And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of [the sister of] Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite;
This verse names the seven men handed to the Gibeonites: two sons of Saul by Rizpah, and five grandsons through Saul's daughter. Three hard questions stand behind the list: why a famine drove David to this, who the mother was, and whether children should die for a father's crime.
A famine had run three years before David asked God the reason. The answer, which the writer below quotes from an older translation, named a debt the nation had never settled.
The famine rages for three years running: blow after blow falls on the congregation of God. This trial stirred David's conscience to look for the cause: "David inquired of the Lord" (v. 1). This was his only resource, and God answered him at once: "It is for Saul, and for his house of blood, because he killed the Gibeonites" (v. 1)... God calls Saul's house "bloody," and justifies the house of David.
Saul had acted out of national zeal, but that zeal cost Israel an oath sworn in God's name.
They were among the original inhabitants of the land, and had escaped their doom by deceit. An oath in the Lord's name had promised them their lives, so the name of the Lord was pledged for their protection. Saul, however, "in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah," had tried to destroy them, and had in fact killed some. The famine showed that, despite the time that had passed, He had not forgotten this and could not overlook it.
The ESV reads "the five sons of Merab." Older translations read "Michal." Commentators differ on how to resolve this. One treats the name as a copying slip:
These were no doubt the sons of Merab, not of Michal. Translators agree that the words should be translated "bore to Adriel," as the margin reads, and not "brought up." So it seems most likely that the name Michal here is the mistake of an early copyist. The passage should read, "the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel."
Another keeps both women in the story, with Merab as mother and Michal as the one who raised the boys.
David chose two sons of Saul born to him by Rizpah, Saul's concubine. He also chose five grandsons, born to Saul's daughter Merab after she was given to Adriel. Michal, though, had brought these children up for David. Merab must have died before she was able to bring her children up.
Commentators differ over whether David should have agreed at all. One weighs the demand against the law, and against David's choice of whom to consult:
Their demand, though piously worded, was not according to the law of God. Children were not to be put to death for the sins of their fathers (Deut. 24:16). Saul was the guilty one, and he had died. Only the Lord could say how atonement for the broken covenant and the blood guilt should be made. David, not asking direction from Him but turning to the Gibeonites, had failed again.
David had also bound himself by promise to Saul, not only to Jonathan. The Mephibosheth he spared was Jonathan's son — a different man from the Mephibosheth named in this verse, who was Rizpah's son.
David himself had sworn to Saul that he would not cut off Saul's descendants (1 Samuel 24:21-22). Had he completely forgotten this? He did spare Mephibosheth because of his oath to Jonathan, but was his oath to Saul not just as binding?
Not every writer reads the outcome this way. One sees the executions as covering the guilt of Saul's attack on the Gibeonites, or Hivites, under the law about bloodshed in the land:
The Gibeonites executed Saul's children and grandchildren. This atoned for that king's breaking faith with the Hivites and killing them, and God answered prayer for the land. (2 Sam. 21.) This was a special case. Yet it fit the provision in the law for cleansing the land from blood when the murderer was known. In such circumstances there could be no atonement for the land except by the blood of the one who shed it. (Num. 35:33.)
Rizpah is named first in the verse. Her care reached past her own two sons.
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, mother of two of them... does something so devoted that her name deserves to live on in the memory of believers. She makes herself guardian of the seven bodies. Her motive is not simply that two of the condemned are her own sons, for she watches over the other five as well... She guards their bodies from every violation. The sackcloth of mourning she spreads out is her only means of doing this painful task.
- Oath. God's name stood pledged to protect the Gibeonites. Saul's zeal broke that oath, and the debt went unpaid.
- Delay. Time did not cancel the debt. The famine showed God had not forgotten it.
- Inquiry. David asked God the cause, then asked the Gibeonites for the cure. Writers trace the tragedy here to that second question, never put to God.
