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2 Samuel 21

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2 Samuel 21 Overview

A three-year famine leads David to inquire of the LORD, who identifies bloodguilt from Saul’s attempt to destroy the Gibeonites despite Israel’s covenant with them. The Gibeonites request seven male descendants of Saul, whom David delivers to them, while sparing Mephibosheth because of his oath to Jonathan. Rizpah guards the bodies, and David later gathers Saul’s and Jonathan’s bones for honorable burial. The chapter then records several battles in which David’s warriors defeat Philistine giants.

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Before you read 2 Samuel 21

Coming from

Chapter 20 ended the last major internal rebellion recorded in David’s reign and restored governmental order.

In this chapter

The narrative addresses unresolved covenant bloodguilt from Saul’s reign, then moves into a collection of later Philistine battles that highlight David’s increasing dependence on mighty warriors around him.

Leads into

Chapter 22 presents David’s great song of deliverance, closely paralleling Psalm 18 and looking back over God’s preservation through many enemies and dangers.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Joshua 9 records Israel’s sworn covenant with the Gibeonites, which Saul later violated in an event not narrated in detail elsewhere. The famine is therefore explicitly interpreted as covenant judgment for bloodshed. The execution of Saul’s descendants is one of the book’s hardest passages and should not be turned into a general legal rule; the chapter presents a specific national bloodguilt crisis under direct divine inquiry and Gibeonite reparation. Verse 8 in the KJV names ‘the five sons of Michal… whom she brought up for Adriel,’ while 1 Samuel 18:19 identifies Merab as Adriel’s wife; the wording should be handled carefully rather than covered with invented certainty.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Truth 1

Old covenant oaths carried real public weight, and Saul’s violence against the Gibeonites created consequences beyond his own lifetime.

Truth 2

David keeps his separate covenant oath concerning Jonathan by sparing Mephibosheth even while addressing Saul’s house.

Truth 3

Rizpah’s persistent care for the dead moves David to provide honorable burial for Saul’s wider family remains.

Truth 4

The giant-war summaries show a transition: David is no longer the lone champion of 1 Samuel 17, and faithful warriors now protect the aging king.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Connection 1

Joshua 9 is essential background for the Gibeonite covenant that Saul violated.

Connection 2

Deuteronomy 24:16 establishes a general rule against judicially putting children to death merely for their fathers’ sins, which is why this exceptional covenant-reparation episode should not be generalized carelessly.

Connection 3

1 Samuel 20 and 2 Samuel 9 explain David’s oath toward Jonathan’s house and why Mephibosheth is specifically spared.

Connection 4

1 Chronicles 20 contains parallel notices about several of the Philistine giant battles.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep this clear 1

Do not turn the execution of Saul’s descendants into a universal principle of punishing descendants for ancestors’ sins. The passage concerns a specific covenant bloodguilt crisis disclosed by God in Israel’s national history.

Keep this clear 2

The text does not provide every legal or historical detail behind the Gibeonites’ requested reparation. Acknowledge the difficulty rather than pretending the passage answers questions it does not address.

Keep this clear 3

The KJV wording concerning Michal and Adriel should be read alongside 1 Samuel 18:19. Some understand Michal as having raised children connected with Merab’s marriage, but the chapter does not explain the family arrangement in detail.

Read 2 Samuel 21 watching for…

How David learns the cause of the famine.

The earlier oath that makes Saul’s treatment of the Gibeonites especially serious.

Why Mephibosheth is spared.

Rizpah’s actions after the executions.

David’s later treatment of Saul’s and Jonathan’s bones.

The repeated role of David’s warriors in the closing battle summaries.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-9A famine leads David to deal with the Gibeonites and Saul’s house 10-14Rizpah guards the bodies, and Saul and Jonathan are buried 15-22David’s servants defeat Philistine giants

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.

But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:

And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.

Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.

And Ishbibenob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.

And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.

And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him.

These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.