Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 20 Nov. 2022
“I, Sam Brownback, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF KANSAS, do hereby proclaim and recognize the special legal and political relationship Indian tribes have with the State of Kansas and the solemn covenant with the land we share, and commend and honor Native Peoples for the thousands of years that they have stewarded and protected the land of Kansas, and expresses regret for former wrongs and apologize on behalf of the people of Kansas to all Native Peoples for the many instances of violence, maltreatment, deception and neglect inflicted on Native Peoples, and resolve to move forward with the recognized tribes in a positive and constructive relationship that will help us fairly and effectively resolve differences to achieve our mutual goals and harmoniously steward and protect this land we call Kansas.”
As a peace offering, Governor Brownback gave a bison from the Kansas herd to each of the tribes represented at the proceedings of the 150th anniversary celebration of Kansas.
I am not a student of American tribal history, but I’ve heard that the U.S. government has broken a number of treaties it has made with indigenous peoples, so I think there is something admirable about Brownback’s intentions. My only questions are whether one bison is enough to atone for whatever wrongs have been done, and how true justice can be accomplished.
This also raises the question of what should be done to atone for mistreatment of Africans that were brought to our country as slaves in the past centuries. It is not right for eternal guilt to be projected upon all European-heritage peoples in our country for this, but is there a way to atone for ancestral sins and resolve the issue before God once and for all?
And here’s another question: what about the tens of millions of aborted families in our nation?
Could God’s ultimate authority in justice be a reason why our nation is experiencing so many stressful things at this time in history?
What should be done to atone for the guilt of all those innocent lives taken?
Is that just “water under the bridge”? Is there anything that even CAN be done?
Our
scripture from the first half of 2 Samuel 21 addresses many of these
issues:
Now, there was a famine during the days of David, year
after year for three years, so David sought the face of Yahweh. And
Yahweh said, “The bloodguilt is accountable to Saul –
that is, to his house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.”
So the king called for the Gibeonites, and he talked to them.
(Concerning the Gibeonites, they themselves were not from the
children of Israel; instead, they were from the remnant of the
Amorites, but the children of Israel had made an oath with them.
Nevertheless, Saul had sought to massacre them in his jealousy for
the children of Israel and Judah.) Anyway, David said to the
Gibeonites, “What should I do for y’all? And with what
should I make atonement, that y’all may bless the inheritance
of Yahweh?” And the Gibeonites said to him, “There was
no silver or gold for {us} with Saul or with his household, and
there was no man in Israel for us to put to death.” But he
said, “What are y’all saying I should do for you?”
Presently they said to the king, “[Because of] that man who
finished us off and who plotted against us, we were destroyed from
stationing ourselves within any precinct of Israel. Let there be
given to us seven men from among his sons, and let us dismember them
for Yahweh at Gibeah of Saul, chosen by Yahweh.” And the king
said, “I myself will do the giving.” So the king spared
the life of Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul, on account of
the oath to Yahweh which was between them – between David and
Jonathan son of Saul. But the king picked Armoni and Mephibosheth,
two of the sons of Ritspah daughter of Aiah whom she had borne to
Saul, and five of the sons of Mikal daughter of Saul, whom she had
borne for Adriel son of Barzillai the Mekholathite, and he gave them
into the control of the Gibeonites, and they dismembered them on the
hill before the presence of Yahweh. Thus the seven of them fell
together. And as for them, they were put to death during the days of
harvest, during its beginnings, {at} the start of barley harvest.
Then Ritspah daughter of Aiah took her sack-cloth and spread it for
herself over the landmark-rock, from the start of harvest until the
waters rained upon them from the skies, and she did not allow a bird
of the skies to alight upon them by day or a wild animal by night.
Now, when it was communicated to David what was being done by
Ritspah daughter of Aiah, concubine of Saul, David went and got the
bones of Saul (and the bones of Jonathan his son) from the
city-commissioners of Jabesh Gilead, (who had taken them from the
public-square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up
there on the day that the Philistines had struck Saul down on
Gilboa), and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the
bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered up the bones of the
dismembered men, and they buried {them with} the bones of Saul and
of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in Tsela, in the tomb of
Kish his father. Thus they did all that the king had commanded, and
God responded to prayers for the land after this.
Chapter 21 opens with a brief description of a related problem in Iron-age Palestine. David’s kingdom had experienced a famine for three years in a row.
The first year, maybe people thought it was just an off year. Then the next year they probably got frustrated. But after three years straight, David started worrying that maybe God was punishing them for something.
How much better it would have been if David had talked with God about it after the first poor harvest, before so many people reached starvation.
Now, there is a balance between seeing every inconvenience as God punishing you for something you did wrong, and, on the other hand, paying attention to the ways God uses our circumstances to alert us that we need to make a course correction.
The fact that you misplaced your keys doesn’t necessarily mean that a new cosmic struggle between the forces of Satan and the angels of God has just engaged. It probably just means you were preoccupied enough, when you set your keys down, that you didn’t put them where you normally put them. However, the way that you respond to the loss of order in your life (and the way you respond to the thought of being late to your appointment) is an opportunity to either trust in your flesh and display the fruits of the flesh or to trust in Jesus and display the fruits of His Spirit.
However, there have been catastrophic events throughout the course of history – from storms, to wars, to diseases – that God’s people have seen as instances of God’s chastisement – and occasions for days of prayer and fasting and repentance from sin in the community. And, if you read history from a Christian perspective, you will find many instances where God relieved His people from stressful situations when they did repent.
Our Thanksgiving tradition is part of that history, stemming from one of the first European communities established in America. Plymouth, Massachusetts experienced a drought in the year 1623, which left the crops dying in the fields, so Governor Bradford called the community to engage in a day of fasting and prayer. God brought rain soon thereafter, which saved the crops. So Governor Bradford issued the following proclamation: "Inasmuch as the great Father hath given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and hath made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He hath protected us from the ravages of the savages, hath spared us from pestilence and disease, hath granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience; now, I, your magistrate do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings."
At any rate, when David finally asks God about the famine his people is experiencing, God communicates – probably through a priest or a prophet – that Saul is the culprit. The famine is a consequence of Saul’s illegal campaign to exterminate the Gibeonite people.
Now, we don’t have any Biblical record of that campaign; all we have is this mention that it happened at some point in the past1.
