2 Samuel 21:1-14

The Famine in David’s Day and Saul’s Bloody House

Will you open us up with a word of prayer? Father, we're grateful this morning, as always, for another day. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that today could be the day we can come to worship that we've set aside this Sunday for you.

We now ask you to bless Mike and his studies and what's been prepared for us. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Second Samuel, chapter 21, read the whole chapter. I don't think we're gonna get through.

I know it's short, but I don't think so. We may. We've got some jumping around to do to kind of get some context of what has happened, so just bear with me. Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year.

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, spoke to them, and now the Gibeonites were not the sons of Israel, but the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had 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? How can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

And then the Gibeonites said to him, We have no concern over 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 the remaining within the borders of Israel, let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will hang them before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the Lord.

And the king said, I will give them to you. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath which he had made between them, between David and Saul's son, Jonathan.

So the king took the sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Armani and Mephibosheth, whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Merob, the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Mahoathite.

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

And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until it rained on them from the sky, and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them nor day or the beasts of the field by night.

And when it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, then David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his sons, from the men at Jabeshgilead, who had stolen them from the open square in Beshan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day that the Philistines struck down Saul in Gilboa.

He brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from there, and they gathered the bones of them who had been hanged, and they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the country of Benjamin in Zila, at the grave of Kish, his father.

Thus they did, all the king commanded. And after that, God was moved by prayer for the land. Now when the Philistines were at war again with Israel, David went down and his servants with them, and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary.

Then Ishbonob, or however you say his name, who was among the descendants of the giant, the weight whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze, was girded with a new sword, and he intended to kill David with it.

But Abishai, the son of Zeriah, helped him, and he struck down the Philistine and killed him, and the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel.

Now it came about again that there was war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibachai, the Hushanite, struck down Sath, who was among the descendants of the giant, and there was war again with the Philistines at Gob.

And Elhani, the son of Jerogim, the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's mane. And there was war at Gath again, where there was a man whose stature had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot.

He was twenty-four in number, and he also had been born to the giant. And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. These four were born to the giant in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.".

David Seeks the Lord Over the Famine

It's interesting that they have grouped the killing of those giants in with this narrative. For whatever reason, on the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the narrator has done that. This brings us to a very interesting story in history of the unfolding of redemptive history in the life of David.

I'm not sure when this takes place. It says, now when there was famine in the days of David for three years. I'm not sure when. Could this have been consecutively after what had taken place with Sheba?

It's possible. It almost seems unlikely, but it could have. But there was a famine in the land. You may remember what famine was a result of under the Old Covenant. When a famine, we're not talking about, hey, we missed a little bit of rain this harvest.

What famine was a time when there was no rain, and we're talking about for three years. Usually, under the Mosaic legislation, was that not a curse of God on the people, right? Anybody remember that? He says, hey, when you disobey me, you won't have any crops, you won't have any rain, you won't have any harvest, all of that.

Well, David realizes, hey, this has happened year after year. So, it says in verse one, that David sought the presence of the Lord, and the Lord said to him, it is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.

So David realizes that there's obviously a problem, and he says, Lord, what's going on? Was that not what David's role was to do? When you see calamity happening, what was he to do? He was supposed to seek the Lord's face, and that's exactly what he did.

It looks like here, God didn't hesitate. You know why this is happening? You know why your people are starving? You know why there's no rain? It's because of Saul. You go, wow, why is David being punished, per se, or chastised for something that Saul did?

We could go, if y 'all want to flip back, we could, or I could just make it quick. In Joshua chapter nine, when they were making their conquest, and they had heard what the people had done in Ai, and they were scared to death, and they remember what they did?

They came in, basically in a costume, ragtag clothes, molded bread, old wineskins, and they came in and says, hey, you know, we're just needing help, and what did Joshua do? He made a league with them.

