2 Samuel 21
v.1
During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
v.2
The king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)
v.3
David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make amends so that you will bless the LORD’s inheritance?“
v.4
The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no right to demand silver or gold from Saul or his family, nor do we have the right to put anyone in Israel to death.” “What do you want me to do for you?” David asked.
v.5
They answered the king, “As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us so that we have been decimated and have no place anywhere in Israel,
v.6
let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and exposed before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen one.” So the king said, “I will give them to you.”
In this episode David, with the Lord’s approval, allows the Gibeonites to execute seven of Saul’s male descendants because of Saul’s crimes against that city. Is it just for God to punish children for the sins of their ancestors? The Old Testament teaches that individuals do sometimes suffer the consequences of their forebears’ deeds. The Lord warns his enemies that their sin will have negative consequences for their families through three or four generations (Exod. 20:5; 34:7; Num. 14:18). Dathan’s, Abiram’s, and Achan’s innocent children died along with their sinful parents (Num. 16:27, 32 [apparently Korah’s sons were spared: Num. 26:11]; Josh. 7:24). The Lord also took the lives of four of David’s sons because of his sin against Uriah (2 Sam. 12:5–6, 10; cf. 12:14–15; 13:28–29; 18:15; 1 Kings 2:25). Though Jeremiah anticipates a day when God’s judgment will operate on a strictly individual basis, he assumes that God has judged the children for their ancestors’ sins in the past (31:29–30; cf. Lam. 5:7). However, the Old Testament law says a son should not be executed for his father’s sin (Deut. 24:16; cf. 2 Kings 14:6). Ezekiel 18 seems to suggest that God himself abides by this principle and judges a person on the basis of the person’s own actions, not those of the parents. How can this apparent contradiction be harmonized? In each case in which children are punished for their parents’ sin, direct rebellion against God is in view. (The Israelites made a solemn oath before God that they would live in peace with the Gibeonites [Josh. 9:18–20].) Because of the principle of corporate solidarity, the sovereign God of the universe has the freedom to judge a couple’s descendants when divine authority has been directly challenged, but God does not allow humans—being finite and prone to injustice and excessive vengeance—that same freedom in civil cases. Ezekiel 18 deals with a somewhat different situation. Here the hypothetical children in the illustrations are actively pursuing evil or righteousness in their daily lives. These exiles can rest assured that their forebears’ character will not negate their own behavior, for better or worse. For Ezekiel’s generation, this is the important principle to recognize. They are not mere victims of God’s judgment on their fathers and mothers. They too are sinners and need to take personal responsibility for their own actions. God in his grace has preserved them. He has given them opportunity to repent of their evil and to do what is right. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God assures the exiles that he will reward a proper response, regardless of their ancestors’ shortcomings.
v.7
The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul.
v.8
But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, whom she had borne to Saul, together with the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
v.9
He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed and exposed them on a hill before the LORD. All seven of them fell together; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest, just as the barley harvest was beginning.
v.10
Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest till the rain poured down from the heavens on the bodies, she did not let the birds of the air touch them by day or the wild animals by night.
v.11
When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done,
v.12
he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had taken them secretly from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.)
v.13
David brought the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from there, and the bones of those who had been killed and exposed were gathered up.
v.14
They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish, at Zela in Benjamin, and did everything the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.
v.15
Once again there was a battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his men to fight against the Philistines, and he became exhausted.
v.16
And Ishbi-Benob, one of the descendants of Rapha, whose bronze spearhead weighed three hundred shekels and who was armed with a new [sword], said he would kill David.
v.17
But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David’s rescue; he struck the Philistine down and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “Never again will you go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel will not be extinguished.”
v.18
In the course of time, there was another battle with the Philistines, at Gob. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha.
v.19
In another battle with the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver’s rod.
v.20
In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha.
v.21
When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him.
v.22
These four were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.