However, we do know, from the book of Joshua, chapter 9, that the Gibeonites were a Canaanite people group2 in the central Jordan area who weaseled their way into a treaty with the Israelites in which they gave up their independence in order to keep their lives.
The Israelites were not happy about the arrangement, but since they had made this covenant with the Gibeonites, they were obligated to keep their word and to protect the lives of the Gibeonite people, as long as the Gibeonites remained faithful at hauling water and chopping wood for them.
Since this treaty was made “before the LORD,” there could be no compromising on its terms.
God Himself is a promise-keeping God, and it is His character to make good on His word and never break trust.
For instance, in Psalm 89:34, God said, “I will not break my covenant nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips.”
In Jeremiah 33:20, God says you could sooner stop daytime and nighttime than get God to break His covenants.
In Luke 1:72, Zachariah prophesied that Jesus was born because God still remembered the covenant He had made two thousand years previously with Abraham, and God was making sure to keep His promise.
And Galatians 3:15 reminds us that men are supposed to keep their contracts with one another without nullifying or adding to them, and that God takes the fulfillment of promises to a much higher level.
This is why God’s people make such a big deal of keeping our promises – whether that is business contracts or national treaties or marriage vows, or even church membership vows.
As our nation has become more-consistently secularized, we have made less and less of making promises and we have begun taking for granted that people will not keep their promises either, and so, more and more,
churches which once made a big deal of church membership no longer even keep membership rolls,
and couples no longer make marriage vows – they just move in together and assume that sooner or later they will move out and live with somebody else.
And businesses will also let go of the contract model. Why write down commitments when everybody knows that both parties are lying to each other and neither party has any intention of fulfilling those commitments?
But our standard is not the consensus of our contemporaries; our standard is God, and God’s son Jesus is in the position of judge over all the earth, so it is to Jesus that we are ultimately accountable as to whether we keep our covenants or not. And Jesus has promised to hold us accountable; we can’t just say that we changed our minds and pretend not to be bound to our word. Here’s what He says about covenant breakers and those who do not keep their word:
Psalm 55:20-23 “Concerning the one who puts forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; who has broken his covenant... God, shall bring them down to the pit of destruction; Bloodthirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their days…” (NKJV)
Isaiah 24:5-6 “The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have passed over the Torah, changed statute, broken the eternal covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and inhabitants in her will be held guilty...” (NAW)
Ephesians 5:6 says that it is because of their “empty words” that “the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” (NKJV)
Rev. 21:8 “...the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable... and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." (NKJV)
God’s people should make good on their promises, but apparently, at some time during King Saul’s reign, Saul had launched a war against the Gibeonite people in Israel, in violation of the treaty Joshua had made with the Gibeonites hundreds of years before, and had murdered a bunch of them.
The Hebrew word in v.2 translated “because of his zeal” is translated with a negative word like “envy” or “jealousy” over 90% of the time in English versions,
and when we think of how much Saul struggled with jealousy over David, and how he flew into rages against David and Jonathan, it is not hard to imagine this sort of thing happening between Saul and some of these slaves who somehow got too uppity with him.
But there were survivors who were living during David’s reign.
Why God chose to bring up this issue during David’s reign rather than during Saul’s reign is a good question. We can only make guesses as to the answer.
God brought many judgments against Saul and Israel during Saul’s lifetime, but there were so many violations and so many judgments that it never got all sorted out in Saul’s lifetime.
Even if Saul had been warned that he needed to repent of massacring those Gibeonites, he probably wouldn’t have repented. So, as long as Saul was King, the Gibeonites would never have received the benefit of justice.
This may be a reason why God waited until David was king to bring the issue up. David would be more sensitive to God’s warnings, and David would be willing to consider the case of the Gibeonites and make things right with them.
The un-atoned-for bloodguilt remained active in God’s court of justice, even though His people had forgotten about it. And even though the perpetrator of the crime was long dead, God still wanted that crime to be exposed and atoned for.
That brings up the question of whether there are any crimes done by those related to us which have not been confessed and atoned-for.
Perhaps what Governor Brownback did for the Pottawatomie tribe was the right thing to do; I don’t know.
I think it is possible to go too far on this, however. Scripture makes clear that you are not responsible for the sins of other people, and so it would not be right for you to go around worrying about all the bad things everybody has ever done in history and feeling guilty about them.
God said in Ezekiel 18:20 “The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (NKJV)
However, we can learn from this story of David that when God happens to bring a particular evil to your attention, then you should do something about it. Don’t worry about all the possible things that might have been done, just focus on the few things God brings to your attention.
David begins to solve the problem by talking with the victims.
He didn’t say, “Well, what might shut them up? Hey, Jehoshaphat, how much can we spare from the treasury? A thousand shekels? OK, how about send ‘em 500 shekels along with a sympathy card. We really need to re-do the floor here, so let’s use the other 500 on that.”
No, he asked the victims, “What will it take to make this right?” In the Greek and Hebrew, he says - not “How” but - literally, “With what shall I make it right?” Name your price. I’m not here to nickel and dime you out of what you need to make this right; I’m willing to do whatever it takes.
Here is a good principle of justice. If you have hurt someone, or if you are responsible for someone else who hurt someone or damaged their property (for instance, if my child releases the emergency brake on my car and it rolls and makes a dent in somebody else’s car, I’m going to have to take responsibility for that), you should talk to the offended party and apologize and ask them what it will take to make it right.
I remember one time I was braking to a stop in a turn lane and hit a patch of ice. There was nothing I could do but watch as my car slid forward and put a dent in the back of the car in front of me. The owner got out and looked at the damage while I apologized, then they said, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just go on and forget about it!”
They could just as well have said, “I’ll take it to the body shop and rent a car while it’s in the shop, and I’ll send you the bill from the body shop and the car rental.” And that would have been fair. But it has to be the victim’s choice, or else there is no justice.
So David says in v.3, “With what shall I make atonement, that y’all may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?”
What does it mean to “atone”? I like the answer that breaks the word “atone” into two words “at one” explaining that atonement is taking two parties whose relationship is broken apart and making them at one again.
About half of the instances of this word “atone” in the Old Testament are in the book of Leviticus.
Leviticus 1:4 introduces the concept, saying that whoever wants to be made right with God “shall lay his hand upon the head of the sacrificial animal to be burned up, and it will be accepted for him, to make atonement on his behalf.” The death of a sacrifical animal brought atonement between God and man.
