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The Blue Letter Bible

2 Samuel 21 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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David Avenges the Gibeonites

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:1

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:1 - There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the LORD about it. And the LORD said, “The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:2

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:2 - So the king summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:3

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:3 - David asked them, “What can I do for you? How can I make amends so that you will bless the LORD’s people again?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:4

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:4 - “Well, money can’t settle this matter between us and the family of Saul,” the Gibeonites replied. “Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.”
“What can I do then?” David asked. “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:5

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:5 - Then they replied, “It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in the territory of Israel.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:6

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:6 - So let seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the LORD at Gibeon, on the mountain of the LORD.[fn]”
“All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:7

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:7 - The king spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth,[fn] who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the LORD.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:8

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:8 - But he gave them Saul’s two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab,[fn] the wife of Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:9

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:9 - The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the LORD. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:10

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:10 - Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:11

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:11 - When David learned what Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done,

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:12

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:12 - he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them.)

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:13

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:13 - So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:14

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:14 - Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God ended the famine in the land.
Battles against Philistine Giants
(1Ch 20:4–8 )

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:15

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:15 - Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:16

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:16 - Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants[fn]; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds,[fn] and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:17

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:17 - But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle with us again! Why risk snuffing out the light of Israel?”

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:18

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:18 - After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of the giants.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:19

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:19 - During another battle at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair[fn] from Bethlehem killed the brother of Goliath of Gath.[fn] The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver’s beam!

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:20

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:20 - In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants.

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:21

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:21 - But when he defied and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother Shimea.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box 2Sa 21:22

Unchecked Copy Box2Sa 21:22 - These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David and his warriors killed them.
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
As in Greek version (see also 21:9); Hebrew reads at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.
Mephibosheth is another name for Merib-baal.
As in a few Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and Syriac version (see also 1 Sam 18:19); most Hebrew manuscripts read Michal.
Or a descendant of the Rapha; also in 21:18, 20, 22.
Hebrew 300 shekels [3.4 kilograms].
As in parallel text at 1 Chr 20:5; Hebrew reads son of Jaare-oregim.
As in parallel text at 1 Chr 20:5; Hebrew reads killed Goliath of Gath.
As in parallel text at 1 Chr 20:7; Hebrew reads Shimei, a variant spelling of Shimea.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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2 Samuel Chapter 21 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Westminster Leningrad Codex Septuagint Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Brenton's English Septuagint Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras