Plain & Simple: Easy to Read Scripture Chapters 2 Samuel 21

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Rosamond Sherman
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1 If you find that you are having a difficult time understanding what is happening to whom and why, try reading the Plain&Simple chapter along with the Bible chapter. It may help to clarify the narrative and allow you to mine the gold from the text for your own use and inspiration. The text is our own modern language paraphrase with explanatory notes in parentheses. Paraphrased quotes are italicized. Material from another Biblical source, such as the Chronicles version of a narrative found in a Samuel chapter, will be in ellipses [like this]. 2 Samuel 21 A Famine Caused by Israel s Broken Promise to Gibeonites; Famine Ends when the Death of Saul s Descendants Make Atonement for Saul s Family s Sins Verse 1- There was a famine in the land (caused by drought) that lasted three years. (It became so bad that David felt they must be under a judgment from God) and so he asked the Lord the reason for the drought. The Lord told him the drought was because the family of Saul was guilty of murdering the Gibeonites. Things to remember: 1. Though we have no record in the Bible of this incident, Saul led a massacre of the people known as the Gibeonites. Why was this considered so bad, when Joshua was commanded to wipe out all kinds of people? Good question. Answer: In the days of Joshua Israel took an oath not to destroy the Gibeonites, but rather to be their ally and protect them. (Josh 9:3-16) The Gibeonites, in turn, promised to be servants to Israel. God expects both individuals and nations to keep their promises. Saul ignored the covenantal obligation of Israel to protect the Gibeonites. When he attacked them, those who were their sworn protectors suddenly turned on them and started killing them. 2. Israel s leaders made the oath to the Gibeonites in God s name. We have sworn unto them by the Lord God of Israel: now therefore we may not touch them. (Josh 9:19) For Saul to break this oath made in God s name, was to sin against God himself, by shaming His name and making God appear to be a promise breaker. 3. Why did all the people in the land suffer by the famine for the sin of Saul and his family? Some possibilities: Perhaps the people had approved what was done, or not sorrowed for it. Also, remember the scripture that says, When the wicked rule, the people mourn. (Proverbs 29:2) It is true that leaders can lead a nation into a sin that the innocent must bear grief for. Abraham Lincoln, for example, came to believe that the civil war was in part a punishment by God upon our nation for the wickedness of slavery. Yet many who were innocent of this sin themselves nevertheless suffered. 4. When LDS people think about these issues, they are sometimes influenced by Article of Faith Two, which says, We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam s transgression. It is important to realize that all suffering is not punishment. The punishment referred to in this Article of Faith is the punishment meted out at the 1

2 judgment bar of God, when He will be able to perfectly assess who is responsible for what, and what punishment is required as payment. This does not take away the simple fact of life that people suffer for the sins, follies, and mistakes of other people all the time. That kind of suffering is part of life on earth. That kind of suffering does not mean that a person is being punished for anything. Remember when Christ s disciples asked Him who sinned to cause the blindness of a man born with this affliction, the man or his parents? Christ said neither one. 5. In that way, we are all affected by the sin of Adam and Eve every day, for we live in a fallen world because of what they did (and we are grateful for the chance, right?). But when we stand before God to receive His official judgment of our lives, he will not hold us responsible for sins committed by others. It s important to keep this straight, or you will constantly be puzzled and upset by how much innocent suffering there is in the world. You might even get angry at God when you have to suffer for the mistakes of others. Remember, God made the conditions of the world such that it is possible for people to hurt one another; but he also made the atonement so infinitely powerful, that it can heal all the pain and loss that results from this. And by going through the experiences of suffering that this life affords, we can be made like Him. It is worth it. What a plan! Verse 2. David called the Gibeonites to consult with them. The Gibeonites were remnants of the Amorites. {Hivite people-josh 11:19} Now Israel had made a covenant to protect them but Saul, in his misguided zeal, had slaughtered them for the sake of Israel and Judah. (In other words, for their gain.) Things to remember: 1. David did the right thing to go to the Gibeonites directly and confess Israel s national sin in destroying the people they had pledged to protect. 2. Saul may have had good intentions, or at least, good rationalizations. I m doing this for Israel s good, he may have said. Saul s rash actions brought calamity on all who were connected to it. Good intentions are no excuse for selfish, immoral actions. Verse 3-8. David asked the Gibeonite leaders what he can do to make amends for the harm done to them. The Gibeonites tell him that reparations of money will not make up for what happened. Neither do they wish to slaughter Israelite people in return. What can I do then, David says, whatever you ask for, I will do it. They answered him, It was Saul who decided to slaughter us so that we would be destroyed and utterly wiped out from all the land of Israel. (So justice demands that his line be wiped out as he wished to do to us); therefore let seven of his male descendents be given to us and we will execute them by hanging them in Gibeon on the high place of the Lord. And David said, All right. I will give them to you. Because of the oath between Jonathan and David, the king spared Mephibosheth, but he took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of 2