In Leviticus 4, the sacrificial animal is called the “sin offering,” and when it atones for a sinner, their sin is “pardoned” and “forgiven.”
In Leviticus 5, the sacrificial animal is called a “guilt offering” and in v.5 it says that a guilty party who has broken one of God’s commands must “confess concerning it what he sinned. 6 And he shall bring his guilt-offering to Yahweh for his sin which he sinned: a female lamb from the flock or a kid from the goats as a sin-offering. Then the priest will make atonement for him from his sin [and it will be pardoned for him.]”
Later on we see in the Prophets that bulls and goats were not ultimately what God wanted to make atonement
And then when we get to the New Testament, we read that the singular death of Jesus Christ on the cross is what provides real atonement, and it does away with the need for any more animal sacrifices.
Romans 3:23 “...all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation (or atonement) by His blood” (NKJV)
1 John 2:1-2 “...if someone sins, we have an advocate before the Father: righteous Jesus Christ. And He Himself is appeasement (or the atoning sacrifice) concerning our sins…” (NAW)
Notice that David’s goal is not just to get the Gibeonites off his back; it is to get them to “bless the inheritance of the LORD”! The goal of repairing damaged relationships or property is that the offended party may worship God and bless the people of God and set up conditions in which the property3 of God’s people is blessed.
The Gibeonites’ initial reply is a bit confusing, but they mention two things by which reparations might normally be made, namely with money or with persons.
The Hebrew is literally, “There is not to us silver… and there is not to us a man,” and the ancient Greek takes that to mean that there’s no silver to be had and there’s no man who can be killed.
Some English translations (NASB, ESV, NLT) have taken that to mean – not that the money and the person to blame don’t exist but rather – that money and men “are not of interest/concern to us.” In other words, you will have to look for some other means of reparation.
Other translations (KJV, Vulgate) interpreted it more in terms of volition: “Even if you do offer money or men to us we won’t accept them. We’re not willing to put anybody to death over this.”
Still others (ESV, Douay, Brenton) interpreted it in terms of a court case, where the Gibeonites are saying that the issue isn’t over the money or the men lost. The court case is about something else.
And then there are some English translations (NIV, NASB, ESV) which frame it more in terms of jurisdictional rights: “It is not for us to demand silver or the life of a man. We have no right to be paid or to take revenge.”
Many English translations attach one of those 5 meanings4 to the first phrase about the silver and gold and a different meaning to the second phrase about the man, even though they are exact parallels in the original Hebrew.
In a matter with that wide a margin of interpretation, it’s best not to make dogmatic points, but the common thread seems to be some frustration among the Gibeonites over there not being a clear way forward to resolve the offense.
In situations where victims have not seen the government punish evildoers, it is natural for them to be a bit skeptical and for them to complain instead of trying to solve the problem, and to be a little slow in asking for justice and trusting that justice will be done. David patiently listens to their frustration and persists in asking what it is that they need him to do to make atonement for Saul’s massacre, and his persistence pays off.
In v. 5, the Gibeonites clearly state the damage done: Saul has destroyed them to the extend that there was no place in Israel where they could “stand” and make a home for themselves. They make the case that the man who did this should be punished, and, in the spirit of God’s law of lex talionis5, the man who drove their tribe to near-extinction should, in turn, have his family driven to near-extinction by putting to death seven of his male descendants.
The manner of death of these men is described with a rare word in Hebrew, only used one other place as a means of capital punishment, and that was in Numbers 25:4 when Baalam got the Israelites to marry pagan women and to worship Baal.
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Take all the leaders of the people and hang/expose/discombobulate the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.’” (NKJV)
Most English versions translate this verb with the English word “hang,” although the root meaning of the Hebrew word has more to do with disassociation, so probably both ideas are intended together, that the bodies would be exposed in such a way that they would die, probably by hanging, as a way of disassociating them from the nation of Israel and demonstrating outwardly that they were not part of God’s people.
Such punishment may seem severe, but we must remember how seriously God takes the shedding of innocent blood:
When Cain committed the first homicide, God said that Abel’s blood “cried out to [Him] from the ground” (Gen. 4:10).
God can’t ignore murder any more than you could ignore a fire alarm going off in the building.
He takes it very personally. Innocent blood cries out to Him for justice.
And so to Noah, God decreed what is legally binding upon all humanity: “whoever sheds human blood… his blood must be shed, because humans bear God’s own image,” and God’s image must never be disrespected. (Gen. 9:6)
Later on, in the law of Numbers 35:30-34 God explained, “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death... So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the land in which you live...” (NASB, cf. Deut. 19:13)
Corrupt governments which fail to punish murderers with capital punishment are offensive to God, and God is not going to bless those nations.
David sees the justice of the Gibeonites’ terms, and he agrees to them, under one condition: that he be the one in control of their judicial process. In Hebrew, David’s answer at the end of v.6 emphasizes the “I” in “I myself will do the giving.”
If the oversight of this punishment were given to someone else, who knows what millions of angry Israelites might pressure a lower magistrate to do to in order to vent their frustration against Saul’s family now that they knew he was the reason they were starving! David didn’t want the revenge to get out-of-hand.
This also goes back to the covenant-keeping concept too.
Jonathan had made David swear back in 1 Samuel 20:15 “You will not cut off your lovingkindness from being with my house for ever... 16 So Jonathan covenanted with the house of David…” (NAW)
and then Saul had also made David swear in 1Sa. 24:21 not to cut off all his descendants,
So David was doubly-bound by oath before God to make sure that no descendant of Jonathan would be among the seven who were going to get pilloried. Only by choosing the seven himself could he ensure that.
So how did David choose?
Presumably Saul’s younger sons Ishui and Melchishua had died with him and Jonathan in their last battle against the Philistines, so Saul had no surviving sons for David to pick from, so David had to pick from Saul’s grandsons.
Jonathan had a 5-year-old son when he died (that was Mephibosheth), and David was committed to keeping him alive, but Jonathan’s younger brothers must not have had children of their own yet when they died. So David had to pick from Saul’s grandsons by his daughters Mikal and Merab.
Merab, remember, was Saul’s older daughter who had been promised in marriage to David, but instead had been given in marriage to Adriel the Maholathite, to spite David (1 Sam. 18:19). (Adriel’s dad, by the way, was a different Barzillai than the Gileadite we met in chapter 19.)
