10 Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds touch them by day or the wild animals by night. 11 When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) 13 David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.

14 They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer on behalf of the land.

A. Find Out:

1. What had happened and what did David do? v.1a
2. What did the Lord tell him? v.1b
3. So what did David do? v.2-4
4. What did the Gibeonites ask? v.5,6
5. So what did David do? v.7-9
6. What was the outcome? v.14b 

B. Think:

1. How are promises valued in this passage?
2. Read Josh 9:3-27. How seriously was this viewed by Israel?
3. How did the Lord seem to ratify the serious nature of the oath?

C. Comment:

      We might be tempted to pass this passage by in our studies on David, but it teaches us a number of important things. In Israel ‘s earliest days of entering Canaan, the Gibeonites had fooled Israel into making a covenant with them. Israel had been instructed by the Lord to clear away all the pagan idol-worshipping inhabitants of Canaan, but these particular ones had deceived Israel who had made a promise to protect them. That promise, given in good faith, had over-ridden the command of God and the Gibeonites received Israel ‘s protection from then on.

    In some unrecorded incident, Saul had obviously sought to destroy the Gibeonites. We are now some years on, and we might think it is all past history, but the Lord sees there is unfinished business that Israel needs to attend to. Justice needs to be done – even if it is years later. Thus God brings it to David’s attention by causing a famine. David knew this was contrary to God’s promise of blessing so sought the Lord for the reason, and then immediately went about putting right the wrong.    This might seem hard justice to us, but these were tough times and justice had to be done. As soon as the wrong had been put right, the Lord blesses the land again. If this seems shocking to us, it perhaps indicates our low view of the awfulness of sin. 

D. Application:

1. Promises made should be kept.
2. Injustice needs to be put right before the Lord when it comes to light, even if it is a long time later.