He made a covenant with them. It actually says he cut a covenant with them, and remember, when you cut a covenant, that's basically saying, when they cut, it was taking those two animals, or sacrificing one, saying whatever, whoever party breaks that, this is what will happen to us, and if you go back and you read that in Joshua, it actually says, once they did that, they found out they had been deceived, the people, the congregation says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we need to wipe them out anyway, and the elders in Joshua said, we can't do that.

We have taken an oath sworn before the Lord, before Yahweh, we can't do that, but what we can do is we can make them slave labor. They made them, remember, they made them hewers of stone, carriers and cutters of wood, and toters of water.

That's basically what they did. So it did say, Joshua says, if we violate this law, this covenant that we have made with God, with these people, we will incur the wrath of God on the people and the land.

So we need to remember that that is why they did not go ahead and extinguish them. Interesting that Saul, he would not go in and wipe out the Jebusites. Remember who was in Jerusalem when David, it was Jabez at the time, who was in Jerusalem when David threw Goliath's head over the wall?

It was the remnant of the Amorites, which were some of the Jebusites. So when Saul was in the monarchy, he failed to run them out. What's the first thing David does when he comes in? He comes in power.

What does he do? He makes a conquest to overrun Jerusalem, get them out, and to basically make the land what God had intended it to be. Actually he had run out all their enemies at that point. Well, Saul failed to do that.

But he also, if you remember, I think it was back in chapter 18 or 20, somewhere out there in 1 Samuel, you remember what he did to his own countrymen? Not only did he kill 85 priests, he slaughtered a city of his own countrymen.

So now you have him, he didn't extinguish those whom he was supposed to, but we have two times in which he killed, Saul intentionally killed those in Nob, those were his countrymen, and then he then violates the law or the covenant made with God when he goes and he tries to run out the Gibeonites.

Now it does say the reason that he did it was for the zeal of Israel and for the remnant that was there. Whatever reason. Dude, that's ethnic cleansing. There's no way around it. His desire was to wipe out all the Gibeonites.

And God says it's for Saul and his bloody house. I want you to remember, bloody house. That is key for understanding as we get towards the end and what takes place is why, we'll get there. Just remember, bloody house, Saul's home as a federal head, Saul represented his family, he represented the people, therefore his house is represented by the very things that Saul has done because he put the Gibeonites to death.

So the king called to the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not the sons of Israel, but were the remnant of the Amorites and it talks about the covenant that they made and it says in his zeal to kill the sons of Israel, I'm sorry, to kill them for the zeal for Israel and Judah.

Then verse 3, thus David said to the Gibeonites, what should I do for you? Okay, one, we have to ask ourselves, why didn't he ask God? He entreated on God, why is the land under a famine? He says, because of what Saul did.

I don't know about y 'all, but when I'm reading that, I go, well then why didn't he ask God what to do? Hey, what would you have me to do? Well, we have to understand that David knew what the law of God said about when you murder someone.

Was that murdering, wholesale murder of the Gibeonites? Was it? Okay, it was. Now, you could go back to Deuteronomy and you could go back to Numbers 35, if y 'all want to read that on your own, and it talks about polluting the land from blood guiltiness.

Okay? If blood guiltiness, if you pollute the land for shedding innocent blood, there was one and one way only to unpollute the land, and that was to shed blood. Hey, we can go all the way back to when they come out of the ark.

What was one of the first commands given to them? And he said, alright, go ahead, that's right. And then he says, hey, if a man's blood shed, innocent blood is shed, by that man's blood, by that his blood shall be shed as well.

Okay? So, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

It's interesting how the Gibeonites in verse 4 even understood that too.

I was going to bring that up. As you get down, because they understand if you go to, if we were to read in Numbers 30 when it deals with, that whole chapter deals with the 48 cities of the Levites and the cities of refuge and all of that, but he gets to the blood guiltiness as you get to the end.

It even says you can't ransom that back. So if that's what you're talking about when they say, hey, we don't want money. We don't want money, and we don't want, basically, we don't want reparations. We want the thing that the law of God requires of someone if they murder someone.