Mikal was Saul’s younger daughter who had married David, then had been forcibly divorced from David and given in marriage instead to Palti[el] son of Laish (1 Sam. 25:44), then forcibly divorced from Paltiel and returned to David (2 Sam. 3:14ff), but we were told in 2 Samuel 6:23 that she had no children of her own6, so most people think that it was the five sons of Merab that had to be sacrificed.
Now, if you’re reading a contemporary version of the Bible, that all makes sense, but the problem is that almost all the actual Bible manuscripts say that Mikal was the mother of those five sons, not Merab, so that’s how the old English Bibles read, as well as the New King James. But, how can this be? Were the original manuscripts mistaken and in need of clever contemporary scholars to correct them?
The best explanation I have found is from the Aramaic Targums tradition, which doesn’t carry the authority of scripture, but which has an explanation here that supports the actual manuscripts of scripture, namely that the five sons were born to Merab and Adriel, but that Mikal ended up raising their five boys7.
I suspect Merab died after the birth of her 5th son8, and that Mikal stepped in to raise her sister’s sons.
This could also fit with the relative silence about Mikal in David’s later life,
and it might explain why there was no mother present to hold vigil for those five sons when they died.
Anyway, in addition to those five, two more men had to be found among Saul’s descendants, so David picked Saul’s two illegitimate sons, born by a concubine named Ritzpah.
Ritzpah is only mentioned one other place in the Bible, and that was in chapter 3 when Ishbosheth accused Abner of violating her9.
Her father Aiah may have been an Edomite - a descendant of Esau (Gen. 36:24, 1Ch. 1:40).
Her two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth (not to be confused with Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth) are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible.
So it was these seven men who were put to death in order to pay the price of murder committed by Saul and his family.
I can only begin to imagine the depths of grief that Ritspah experienced, watching her sons executed for trying to commit genocide, hated by everybody in the nation for bringing a famine upon them, and left outdoors for their disfigured bodies to rot in utter disgrace.
About a thousand years later, Mary the mother of Jesus went through something like that when she held vigil under His cross at Golgotha, except Jesus’ body was buried that same day rather than leaving it out overnight for days on end, as was the case with the bodies of Armoni and Mephibosheth ben Ritspah.
But Saul - and probably these very sons - had not even left Gibeonite mothers alive to mourn for the sons of the Gibeonites whom they had massacred in their jealousy for power, so these sons had to be punished.
Perhaps Ritspah was provided-for in the estate of Saul under Tsiba’s management, or perhaps not, considering Tsiba’s craftiness. What could poor Ritspah do?
She decided to engage in a vigil over the dead bodies of her sons: 24 hours a day without sleep, without food, day after day, night after night, camped on a hard boulder beside those hideous carcasses as they grew more and more foul in odor, she shooed away every carrion-bird and every wild animal that came up to try to bite off a piece of their flesh for a meal, and she was there for weeks10, from the beginning of the dry, harvest season until the beginning of the rainy season.
It may be that when the rain started falling, she knew that God had lifted the drought.
At some point, Ritspah’s vigil was brought to David’s attention, and David realized that closure needed to be brought to the matter of the dead in Saul’s family.
Perhaps he remembered the law in Deuteronomy 21:22-23 "If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.”
The bodies of the seven men killed to atone for the genocide of the Gibeonites had not been buried before the first nightfall, and God said that failure to bury bodies was defiling to the land. So to tie up that loose end, David sends some guys to collect the remains, and, according to the ancient Greek and Latin Bibles (which are actually older than any known Hebrew manuscripts), those remains were buried in the tomb of Saul’s father11. Now the land would no longer be in a defiled status in God’s eyes.
The other loose end was the matter of Saul and Jonathan’s burial place.
It had been a few decades since Saul and Jonathan had died in battle on Mt. Gilboa in their last stand against the Philistines.
The bodies of Saul’s other sons who died in that battle apparently were never located, but the bodies of Saul and Jonathan had been recovered by the men of Jabesh Gilead and hastily buried in Jabesh Gilead, which was part of the tribal land of Manasseh.
David felt it would be appropriate to transfer their remains to their own tribal land of Benjamin - to their own family tomb where their father and grandfather had been buried. So David himself travels back across the Jordan River and meets with the lords of the city of Jabesh Gilead to make the negotiations, then commissions some of his men to properly inter Saul and Jonathan’s remains in their family sepulcher.
So the story ends in v.14 with justice satisfied, atonement made, and everything made right. Most notably, things are right again with God so that, once again, God would respond favorably to His people’s prayers for their farmland to be fruitful, and God would provide good weather and crops.
May God make us more like Him in faithfulness to keeping our promises,
and make us responsive to His Spirit convicting us of sin that we need to repent of,
sensitive to preserving what is just and right for others around us, according to God’s word,
diligent to pray for the blessing of the land we live in,
and faithful to trust Jesus’ death on the cross as the atoning sacrifice for our sin, without which there can be no reconcilation with God.