- Names. The ESV reads "Merab." Commentators differ over whether "Michal" is a copyist's slip, or a note that she raised her sister's sons.
- Devotion. Rizpah guarded all seven bodies, not only her own two — the one act of faithfulness in a chapter of broken faith.
and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before Jehovah. And they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the first days of the harvest, in the beginning of barley harvest.
Three years of famine drove David to ask God why, and the answer reached back to Saul, who had killed the Gibeonites and broken Israel's word to them. This verse records the price: seven of Saul's descendants handed over and put to death as the barley harvest began.
The crime belonged to a dead king and a past generation, yet the nation paid for it. One writer explains why the passing of time did not cancel the debt.
Many years had passed since Saul's bloody deed. The record of his reign does not mention it. The people had perhaps forgotten it, and perhaps David never knew of it. But God had not forgotten it, and this deed still stood before His eyes… The people share the responsibility for Saul's act, because it took place on the land of the congregation of Israel.
The people wronged were not even Israelites. They had won their place in Israel by deception — which is what makes the case so striking.
What a solemn lesson! God will not allow anyone to wrong the people He loves — and He will not allow anyone to wrong even the enemies who deceived them… That God should care so strongly about a wrong done so long ago, and in such circumstances, to the Gibeonites, is to my mind a most healthy lesson about the God we have to deal with.
David asked the Lord why the famine came, then turned to men for the cure. One writer faults the Gibeonites' request, David's answer to it, and names who paid.
Their demand, though piously worded, was not according to the law of God. Children were not to be put to death for the sins of their fathers (Deuteronomy 24:16). Saul was the guilty one and he had died. It was for the Lord to say how atonement should be made for the broken covenant and the blood guilt. David did not ask Him for direction. He turned to the Gibeonites instead, and failed again… David carried out the terrible request. He spared Mephibosheth. The victims were two sons of Rizpah, one of Saul's concubines, and five sons of Merab, Saul's eldest daughter.
Another writer asks what David should have done instead.
Surely that was not the first thing to settle. Putting himself into the hands of the people who had been wronged was not really the way to put the wrong right. Was there no law in Israel that covered such a case? And if there was none, how much more did they need to seek help from the highest Wisdom in a matter as unusual as this?
Commentators differ here. Some read the deaths as a real, though exceptional, cleansing of land stained by blood.
When the Gibeonites executed Saul's children and grandchildren, it made atonement for that king's broken faith with the Hivites and for his killing of them, and God answered prayer for the land (2 Samuel 21). This was a special case. Yet it fits perfectly with the provision in the law for cleansing the land of blood when the murderer was known. In such a case there could be no atonement for the land except by the blood of the man who shed it (Numbers 35:33).
Others answer that the same law cannot stretch to cover sons and grandsons.
True, "the land cannot be cleansed of the blood shed in it, except by the blood of the man who shed it." But "the blood of the man who shed it" means the very opposite of the blood of his descendants. The word of God does not contradict itself like that, and the Spirit of God flatly rejects the principle.
The Gibeonites dressed their demand in religious language, but their handling of the bodies ignored Israel's law on execution.
What they did does not agree with the rule given in Deuteronomy — though we can hardly be surprised that they ignored the law's requirements: "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death and is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree. You shall bury him that same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land."
The verse dates the deaths to the first days of harvest. One writer refuses to let that season excuse the broken law.
The "barley harvest" might be an excuse for disobeying Scripture's commands in this way, but excuses do not justify disobedience.
- Remembered. God had not forgotten Saul's crime. The nation on whose soil it happened still carried the guilt, long after the guilty king was dead.
- Righteous. He defended even men who had joined Israel by deception, because Israel had made a covenant with them.
- Rushed. David asked God why the famine came, but asked the injured party how to end it.
- Disputed. Commentators differ on whether these deaths atoned for the land. Some call it a special cleansing. Others say the law required the blood of the murderer himself, not his descendants.
