Meditate

21. Gibeonites Avenged

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21

Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. The Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)³David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?”⁴The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” He said, “What do you say that I should do for you?”⁵They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel—⁶let seven of his sons be handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord.” The king said, “I will hand them over.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.⁸The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite;⁹he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodies by day, or the wild animals by night.¹¹When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done,¹²David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the people of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.¹³He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who had been impaled.¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish; they did all that the king commanded. After that, God heeded supplications for the land.

Exploits of David’s Men

¹⁵ The Philistines went to war again with Israel, and David went down together with his servants. They fought against the Philistines, and David grew weary.¹⁶Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was fitted out with new weapons, said he would kill David.¹⁷But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall not go out with us to battle any longer, so that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.”

¹⁸ After this a battle took place with the Philistines, at Gob; then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants.¹⁹Then there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.²⁰There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great size, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; he too was descended from the giants.²¹When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimei, killed him.²²These four were descended from the giants in Gath; they fell by the hands of David and his servants.

2. Freedom Through Life in Christ

Fullness of Life in Christ

⁶ As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,⁷rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

106. Psalm 106

16

They were jealous of Moses in the camp,

and of Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.

17

The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan,

and covered the faction of Abiram.

18

Fire also broke out in their company;

the flame burned up the wicked.

19

They made a calf at Horeb

and worshiped a cast image.

20

They exchanged the glory of God

for the image of an ox that eats grass.

21

They forgot God, their Savior,

who had done great things in Egypt,

22

wondrous works in the land of Ham,

and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

23

Therefore he said he would destroy them—

had not Moses, his chosen one,

stood in the breach before him,

to turn away his wrath from destroying them.

24

Then they despised the pleasant land,

having no faith in his promise.

25

They grumbled in their tents,

and did not obey the voice of the Lord.

26

Therefore he raised his hand and swore to them

that he would make them fall in the wilderness,

27

and would disperse their descendants among the nations,

scattering them over the lands.

28

Then they attached themselves to the Baal of Peor,

and ate sacrifices offered to the dead;

29

they provoked the Lord to anger with their deeds,

and a plague broke out among them.

30

Then Phinehas stood up and interceded,

and the plague was stopped.

31

And that has been reckoned to him as righteousness

from generation to generation forever.

32

They angered the Lord at the waters of Meribah,

and it went ill with Moses on their account;

33

for they made his spirit bitter,

and he spoke words that were rash.