LXX |
Brenton |
DRB |
KJV |
NAW |
MT |
1 Καὶ ἐγένετο λιμὸς ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις Δαυιδ τρία ἔτη, ἐνιαυτὸς ἐχόμενος ἐνιαυτοῦ, καὶ ἐζήτησεν Δαυιδ τὸ πρόσωπον τοῦ κυρίου. καὶ εἶπεν κύριος Ἐπὶ Σαουλ καὶ ἐπὶ τὸν οἶκον[ αὐτοῦ ἀδικία διὰ τὸ αὐτὸν θανάτῳB] αἱμάτων περὶ οὗ ἐθανάτωσεν τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας. |
1 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, [There is guilt] upon Saul and X [his] house [because of his] bloody [murder], whereby he slew the Gabaonites. |
1
And there was a famine in the days of David for three years X
successively
X:
and David |
1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of X X the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. |
1 Now, there was a famine during the days of David, year after year for three years, so David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, “The bloodguilt is accountable to Saul – that is, to his house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.” |
(א) וַיְהִי רָעָב בִּימֵי דָוִד שָׁלֹשׁ שָׁנִים שָׁנָה אַחֲרֵי שָׁנָה וַיְבַקֵּשׁ דָּוִד אֶת פְּנֵי יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל שָׁאוּל וְאֶל בֵּית הַדָּמִים עַל אֲשֶׁר הֵמִית אֶת הַגִּבְעֹנִים. |
2 καὶ ἐκάλεσεν ὁ βασιλεὺς [Δαυιδ] XC τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς· καὶ οἱ Γαβαωνῖται οὐχ X υἱοὶ Ισραηλ εἰσίν, ὅτι ἀλλ᾿ [ἢ] ἐκ τοῦ λείμματος τοῦ Αμορραίου, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ Ισραηλ ὤμοσαν αὐτοῖς· καὶ ἐζήτησεν Σαουλ πατάξαι αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ ζηλῶσαι αὐτὸν τοὺς υἱοὺς Ισραηλ καὶ Ιουδα. |
2 And King [David] called X the Gabaonites, and said to them; —(now the Gabaonites are not X the children of Israel, but X are of the remnant of the Amorite, and the children of Israel had sworn to them: but Saul sought to smite them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Juda.) |
2 Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but X the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, [as it were] for the children of Israel and Juda:) |
2 And the king called X the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but X 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.) |
2 So the king called for the Gibeonites, and he talked to them. (Concerning the Gibeonites, they themselves were not from the children of Israel; instead, they were from the remnant of the Amorites, but the children of Israel had made an oath with them. Nevertheless, Saul had sought to massacre them in his jealousy for the children of Israel and Judah.) |
(ב) וַיִּקְרָא הַמֶּלֶךְ לַגִּבְעֹנִים וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵיהֶם וְהַגִּבְעֹנִים לֹא מִבְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הֵמָּה כִּי אִם מִיֶּתֶר הָאֱמֹרִי וּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל נִשְׁבְּעוּ לָהֶם וַיְבַקֵּשׁ שָׁאוּל לְהַכֹּתָם בְּקַנֹּאתוֹ לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל וִיהוּדָה. |
3 καὶ εἶπεν Δαυιδ πρὸς τοὺς Γαβαωνίτας Τί ποιήσω ὑμῖν καὶ ἐν τίνι ἐξιλάσομαι καὶ εὐλογήσετε τὴν κληρονομίαν κυρίου; |
3 And David said to the Gabaonites, What shall I do to you? and wherewithal shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord? |
3 David therefore said to the Gabaonites: What shall I do for you? and what shall be the atonement for you, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord? |
3 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? |
3 Anyway, David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for y’all? And with what should I make atonement, that y’all may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?” |
(ג) וַיֹּאמֶר דָּוִד אֶל הַגִּבְעֹנִים מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה לָכֶם וּבַמָּה אֲכַפֵּר וּבָרְכוּ אֶת נַחֲלַת יְהוָה. |
4 καὶ εἶπαν αὐτῷ οἱ Γαβαωνῖται Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἀργύριον καὶ χρυσίον μετὰ Σαουλ καὶ μετὰ τοῦ οἴκου αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἀνὴρ θανατῶσαι ἐν Ισραηλ. καὶ εἶπεν Τί ὑμεῖς λέγετε [καὶ] ποιήσω ὑμῖν; |
4 And the Gabaonites said to him, We have no [question about] silver or gold with Saul and with his house; and there is no man for us to put to death in Israel. 5 And he said, What say ye? [speakD, and] I will do [it] for you. |
4
And the Gabaonites
said to him: We
have no [contest
about] silver
and gold, [but]
|
4
And the Gibeonites
said unto him, We
will have no silver nor gold |
4 And the Gibeonites said to him, “There was no silver or gold for {us} with Saul or with his household, and there was no man in Israel for us to put to death.” But he said, “What are y’all saying I should do for you?” |
(ד) וַיֹּאמְרוּ לוֹ הַגִּבְעֹנִים אֵין ליE כֶּסֶף וְזָהָב עִם שָׁאוּל וְעִם בֵּיתוֹ וְאֵין לָנוּ אִישׁ לְהָמִית Fבְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וַיֹּאמֶר מָה אַתֶּם אֹמְרִים Gאֶעֱשֶׂה לָכֶם. |
5
καὶ εἶπαν πρὸς
τὸν βασιλέα
Ὁ ἀνὴρ X συνετέλεσεν
ἐφ᾿ ἡμᾶς καὶ
X [ἐδίωξεν
ἡμᾶς,] ὃς
παρελογίσατο
[ἐξολεθρεῦσαι]
ἡμᾶς· ἀφανίσ |
And
they said to the king, The man who would
have made an end of us, and
[persecuted
us,] who
plotted against us [to
destroy us,]
|
5
And they said to the king: The man that crushed
us and |
5
And they answered X the
king, The man that consumed
us, and that devised against us that
we should be destroyed from |
5 Presently they said to the king, “[Because of] that man who finished us off and who plotted against us, we were destroyed from stationing ourselves within any precinct of Israel. |
(ה) וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֶל הַמֶּלֶךְ הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר כִּלָּנוּH וַאֲשֶׁר דִּמָּה לָנוּ נִשְׁמַדְנוּI מֵהִתְיַצֵּב בְּכָל גְּבֻל יִשְׂרָאֵלJ. |
6
δότω ἡμῖν ἑπτὰ
ἄνδρας ἐκ τῶν
υἱῶν αὐτοῦ,
καὶ ἐξηλιάσωμεν
αὐτοὺς τῷ κυρίῳ
ἐν Γαβαων Σαουλ
ἐκλεκτ |
6 Let one give us seven men of his sons, and let us hang them up [in the sunK] to the Lord in Gabaon of Saul, [as] chosen out for the Lord. And the king said, I X will give [them]. |
6 Let seven men of his children be delivered unto us, that we may crucifyL them to the Lord in Gabaa of Saul, [once the] chosen of the Lord. And the king said: I X will give [them]. |