- Unexcused. The barley harvest gave the Gibeonites a reason to leave the bodies hanging, but excuses never justify disobedience.
Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens, and suffered neither the fowl of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
Three years of famine open the chapter, and God's answer to David is that Saul's house had killed the Gibeonites. Seven of Saul's descendants are executed and left hanging on a hill, and into that scene steps one woman with a piece of sackcloth.
Joshua had sworn to spare the Gibeonites after they tricked Israel into a treaty. Saul decided the promise did not bind him.
Joshua and the elders of Israel had allowed the Gibeonites to live in the land, though they were Amorites. They had deceived Joshua into thinking they came from another territory, and Joshua swore by the Lord when he made a treaty with them (Joshua 9). Once the oath was sworn, no one could undo it. But Saul was zealous for Israel and Judah, and decided he could kill off these people who were not Israelites. This was not zeal for God, because it meant breaking an oath sworn in God's name. God delayed the punishment, but Israel still had to feel the responsibility for it when the famine came.
Leaving the bodies hanging broke a command God had given about executions.
What they did was against the law, and one can hardly be surprised that they cared so little for what the law required. Deuteronomy says that when a man is put to death and hanged on a tree, "his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God" (Deut. 21:22-23).
Two of the seven were her own sons. She guarded all seven.
She is not devoted to this task only because two of her sons are among the condemned. She watches over the other five as well as over the bodies of her own sons. She cares about the descendants of the one who had been "the chosen of the LORD." She shows her piety toward her husband and master's house. What is more, Rizpah is a woman of faith. She guards their bodies from all defilement and keeps watch over them. The sackcloth of mourning that she spreads for herself is her only means of carrying out this painful task. At the very least, their burial must be honourable.
Her watch ran from harvest to the rains. That is months, not nights.
Rizpah, the concubine of Saul, kept watch beside her dead from April till autumn, when it began to rain again. Six months she stayed there. Her only resting place was the coarse sackcloth, and above her hung the decaying bodies of the seven men, including her two sons. Through the hot eastern summer she kept her terrible watch. By day she chased away the screeching birds of prey, and at night the hungry howls of wolves and jackals broke her rest. Could there be a more moving picture!
Sackcloth was the sign of mourning, and she used it in an unusual way.
She took sackcloth (the sign of mourning) and spread it on a rock, rather than wearing it herself. She meant to keep it there until the drought was over and the rain came.
One writer reads the line about water from heaven as what she was hoping for, not as what came while she watched:
So I think we must translate the words, not as the record of fact but of expectation. What happened did not match that expectation. The drought ceased only after the bones were buried with those of Saul and Jonathan. That was when, as the record says, "God responded to the plea for the land."
Kelly holds that the judgment was owed to the Gibeonites, and that her sorrow was something more than owed:
This was not a slight thing to David. No doubt God's name demanded vindication, and it was right. It was due to the Gibeonites that they should be satisfied. God was compelling them to judge the case so that the guilt might be atoned for. But her act was more than right. It was beautiful and fitting that Rizpah should spread the deep sorrow of her heart before God.
She could not undo anything. But word of her watch reached David.
This woman's deed deserved a place in the king's heart. In the middle of her mourning, what joy! She has found a heart that understands her and delights to reward her — grace answering to her desires. The bones of Saul's descendants are united with those of their fathers in the tomb of Kish. This woman was on God's path and obtained the answer her faith longed for.
- Cause. Saul broke an oath sworn in God's name to the Gibeonites. Years later the whole nation felt it in three years of famine.
- Watch. Her six months on the rock were more than a mother's grief. She guarded five bodies that were not her sons', out of loyalty to the house of the LORD's chosen king.
- Sackcloth. She spread her mourning under her instead of wearing it, and waited for rain from heaven. The drought broke only after the bones were buried.
- Reach. She could change nothing herself. Someone told the king what she had done, and grace met what her faith longed for — an honourable grave in the tomb of Kish.
