2 Sa 21:1-9

Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year;
and David sought the presence of the LORD.
And the LORD said,
“It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

Thus David said to the Gibeonites,
“What should I do for you?
And how can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”

Then the Gibeonites said to him,
“We have no concern of silver or gold with Saul or his house,
nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.”
And he said, “I will do for you whatever you say.”

So they said to the king,
“The man who consumed us and who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel,

let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will hang them before the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

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

So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

Then he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.

Wow.
So many questions.

What initiated this situation?
Famine in the land.

How do we know?
David sought the Presence of the Lord.
The Lord told David point blank.
Saul had put the Gibeonites to death.
Saul did so in zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah.

Why drought?
Why the Gibeonites?
Why the need for atonement?
Why ask the Gibeonites?
Why life for life?
Why specifically named folk?
Why the timing of year?

…to be continued…

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