6 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 X will give them. |
6 Let there be given to us seven men from among his sons, and let us dismember them for Yahweh at Gibeah of Saul, chosen by Yahweh.” And the king said, “I myself will do the giving.” |
(ו) Mינתן לָנוּ שִׁבְעָה אֲנָשִׁים מִבָּנָיו וְהוֹקַעֲנוּם Nלַיהוָה בְּגִבְעַתO שָׁאוּל בְּחִירP יְהוָה וַיֹּאמֶר הַמֶּלֶךְ אֲנִי אֶתֵּן. |
7 καὶ ἐφείσατο ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐπὶ Μεμφιβοσθε υἱὸν Ιωναθαν υἱοῦ Σαουλ διὰ τὸν ὅρκον κυρίου τὸν ἀνὰ μέσον αὐτῶν, [ἀνὰ] μέσον Δαυιδ καὶ ἀνὰ μέσον Ιωναθαν υἱοῦ Σαουλ. |
7 But the king spared X Memphibosthe son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, even between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. |
7 And the king spared X Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between X X David and Jonathan the son of Saul. |
7 But the king spared X 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. |
7 So the king spared the life of Mephibosheth son of Jonathan son of Saul, on account of the oath to Yahweh which was between them – between David and Jonathan son of Saul. |
(ז) וַיַּחְמֹלQ הַמֶּלֶךְ עַל מְפִי בֹשֶׁת בֶּן יְהוֹנָתָן בֶּן שָׁאוּל עַל שְׁבֻעַת יְהוָה אֲשֶׁר בֵּינֹתָם בֵּין דָּוִד וּבֵין יְהוֹנָתָן בֶּן שָׁאוּל. |
8 καὶ ἔλαβεν ὁ βασιλεὺς [τοὺς] δύο υἱοὺς Ρεσφα θυγατρὸς Αια, οὓς ἔτεκεν τῷ Σαουλ, τὸν Ερμωνι καὶ τὸν Μεμφιβοσθε, καὶ τοὺς πέντε υἱοὺς Μιχολ θυγατρὸς Σαουλ, οὓς ἔτεκεν τῷ Εσριηλ υἱῷ Βερζελλι τῷ Μοουλαθι, |
8 And the king took [the] two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia, whom she bore to Saul, Hermonoi and Memphibosthe, and the five sons of Michol daughter of Saul, whom she bore to EsdrielR son of Berzelli the Moulathite. |
8 So the king took the two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni, and Miphiboseth: and the five sons of Michol the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Hadriel the son of Berzellai, that was of Molathi: |
8
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 |
8 But the king picked Armoni and Mephibosheth, two of the sons of Ritspah daughter of Aiah whom she had borne to Saul, and five of the sons of Mikal daughter of Saul, whom she had borne for Adriel son of Barzillai the Mekholathite, |
(ח) וַיִּקַּח הַמֶּלֶךְ אֶת שְׁנֵי בְּנֵי רִצְפָּה בַת אַיָּה אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה לְשָׁאוּל אֶת אַרְמֹנִי וְאֶת מְפִבֹשֶׁת וְאֶת חֲמֵשֶׁת בְּנֵי מִיכַלS בַּת שָׁאוּל אֲשֶׁר יָלְדָה לְעַדְרִיאֵל בֶּן בַּרְזִלַּי הַמְּחֹלָתִי. |
9 καὶ ἔδωκεν αὐτοὺς ἐν χειρὶ τῶν Γαβαωνιτῶν,
|
9 And he gave them into the hand of the Gabaonites, and they hanged them [up to the sun] in the mountain before the lord: and they fell, even the seven together: moreover they were put to death in the days of harvest at the commencement, [in] the beginning of barley-harvest. |
9 And gave them into the hand[s] of the Gabaonites: and
they crucified
them on |
9 And he delivered them into the hand[s] of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and X were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, [in] the beginning of barley harvest. |
9 and he gave them into the control of the Gibeonites, and they dismembered them on the hill before the presence of Yahweh. Thus the seven of them fell together. And as for them, they were put to death during the days of harvest, during its beginnings, {at} the start of barley harvest. |
(ט) וַיִּתְּנֵם בְּיַד הַגִּבְעֹנִים וַיֹּקִיעֻם בָּהָר לִפְנֵי יְהוָה וַיִּפְּלוּ שִׁבְעָתַיִםT יָחַד וְהֵםU הֻמְתוּ בִּימֵי קָצִיר בָּרִאשֹׁנִים Vתְּחִלַּת קְצִיר שְׂעֹרִים. |
10
καὶ ἔλαβεν
Ρεσφα θυγάτηρ
Αια τὸν σάκκον
καὶ ἔπηξεν αὑτῇ
πρὸς τὴν πέτραν
|
10
And Respha the daughter of Aia took sackcloth, and fixed it for
herself on the rock |
10
And Respha the daughter of Aia took haircloth,
and spread it under
her upon the rock from the beginning of the harvest, till water
dropped upon them out of heaven: and suffered neither the birds to
|
10 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 beast[s] of the field by night. |
10 Then Ritspah daughter of Aiah took her sack-cloth and spread it for herself over the landmark-rock, from the start of harvest until the waters rained upon them from the skies, and she did not allow a bird of the skies to alight upon them by day or a wild animal by night. |
(י) וַתִּקַּח רִצְפָּה בַת אַיָּה אֶת הַשַּׂק וַתַּטֵּהוּ לָהּ אֶלW הַצּוּר Xמִתְּחִלַּת קָצִיר עַד נִתַּךְ מַיִם עֲלֵיהֶם מִן הַשָּׁמָיִם וְלֹא נָתְנָה עוֹף הַשָּׁמַיִם לָנוּחַ עֲלֵיהֶם יוֹמָם וְאֶת חַיַּת הַשָּׂדֶה לָיְלָה. |
11 καὶ ἀπηγγέλη τῷ Δαυιδ ὅσα ἐποίησεν Ρεσφα θυγάτηρ Αια παλλακὴ Σαουλ, [καὶ ἐξελύθησαν, καὶ κατέλαβεν αὐτοὺς Δαν υἱὸς Ιωα ἐκ τῶν ἀπογόνων τῶν γιγάντων,] |
11 And it was told David what Respha the daughter of Aia the concubine of Saul had done, [and they were faint, and Dan, the son of Joa of the offspring of the giants overtook them.] |
11 And it was told David, what Respha the daughter of Aia, the concubine of Saul, had done. |
11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. |
11 Now, when it was communicated to David what was being done by Ritspah daughter of Aiah, concubine of Saul, |
(יא) וַיֻּגַּד לְדָוִד אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשְׂתָה רִצְפָּה בַת אַיָּה פִּלֶגֶשׁ שָׁאוּל. |
12
καὶ ἐπορεύθη
Δαυιδ καὶ ἔλαβεν
τὰ ὀστᾶ Σαουλ
καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ
Ιωναθαν τοῦ
υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ
παρὰ τῶν |
12
And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of
Jonathan his son, from the |
12
And David went, and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of
Jonathan his son from the |
12
And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of
Jonathan his son from the |
12 David went and got the bones of Saul (and the bones of Jonathan his son) from the city-commissioners of Jabesh Gilead, (who had taken them from the public-square of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up there on the day that the Philistines had struck Saul down on Gilboa), |