Interesting that the Gibeonites knew that. That the Gibeonites knew that. Now, my understanding is, that's why David didn't ask. David knew what the law said. Now, there might be other teachers out there that say, hey, what David did was wrong.

David had no business saying to the Gibeonites, what would you have me do? But as we get to the end, we will understand that once David did what he did, what happened? The plague was lifted. So that means David did what he was supposed to do.

David was not in error, per se, of asking the Gibeonites. You asking a question? No. Okay, for asking the Gibeonites what they wanted. So, here, where are we at? Okay. It says, but Saul, verse 3, then David said to the Gibeonites, what shall I do for you?

And how can I make atonement? And that is the work of far there, okay? How can I make an atonement for what has happened? That you may bless the inheritance of God. And verse 4, then the Gibeonites said to him, we don't have any concern of gold or silver with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.

Okay. They also understood that they don't have the right for capital punishment. They understood that, okay, we are basically living in occupied land. If someone's going to put someone to death, it can't be us.

It has to come through the throne. It has to come through David. David's the only one that can say, hey, man, I want so and so put to death. And they understand that. This is then the Gibeonites said to him, and he said, I will do for you whatever you say.

David didn't even lay out some options. He just said, hey, whatever you want me to do, you tell me what it is and I'll do it. I want to say that is a very good indication of how much David did love his people.

Look, he was seeing his people starve. He was seeing them suffer. Once again, what does David do? He steps in their place and says, hey, I'll do whatever I have to do to make this right. One, because obviously what Saul did was wrong in the eyes of God.

Now what was once Saul's problem is now his problem, and I'm willing to do whatever necessary to see that it's taken care of. So once again, he steps into the place of being the one to be the mediator.

Blood for Blood and the Gibeonites’ Demand

And he says in verse 5, so they said to the king, the man who consumed us and who planned to exterminate us. What does that say about Saul? Saul just wasn't going through there just being a little brutal, okay?

He wasn't just, you know what, man, we ain't been beating up enough Philistines. Let's go to the Gibeonites and whack a few of them off so we can keep our war efforts and sharp tactics up to par. That's no, it says here that he tried to consume us and he had planned to exterminate us from remaining within the borders of Israel.

And here's what their request was. 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 to you.

Now, there is some difficulties in how this should be understood. Or is David going to punish the descendants of Saul for the sins of Saul? That is a good question. I don't know about y 'all, but that was a question I asked, because what does it say?

That the sins of the, go ahead, you can take a second.

Yeah, it's unbearable, the kid shouldn't be killed.

That's why I think it's very important to remember what God said to David when he asked, his bloody house, his bloody house. Hey, these young men were probably in the army. You understand that? These were the descendants of Saul.

These were sons and grandsons. You don't think they were partakers of this? Really? Wasn't Jonathan in the army? Sure. Could Jonathan have partaken some of that? Maybe, we don't know, but we know this.

As God says specifically right here, his house, not Saul as an individual, but his house, and as a federal head of the people, he represents not only the nation, he, look, as his federal head, as he represented the nation, who's suffering because of Saul's sin right now?

The people. So just like we have a federal head, what's our federal head as believers? Christ. Who was our federal head before that? Adam. And did we not suffer death, condemnation, and the wrath of God abiding on us because of what our federal head did in the garden by disobeying?

Yes, so Saul, as a representative of the people, has now incurred the wrath of God on the people because he broke the covenant. Now, their request is, let seven men of his sons be given to us. They understand that the only way to make retribution for what has happened is blood for blood, and under the Mosaic legislation, that was correct.

Blood for blood. If the land is polluted because of blood guiltiness, blood must be shed. That's the only way for it to go away. They understood that. It's like, it's interesting that they understood that quicker than David almost.

Because David says, okay, whatever you want me to do, I do wonder when he said, when they said, hey, we don't want any gold or we don't want any silver. I do wonder, was David thinking these things to ask me to go knock on some doors and round up some descendants?

I mean, we don't know. So they say, hey, give us the descendants of Saul, seven of them. Interesting. The chosen of the Lord. That's how they saw. Yeah. Was Saul anointed by the Lord to be their federal head when he was in the monarchy?

Certainly was. But actually, he was chosen by the people. Chosen by the people, anointed by God. God gave them what they wanted. You remember what he said? I'm going to give you what you want, and here's what's going to happen.

If he disobeys, he's going to incur wrath upon the people. When he disobeys, he is going to incur judgment on you. He's going to take your women, your son, yeah, all these things. I mean, here it is, however long this is later, because we don't know how long into Saul's reign that this actually took place either.

We don't know. We don't know how long this had taken place. And another thing we can say, does God have to dispense justice and wrath immediately? No, He doesn't. God could have waited. Hey, we could even say if this is towards the end of David's reign, man, God would have waited almost 40 years to do this.

God is not obligated at any time to drop the hammer when we think He should. Now, should He every time drop the hammer immediately? He should, but when He doesn't... But then we're in trouble. What's that?

Then we'd be in trouble. Yeah, but because of His grace, He does not. I do wonder, if we're reading this and walking through it, go, okay, what if this famine would have happened when Saul would have started?

What would Saul have done? Saul would have kept killing Gibeonites, because we know that Saul did what? He consistently and constantly disobeyed the Word of God. This is a prime example. He wouldn't care nothing about his people.

Look, if he'll kill 85 priests and then slay a whole city because they thought they were hiding David, I mean, this would have been no big deal to him. And he knew that they were not supposed to fight the Gibeonites because it was basically within the law of God to not do so.

So you get to verse 7. It says, but the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul. So just kind of time frame, we know this has to be sometime after 8 and 9 of 2 Samuel because that's when Mephibosheth comes on the scene.

David's taking care of him. He knows that Mephibosheth's alive. So that's how we know that this has happened after Mephibosheth has come back and, quote, David's court. And it says the reason why he spared Mephibosheth.

He did it because of the oath that he took with Jonathan. What was the, and we've talked about it three weeks in a row already, what was that oath? Yeah, he wouldn't wipe out Jonathan's because of his covenant he made with Jonathan and his love for Jonathan.

Remember, him and Jonathan were knit together. So they were joined together at the time that they began to fight with, not fight one another, fight with one another as they were going out fighting Philistines.

But we need to understand as well that David is not violating his promise that he made to Saul. Do you remember the last interaction that David had with Saul and what Saul says, you'll be king? Do you remember what he asked?

He says, don't wipe out my family. Just don't wipe out my family. And David says, okay, all right, I won't do that. By him saving Mephibosheth, David has not violated his covenant, the oath that he took with Saul.

Remember, that was when Abishag wanted to run to Spiritho. They went out there, remember, they were in the middle. That's when he, and he went away and he called out Abner. You remember that? That's when he says, hey, now I know you're more righteous than me.

And he says, just don't kill my family, basically is what he said. So verse eight, the king took the two sons of Rizvah, the daughter of Aiah. Who was Rizvah? Anybody remember? It was a concubine, Saul's concubine.

So Abishag was a secondhand wife with secondhand kids. I mean, that's just the way it was. Took Armoni and Mephibosheth, like I said, that's another Mephibosheth. Interesting, that's the same name. And it says, whom she had borne to Saul and the five sons of Mirov, the daughter of Saul.

I'm just about guaranteed some of y 'all's translation says Michael. Okay, who says Michael? King James. What do you have, King James as well? Yeah, do you have King James? New King James? Okay, just people don't like to hear this, okay?

That's a scribal error. All right, that's all there is to it. And how do we know that? Turn over to Chronicles 20 and it tells you. It's Mirov. Yeah, and how do we know that this is Mirov and not Michael?

Because Mirov was given to who? Adriel. You see it? Okay, I mean, people don't like to hear that. But remember, there are scribal errors that were made in the Masoretic. I mean, there's no way around it.

We're not saying the authenticity, the scripture can't be trusted. But these are passages like this that egg-headed liberals go to and say, hey, look, right there, the Bible is wrong. Look, the Bible is without error in its original writings and in its doctrine and theology.