- Result. God's name had to be vindicated and the Gibeonites satisfied; but the beautiful thing, one writer says, was a woman spreading the deep sorrow of her heart before God.
And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
A report reaches the king: a woman has been guarding seven unburied bodies. This verse turns on what she did, and on how the news moved David.
She was Saul's concubine, and two of the seven executed men were her sons. Commentators note that her care reached further than her own children.
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of these... performs an act of devotion that makes her name deserve to live on in the memory of believers. She makes herself guardian of the seven bodies. Her devotion is not because her two sons are among the condemned. She watches over the other five as well as over the bodies of her own sons. She cares about the descendants of the one who had been "the chosen of the LORD." She shows her loyalty to her husband and master's house. What is more, Rizpah is a woman of faith.
What she had done stretched over months.
Rizpah, the concubine of Saul, kept watch by her dead from April till fall, when the rain began again. She stayed there six months. Her only resting place was the coarse sackcloth, and above her lay the rotting bodies of the seven men, including her two sons. All through the hot Eastern summer she kept her terrible watch. By day she chased away the screeching birds of prey. By night the hungry howls of wolves and jackals disturbed her. Could there be a sadder picture!
She had to keep watch because no one had buried the bodies. Israel's law limited how long an executed man's body could hang.
What they did goes against the rule given in Deuteronomy — though it is no surprise that they ignored the law: "And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance."
The phrase describing how long she stayed is read by one writer as her intention rather than as a record of what happened.
The thought... is easily gathered from Rizpah's action, who "spread sackcloth for her upon the rock until water should be poured upon them out of the heavens." So I think we must translate the words, not as the record of fact but of expectation. The fact does not seem to have answered to the expectation; for it was after the bones were buried, with those of Saul and Jonathan, that "God was entreated for the land," or, in other words, that the drought ceased.
Commentators differ over the executions themselves. They agree that the news about Rizpah moved David.
This was not a small thing to David. No doubt God's name demanded vindication, and it was right... God was forcing them to judge the case so that the guilt might be put away. But it was more than right — it was beautiful and fitting that Rizpah should spread the deep sorrow of her heart before God like this. Here David also shows what was lovely and becoming in the king of Israel. He was far from insulting the memory of the late king. The very one who had handed over Saul's sons to die went and took the bones of Saul.
Her waiting was not wasted.
Rizpah's faith is rewarded... This woman's deed deserves a place in the king's heart. In the middle of her mourning, what joy! She has found a heart that understands her and delights to reward her — grace answering her desires... This woman was on God's path, and she received the answer her faith longed for.
One writer draws attention to the names in the verse — Rizpah means "live coal," and Aiah is a bird of prey — and places the moral advantage with her.
Rizpah even prepares the way for blessing. She touches David's heart to do what little justice can still be done to the dishonoured dead... The keen eye that sees things as they are, and the glow of living righteousness, are with this grieving woman, not with king David or the Gibeonites in this matter. And not until things are set right here can God respond to the plea for the land!
Her refusal to let birds or beasts touch the bodies is read as a picture of steady self-judgment.
The birds of prey stand for Satan's efforts to block true self-judgment by such violent means as devouring the prey... and the wild animals picture men who act like beasts and defeat the purpose of self-judgment, also by violence. Rizpah kept them away. That tells us not to let anything turn us aside from true self-judgment until God's government has achieved its purpose.
- Watch — Rizpah guarded all seven bodies, not only her own sons, out of loyalty to Saul's house and out of faith.
- Wrong — her watch was necessary because the bodies were left exposed, against the law that required burial the same day.
- Word — the news of what she had done reached the king, and it was no small thing to him.
- Welcome — she found a heart that understood her: grace answered her desire, and her faith got what it longed for.
- Watchfulness — the drought broke only when the wrong was put right, so hold to honest self-judgment until God's government has done its work.