(יב) וַיֵּלֶךְ דָּוִד וַיִּקַּח אֶת עַצְמוֹת שָׁאוּל וְאֶת עַצְמוֹת יְהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ מֵאֵת בַּעֲלֵי יָבֵישׁ גִּלְעָד אֲשֶׁר גָּנְבוּ אֹתָם מֵרְחֹבY בֵּית שַׁן אֲשֶׁר Zתָּלוּם שָׁם הַפְּלִשְׁתִּיםAA בְּיוֹם הַכּוֹת פְּלִשְׁתִּים אֶת שָׁאוּל בַּגִּלְבֹּעַ. |
13
καὶ ἀνήνεγκεν
ἐκεῖθεν τὰ
ὀστᾶ Σαουλ
καὶ τὰ ὀστᾶ
Ιωναθαν τοῦ
υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ
καὶ συνήγαγ |
13 And he carried up thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and X gathered the bones of them that had been hanged. |
13 And he brought from thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered up the bones of them that were crucified, |
13 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. |
13 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered up the bones of the dismembered men, |
(יג) וַיַּעַל מִשָּׁם אֶת עַצְמוֹת שָׁאוּל וְאֶת עַצְמוֹת יְהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹ וַיַּאַסְפוּ אֶת עַצְמוֹת הַמּוּקָעִים. |
14 καὶ ἔθαψαν τὰ ὀστᾶ Σαουλ καὶ [τὰ ὀστᾶ] Ιωναθαν τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ [καὶ τῶν ἡλιασθέντων] ἐν γῇ Βενιαμιν ἐν τῇ πλευρᾷ ἐν τῷ τάφῳ Κις τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐποίησαν πάντα, ὅσα ἐνετείλατο ὁ βασιλεύς. --καὶ ἐπήκουσεν ὁ θεὸς τῇ γῇ μετὰ ταῦτα. |
14 And they buried the bones of Saul and[ the bones] of Jonathan his son, [and the bones of them that had been hanged], in the land of Benjamin in the hillAB, in the sepulchre of Cis his father; and they did all things that the king commanded: and after this God hearkened to the prayers of the land. |
14
And they buried [them
with]
the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son in the land of
Benjamin, in the side,
in the sepulchre of Cis his father: and they did all that the king
had commanded,
and God shewed
mercy again to the land after
th |
14 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. |
14 and they buried {them with} the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in Tsela, in the tomb of Kish his father. Thus they did all that the king had commanded, and God responded to prayers for the land after this. |
(יד) וַיִּקְבְּרוּ אֶת עַצְמוֹת שָׁאוּל AC וִיהוֹנָתָן בְּנוֹAD בְּאֶרֶץ בִּנְיָמִן בְּצֵלָע בְּקֶבֶר קִישׁ אָבִיו וַיַּעֲשׂוּ כֹּל אֲשֶׁר צִוָּה הַמֶּלֶךְ וַיֵּעָתֵר אֱלֹהִים לָאָרֶץ אַחֲרֵי כֵן. |
1A number of Jewish scholars relate it to Saul’s massacre of the priests at Nob. Gill and some others related it to Saul’s purging of witches.
2Of the Hivite ethnicity in Joshua 9, but here called Amorites. Willett explains: “because the Cananites were mingled together, and the Amorites were the more valiant people, that the rest had the denomination from them as the more principall: as Gen. 15.16 ‘the wickednesse of the Amorites is not yet full’: where the rest of the Cananites are vnderstood by the Amorites, as the more principall part...”
3The “inheritance of Yahweh” is a phrase used throughout the Law to describe the promised land which the children of Israel received as an inheritance from God.
4Matthew Henry adds another interpretation that the Gibeonites wanted to do the execution themselves, saying “we don’t want you (David) doing it ‘for us.’”
5Stated in Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21
6Although some interpret it that she had some children, but God stopped her from having any more children as a punishment for despising David for dancing in the ark ceremony.
7This explanation was accepted by Goldman, Henry, Gill, Jamieson
8This is asserted in Jewish tradition in T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 19. 2
92 Sam. 3:7 Now, there belonged to Saul a concubine, Ritspah, daughter of Aiah. And {Ish-bosheth, son of Saul} said to Abner, "Why did you go in to the concubine of my father?!" (NAW)
10Goldman calculated it to be 6 months in the Soncino commentary, but Josephus, Abarbinel, Willett, Henry, and Gill rejected such a long time. Keil & Delitzsch rejected it being a short time.
11Gill cites Fuller saying that Kish’s sepulchre “was not far from the hill on which the seven… were hanged”
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.)
When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not
indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text),
I put the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses
a wording which is different from all the other translations, I
underline it. When a version chooses a translation which, in
my opinion, either departs too far from the root meaning of the
Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of the original
text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a
word which is in the original text, I insert an X. (I also place an
X at the end of a word if the original word is plural but the
English translation is singular.) I occasionally use colors to help
the reader see correlations between the various editions and
versions when there are more than two different translations of a
given word. The only known Dead Sea Scrolls containing 2 Samuel 19
are 4Q51 Samuela containing parts of verses 5-15, 24-26,
& 38-37, dated between 50-25 B.C. Where the DSS is legible and
in agreement with the MT, the MT is colored purple.
Where the DSS supports the LXX (or Vulgate) with omissions or text
not in the MT, I have highlighted
with yellow the LXX
and its translation into English, and where I have accepted that
into my NAW translation, I have marked it with {pointed brackets}.
BThe DSS is badly obliterated here, so we can’t read the words, but it has way too much space for the MT text, so it could support the extra words here in the LXX, but since the Syriac, Targums, and Vulgate all support the MT, that inclines me against bringing in the extra words from the LXX.
CThe preposition in the MT is also in the Targums, Vulgate, and Syriac, but missing in the LXX. The same is true later in this verse where I have marked another X. However, in this first instance in the verse, due to the conventions of speech in which certain verbs go with certain prepositions, and since that particular convention does not transfer exactly the same across every language, it does not change the meaning. In the latter instance of the verse, there is a clear omission, but it still doesn’t change the sense of the statement.
