A Land Polluted by Bloodshed

Reflections on 2 Samuel 21:1-14

Sometime during the reign of David, probably shortly after David moved to Jerusalem from Hebron, a famine came upon the land for three years. David sought the face of the Lord so that the Lord might look favorably on Israel again.

THE OFFENSE. God told David that the problem was that Saul and other members of his house (family) had killed the Gibeonites (v. 1). The Gibeonites were not Israelites, but they lived in several villages in Benjamite territory. Joshua had made a treaty with them promising not to kill them, and the Israelite leaders had confirmed the treaty with an oath (Joshua 9:15). Saul, however, in his zeal for Israel had plotted against them and tried to annihilate them (v. 2). Many had been killed (v. 5), and others had fled their homes to save their lives (see also 2 Samuel 4:2-3 which reports that the Gibeonites of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and lived there as aliens). They had not been able to live anywhere in Israel safely (v. 5).

THE ATONEMENT. When David asked the Gibeonites how atonement or reconciliation could be made, they said they had no right to demand money or to put anyone to death. Such a statement, however, was the beginning of a bargaining process (cf. Ephron's negotiations with Abraham in Genesis 23:11 and 2 Samuel 24:22-23). When asked again, they requested that seven male descendants of Saul be killed before the Lord. David turned over seven male members of Saul's family to the Gibeonites who executed them at the beginning of the barley harvest.

FAMINE'S END. The Gibeonites exposed the bodies of those they executed, and Rizpah, the mother of two of them, protected their bodies from the birds and wild beasts until the rains came. At that time, David retrieved the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh Gilead and buried them in the family grave in Benjamin along with those who had been executed. After atonement had been made for the land, God heard Israel's prayers and lifted the famine.

A PROBLEM. Although Canaanite law apparently permitted killing the children of a person who had violated a covenant (Youngblood, 1992, p, 1054), God's law stipulated that children could not be punished for the sins of their fathers (Deuteronomy 24:16). Had these descendants of Saul participated in the slaughter of the Gibeonites? Possibly they had for verse one indicates that Saul's family had participated in the bloodshed. However, the text also says that David spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth not because he was innocent (he was only five at the time of Saul's death - 2 Samuel 4:4) but because of the oath David had made to Jonathan. Furthermore, Merab did not marry Adriel until after David slew Goliath (1 Samuel 18:19), so her sons, who could not have been more than teenagers at the time of Saul's death, probably did not participate in the slaughter. (A textual problem complicates the issue of which daughter of Saul was mother of five of the men. While some Hebrew and Greek manuscripts read "Merab" in 2 Samuel 21:8, most read Michal. However, Saul gave Michal to Paltiel in 1 Samuel 25:44, and David recovered her from him in 2 Samuel 3:15. Saul gave Merab to Adriel in 1 Samuel 18:19.) Whatever the solution to this problem, God revealed to David that Saul's sin had led to the famine, and God accepted the atonement and blessed the land again.