2 Samuel 21:1-14

1Now there was 1a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and 2David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloody 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 sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and 3the sons of Israel had 4made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to 5kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah). 3David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And how can I make amends, so that you will bless 6the inheritance of the Lord?” 4Then the Gibeonites said to him, “7For us it is not a matter of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” Nevertheless David said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” 5So they said to the king, “8The man who destroyed us and who planned 9to eliminate us so that we would not exist within any border of Israel-- 6let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will 10hang them 11before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, 12the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

7But the king spared 13Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, 14because of the oath of the Lord which was between them, between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. 8So the king took the two sons of 15Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of 1617Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the 18Meholathite. 9Then he handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they 19hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at 20the beginning of barley harvest.

1021And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until 22it rained on them from the sky; and 23she 24allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the wild animals by night. 11When it was reported to David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, 12then David went and took 25the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of 26Beth-shan, 27where the Philistines had hanged them on the day 28the Philistines struck and killed Saul in 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 29hanged. 14Then they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the country of Benjamin in 30Zela, in the grave of his father Kish; So they did everything that the king commanded, and after that 31God responded to prayer for the land.