This in no way, this scribal error, okay, is in no way changed the doctrine and theology, the order of salvation, or how men and women are made right before a holy God on the final day of judgment of the resurrection.

Okay, no way. And it's interesting, if you look up any exegetical commentary, it tells you, undoubtedly, this was a scribal error. And in an effort to keep the authenticity of the Masoretic text, you know what they do?

They copy the scribal error in there. What's that? No, I was going to say... Yeah, I don't know if you remember when we were in this room over here doing 1 Samuel, this guy popped off, I'll give anybody, you know, a $100 ,000 check if they can show me any error and give us into King James.

I was like, buddy, you better get your checkbook ready because you're going to write me two checks, so it'll be 200 grand. Because if you want to get smart mouth like that, there are scribal errors that they know, even the copiers knew it.

Now, if it was me, and I was... I'd fix that. Yeah, just fix it. Because now you have, say, you got the Chronicles passage in 1 Chronicles 20, and you have this one here. And when we reconcile the two, we can see to it that Mirab, we know that Mirab was given to Adriel.

How do we know that? Back in 1 Samuel. Who was Michael given to? Paltiel. You remember when David... Yeah, 20 years later, however long that was. Remember, Abner, he says, hey, I bought her with four skins.

I want her back. And the door gets knocked on, and Abner says, all right, Michael, get your makeup, your dress, look good. Look good and smell good, or you're going back to David. Remember what happened?

Paltiel followed behind him, and when they got to Bahrain, Abner said, suck it up, buddy, go home.

Wait, so this used to be David's wife? Yeah, Michael.

I got mad at him for being... Well, Michael is a... It's Mirab. The correct translation is Mirab. And how do we know that? Because Mirab was the one who was born to Adriel, the son of Berziah. Okay? Michael was David's wife that he bought with 204 skins.

It only required 100. But if you remember what happened, Mirab originally was supposed to be given to David. And what did Saul say? Let me give her Michael. She'll be a snare to him. Originally, he was supposed to have Mirab.

So it almost... What's that?

Sorry, I thought there was a one. David. That's Michael.

Okay. Well, what happened is David, he fleed. Last time we see, I think, her and him together, she had put the giant idol in the bed. Right, but not this, Michael. This is Mirab.

Mirab's her sister. Okay. So that's where the... Okay, I thought it was just like a misspelling or something.

No, no, it's a scribal. It's a wrong name. Yeah, wrong name. So you can go back and if you want to look at it, you can read 1 Chronicles 20. And Mike, it's also interesting in Qumran, where the Essenes took the Masoretic text.

You'll see a lot of those texts. They've got the correction. Sure. On the side. Yeah, they do. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah, and the Essenes realized there was an issue. Yeah, and those took place in the intertestamental time.

By the way, just to let y 'all know, they realized there was a scribal error and they did try to fix that. I don't know if y 'all know who the Essenes were, but they arised in the intertestamental time along with the Pharisees.

You all right? Along with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and... They were the Xerox of the day. Yeah. Yeah, and it's interesting. When we get into Daniel, we're actually going to talk about some of what their beliefs.

And they believed there would be two messiahs that would come. They saw one that would be suffering and they saw one that would be a militant political leader. And it's interesting, so we don't get off on too much of a rabbit trail, but it's interesting from what we do understand is that John the Baptist probably was raised up in an Essene-type reading of Scripture.

His body rugged, rough, in the wilderness. That was the Essenes. And it's interesting that when he's put in prison, he sends his disciples to Jesus and says, hey, should we expect another? People go, oh man, he was in a time of unbelief.

I would say he wasn't in a time of unbelief. If you understand, if he was following the teachings or his understanding, because the Holy Spirit had not been yet given. Did he have the Holy Spirit? Yes, but it was not given as it is under the new covenant.