DThis repetition of the word “speak” is not in the LXX or Vaticanus; it is just Brenton’s paraphrase.
ENone
of the ancient versions read “to me” like the MT. The
LXX, Vulgate, and Targums (as well as several Hebrew manuscripts)
read with the Qere לָנוּ
(“to us”). The Syriac seems to omit the
pronoun; and Kittel noted some Hebrew manuscripts which read “to
him.” This does not set up a difference in meaning, however,
since the plurality of Gibeonites probably had a single spokesman
who could have used “I” or “we” to mean the
same thing.
On another note, Targums add “to collect”
between this word and the next.
FDSS & Vulgate read “from” instead of “in” like the LXX, Syriac, Targums, & MT. This does not change the gist however.
GLXX & Vulgate add a conjunction here, but it’s not in the Syriac or Targums.
Hcf. 1 Samuel 15:18 “Then Yahweh commissioned you along the way and said to you, 'Now devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight them until they are no more [also from כלה].'”
IThere are more words in the Vulgate, LXX, and DSS than there are in the MT, but it’s hard to sort out.
Jcf. the same phrase in 1 Sam. 11:3 Well, the elders of Jabesh said to him, "Let us be for seven days, and we will send messengers through all the territory of Israel..." (NAW, also 11:7 and 27:1)
KAlthough the Hebrew word had more to do with separation from a body, the LXX translators used a word based on the Greek word for “sun,” perhaps as an echo of the previous instance of the word in the Hebrew text of Numbers 25:4, which adds the Hebrew phrase for “in the sun” after this verb.
LKeil & Delitzsch used this translation (“crucify”) in their commentary.
MThe MT spelling is in the Niphal (passive) stem, but the Qere suggests it be spelled Qal passive יֻתַּן, however, both mean the same thing: “he was given” – which, being singular, cannot have the plural “seven sons” as its subject. The DSS is alone among the known manuscripts in changing the subject to 2nd person, in adding a prefix, and in adding a suffix ונתתם (“and you should deliver them”), but even these three differences do not change the story.
NThe next instance in v.9 uses the non-abbreviated form lifney adonai “before the face of the LORD.”
OGibeah appears to be the same as Gibeon. The Greek versions (LXX, Aquila, Symmachus) use the latter spelling.
PThe Hebrew is not clear whether “chosen” is a remembrance that Saul was once God’s chosen leader (Gill, K&D), or whether the location of Gibeah was chosen by God to be the place of judgment. Since it is singular, it shouldn’t refer to the plurality of the 7 men, however, it could be the subject of the singular verb at the beginning who “was given” to the Gibeonites, but, if so, it couldn’t refer to David (contra Willett) and would have to be the singular Saul, which would be unusually figurative language to describe the seven.
Qcf.
1 Sam. 15:3 God told Saul, “Go now and make a strike
against Amalek, and devote to destruction everything that belongs to
it, and do not be sparing with it… 9 but Saul was
sparing with Agag… ”
1 Sam. 23:21 Saul
told the Ziphites, “...y’all have spared me the
trouble,”
2 Samuel 12:4 “Now, a traveller
came to the rich man, but he deferred to take from his sheep
or from his cattle to make-dinner for the wayfarer…”
(NAW)
RLXX & Syriac read “Ezriel,” but MT, Latin & Targums read “Edriel,” and Vaticanus combines the two with Ezdriel.”
SGreek and Latin agree with the MT, thus the KJV, but a couple of Hebrew manuscripts read מ(י)רב, Syriac reads “Nadab,” and Targums brings the two together with = “five sons of Merab raised by Mikal.” DSS is illegible at this point. Willett suggested inserting “sister of.”
TMasoretic scribes suggested removing the yod from the end of the word (שְׁבַעְתָּם) to make clear that the intended meaning was “the seven men of them” rather than “seven women” which the original spelling could be construed as, but this is not necessary, because it wouldn’t even cross the mind of a reader of this whole story to interpret it as feminine.
Ucf. Qere spelling (וְהֵמָּה) which means the same thing.
VSyriac omits this word, but Qere, Targums and LXX add a preposition to this word: “as/when/in.”
WLXX agrees with the MT (“against”), but the Targums, Latin, Syriac, and some Hebrew manuscripts read על (“on”), however, they are practically synonymous.
XTargums, Syriac, Latin, and Lucian Rescription follow the MT with an ablative preposition, but the Greek reads as though the preposition were בּ, but it makes no difference in the story.
Y“בֵּית־שַׁן מֵּרְחֹב, ‘from the market-place of Bethshan,’ does not present any contradiction to the statement in 1Sam. 31:10, that the Philistines fastened the body to the ‘wall’ of Bethshan, as the rechob or market-place in eastern towns is not in the middle of the town, but is an open place against or in front of the gate (cf. 2Chron. 32:6; Neh. 8:1, 3, 16). This place, as the common meeting-place of the citizens, was the most suitable spot that the Philistines could find for fastening the bodies to the wall.” ~Keil & Delitzsch
ZThe Masoretic Scribes seem to have thought that the root was תלא, which is a very obscure root only found in Deut. 28:66 and Hosea 11:7. The traditional Hebrew spelling is based on the root תלה, which is a much more common root for “hanged,” used in 2 Sam. 4:12 (concerning the hands of the assassins), and in 18:10 (of Absalom in the oak). Keil & Delitzsch asserted that the Kethib is the “true Hebrew form.”
AAQere notes (תְּלָאוּם שָׁמָּה פְּלִשְׁתִּים) suggest adding an aleph to the verb (which is no change to the meaning), moving the he before “Philistines” back a space (making “Philistines” less definite), and spelling “them” more properly according to later Hebrew grammarians, but again this makes no difference in the meaning.
ABThe Greek word in the LXX (pleura) can mean “side,” which is also the Vulgate translation of this Hebrew word tsela, but most English translations transliterate it as a proper noun.
ACSeveral Hebrew manuscripts add “the bones of” before “Jonathan,” along with the Targums and LXX.
ADThe Syriac omits “his son,” as does the Greek Lucian Rescription, but it is easily understood by ellipsis, so the meaning is not changed. The LXX and Vulgate insert here that the bones of the dismembered men were also buried there.