And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the open place of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, the day the Philistines had smitten Saul in Gilboa;
David had just given up seven men of Saul's line to die. His next move was not toward his own throne. He went for the bones of Saul and of Jonathan, kept by the men of Jabesh-gilead. Why does the account pause over old bones, and why does the land only get relief after the burial?
One writer traces the line from Saul's broken oath to this burial.
Saul, in his formal and fleshly zeal, though it was for God, had not acted in the fear of God. This is what especially marks off godly zeal from zeal for the outward interests of His kingdom. Saul forgets the oaths Israel made to the Gibeonites. God remembers it, and does not despise the poor Gibeonites. David also recognises the obligation... The whole house of Saul perishes, except the little remnant attached to David. As for that remnant, Rizpah's touching and faithful affection awakens in David's heart the memory of brighter moments in poor Saul's career. So he pays the last honours to his memory. After this God answered prayer for the land.
The man who handed Saul's descendants over is the one who now gathers Saul's remains.
At this point David shows on his part what was lovely and fitting in the king of Israel. He was far from insulting the memory of the late king. The very one who had given up his sons to die went and took the bones of Saul. That was the very moment he took them, showing the last honour to the departed king of Israel and his family.
The verse names Beth-shan, where the Philistines displayed the bodies. Its name carries a bitter irony.
At last, Saul and his sons are dead. Now on that shameful field of Gilboa we see the Philistine grave-robbers appear. They strip the bodies and expose them to every insult. They strip the armour from the poor dismembered body and carry it off as a trophy to the house of Ashtoreth, their goddess. The body itself they nail to the walls of Beth-shan, "the house of quiet" — what a quiet! Not the quiet that comes from Him who "gives to His beloved sleep."
The verse credits the men of Jabesh-gilead with taking the bodies away. One writer sees grace in the way God notices what they did.
This is beautiful, this is grace, that God should specially single out the deed of these men, even for a king with whom He was so deeply offended. How little we enter into the mind of God! Very likely we should have thought the men of Jabesh-Gilead were very foolish. Why should they interfere? No doubt many a follower of David would have blamed the men of Jabesh-Gilead. David did not. David understood the mind of God.
Burying Saul in the family tomb was a public act. Commentators differ over the hanging of the seven: one writer sees David submitting to an obligation he owed, another calls the act useless and disobedient.
In this way David publicly identified himself with Saul and his house. He acknowledged that his kingdom was an extension of Saul's kingdom. So he took responsibility for Saul's earlier wrongs. This would no doubt ease some of Rizpah's distress. More than that, it led God to answer prayer and end the drought. The killing of the seven men had not only been useless, it was disobedience to God's word. This later action of David was of more real value in the eyes of God.
Rizpah had guarded the exposed bodies through a long season. What she could not accomplish, the king did.
Rizpah's faith finds its reward. David is told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, has done. This woman's deed is worth recording in the king's heart. In the middle of her mourning, what joy! She has found a heart that understands her and delights to reward her — grace answering her desires. The bones of Saul's descendants now join those of their fathers in the tomb of Kish. This woman was on God's path and obtained the answer her faith longed for.
That burial closes the account, and the rain returns.
From now on the Lord can be favourable to the land. Judgment has been carried out, but grace has also run its course. In His ways God never stops at judgment. Judgment prepares the way for the triumph of grace.
- Sin remembered. Saul broke Israel's oath to the Gibeonites and forgot it. God did not forget, and the reckoning fell on Saul's house.
- Grace remembered too. God singles out the men of Jabesh-gilead, who took Saul's body off a Philistine wall. Others would have called them foolish for interfering.
- Honour, not insult. The king who handed over Saul's sons is the one who gathers Saul's bones. He chose that exact moment to show Saul the last honour.
- Responsibility owned. David buried Saul in the tomb of Kish. He was taking Saul's house, and Saul's wrongs, into his own kingdom.
- Grace has the last word. David answers Rizpah's grief, the bones rest with their fathers, and rain returns to the land. With God, judgment clears the ground for grace.