3 Aiah, that she bore to Saul, and also the five sons raised by Saul s daughter Michal (that were born to her sister Merab by her husband Adriel. Michal raised them after her sister s death. Merab was married to Adriel: see 1 Sam 18:19.) Things to remember: 1. We do not have enough facts to assess what personal guilt the heirs of Saul might have had. They may have been present at the massacre. There is strong circumstantial evidence that the family of Saul benefited in a personal way from this massacre. The city of Gibeon, capital of the Gibeonites it less than 10 miles from Gibeah, the hometown of Saul. Gibeon is in a hilly, but fertile area with a natural spring and reservoir that exists to this day. (Jer 41:12) Good reliable sources of water were much prized. Would Saul have been so zealous to wipe out a city of foreigners that was far from his own lands and from which he stood to gain nothing? He, and his family and clan members would be the ones able to annex the lands gained from this massacre. 2. The people of the ancient near east in the time we are reading about, would not have thought it strange at all for descendants of a guilty person to have to pay for the sins of their fathers. That was the way they looked at things. 3. The Bible says this about the effect of murder on a nation: So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. (Numbers 35:33) Saul himself was no longer around to make the required atonement, or payment, but his blood was still alive through his sons and grandsons. The Gibeonites felt it was possible to make payment for Saul s sin of murder through the blood of his family. It may not make sense to us, but it made perfect sense to the people of that time. 4. A similar thing happened to David. Though he did not die himself for the sin of murdering Uriah, many of his children and relatives died tragically in the years that followed, and the prophet Nathan said this was a direct result of David s sin. (2 Sam 12:10) Verse So the seven were handed over to the Gibeonites who hung them on the mount (that was recognized as a special place of sacrifice) and all seven died on the same day, at the beginning of the first days of the barley harvest. (Israelite law commanded that a man hung for a crime be taken down and buried the same day-deut. 21: These Amorites, however, did not hold themselves bound by Israelite law, so they still retained the ancient custom of leaving the bodies to hang until God, entreated by their offering, would send the rain that would end the famine.) Rizpah, mother of two of the men, set up a vigil on a nearby rock, sitting on sackcloth (which indicates mourning) and kept watch over the bodies so that no scavenger birds or animals could come at 3

4 them. She did this until the rains came (and the bodies were taken down). Things to remember: 1. The place where the men were executed was a prominent hill or high place that was recognized as an altar. The Tabernacle of the Congregation was kept there until Solomon s temple was finished, and that is where Solomon offered sacrifices and had his great vision of God. (1 Chron 16:39; 2 Chron 1:3,13; 1 Kings 3:4-5) 2. This reinforces the fact that these people saw this as an offering before the Lord. Verse When David heard what Rizpah, Saul s concubine-wife had done (he was moved), and he went to the people of Jabesh-Gilead and gathered the remains of Saul and Jonathan, for those people had rescued the bodies from Beth-Shan after the Philistines made a public display of them. Then he took their bones, as well as the bodies of the (seven) men who had been hung and exposed, and (gave them a proper burial) in the tomb of Saul s father Kish, in his ancestral home in the town of Zela in the territory of Benjamin. All these things did David command to be done (that proper respect might be shown to the dead). After this, God answered the people s prayers for the drought to end. Verse Once again there was battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went with his men to battle, but in the course of the fight, he grew weary. At this critical point, one of the descendants of the giant, a man named Ishbibenob, whose spearhead weighed (about 7½ pounds) and who was carrying a new sword, attacked David and was about to kill him. But Abishai came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. After that (close call) David s men declared, Never again are you going to battle with us. You are too valuable. The light of Israel must not be extinguished. Things to remember: 1. Think about light in that day. When the sun went down, darkness fell. Lamps were lit and put on lamp stands in high, prominent places so the lamp or torch would shed its light widely into the surrounding darkness. David was the king. His high position allowed the light of his faith in God to illuminate all of Israel. 2. In western nations today, we change leaders every few years. David reigned 40 years! The people greatly depended on the king for their sense of security and strength. Verse 18-end. In time there was another war with the Philistines at Gob. In this battle Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, another descendant of the giant. In a second battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare- Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver's beam. Then, in yet another battle, this time at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot who was also a descendant of the giants. He taunted Israel but Jonathan, the son of 4

5 Shimeah, David s brother, killed him. These four were descendants of Rapha, the giant from Gath, but David s warriors killed them all. Things to remember: 1. David is now too old to kill giants as he once did. But there are other, younger men who can take his place and kill the Philistine giants that still threaten Israel. So with our lives. God always raises up men and women of a new generation to step into the places left vacant by retiring warriors. His work goes on. Note: If you look at Maps 3 & 4 (new # s) in the back of your scriptures or online, note that all these things happen in the small territory assigned to the tribe of Benjamin. Gibeah appears on map 4. Gibeon is about 4 miles to the west and Zila is just to the south. These towns are close together. 5

1/10/09. 2Sam :1-14 The Gibeonites avenged by David.

1/10/09. 2Sam :1-14 The Gibeonites avenged by David. 1 2 1/10/09 2Sam. 21-22 When we started our study of Second Samuel, we laid out a simple outline that is presented by many commentators. I. The triumph s of David. 2Sam. 1-10 II. The troubles of David.