He was understanding it, hey, maybe he's the one that's to die and the next one after him is going to be the one to establish the kingdom. That's how I understand it. Some people believe that, but if you understand the history of where he may have come from and his teaching and he was out in the wilderness being taught and the Essenes and all of that.

And the Essenes, their theology wasn't too quack-a-doodle. I mean, it wasn't. Obviously, all of them were a little off in some areas, obviously the Sadducees. Anyway, we'll talk about the Essenes and we get to Daniel.

Sorry, that's all right. Because the Qumran, people don't really think about the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Qumran stuff. I mean, some of that when we get into Daniel, I mean, you have, since when we get to the 77s, there were Qumran scrolls that gave us better understanding of what the intertestamental time of how they understood the 77s.

Oh man, that's going to be fun. And Daniel. When we get to Daniel, we'll be there and hopefully end by Christmas. Hopefully, maybe. So here it is. He says he took the five sons of Merab, the daughter of Saul, who she had born to Adriel, the Mahoathite.

And he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites and they hanged them in the mountain of the Lord. Before them, all seven of them fell together and they were put to death in the first day of the harvest in the beginning of the barley harvest.

I don't know about y 'all. You read that and you go, wait a minute. How could they be hung? All seven of them at the beginning of the harvest. This has been a famine for three years. Was there a harvest?

No. But it's giving you a time stamp of this was probably in the spring. When did they gather the barley in? In the spring. So there was a time of festival, a time of being happy. Remember, any time they brought in the harvest, man, it was partying.

It was just like shearing the sheep. It's party time. Well, this was not a time for her to be happy. Her sons and the seven descendants of Saul were hung. What's that? And it says in the beginning of the wheat harvest.

I'm sorry, the barley harvest. And Rizpah, the daughter of Ayah, took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until it rained on them from the sky. And she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the beast of the field by night.

Hey, we don't know how long this was. We don't know. But there is an interesting little tidbit of information. It says until the rain fell on them, that, hey, we knew that God's wrath had been lifted.

And God's wrath had been lifted. What was the, there was been no rain. There was a famine because there had been no rain. Now, were they hung, crucified? No, okay. Crucifixion was not yet perfected by the Romans at this point.

I understand this to either be hung by a rope, by the neck, or impaled. Most likely impaled. Most likely. What's that? Yeah, she's in a, to keep their bodies from being desecrated by the animals. She was keeping, yeah, she's trying to keep them.

Hey, imagine the love for her kids that she's going to stay out there, basically, be able to lean to. And she's going to stay out there during the day. With a broom. What, yeah, yeah, broom. And at night, fighting off, I mean, who knows?

Lions, mountain lions, whatever. Coyotes, wolves, whatever. And she fighting them off.

You think about, you know, famines, you know, birds, stuff like that. There's not stuff for them to eat. Nope, but they sure eat that flesh. This is going to be highly, you know, interesting for them.

Yeah, yeah.

And most, and we think of the birds, we're understand, we understand that not to be mocking birds. Okay, this is vultures. And if there's been a famine, yeah, they're going to be hungry. Yeah, they're going to be hungry.

David Honors Saul and Jonathan and the Rain Returns

Verse 11, when it was told to David that it was by the daughter of Isaiah, the concubine of Saul, and what she had done, then David sent and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son from Jabesh Gilead.

Remember, when they went and got Saul and Jonathan's body, they, these men, where were we at? These men right here were the ones that went and got them. And this is where their bones have been for however long that was.

This is where they've been. They've not been, they have not been, quote, gathered to his fathers. Remember, we earlier, but we talked about the significance of being buried with their fathers. Everybody wanted to be buried with their people.

So now, David's going to, once again, show an act of compassion. He did it in their dead state, and he's going to bury them with their father Kish, the grandfather and great-grandfather. It says, verse 13, he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.

And he buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the country of Benjamin and Zelah, the grave of Kish, his father. Thus, they did all that the king commanded. And after that, God moved by prayer for the land.

Mike, does yours say something different than that? King James say something different other than moved by prayer and treated for the land? So in other words, here it is. You had people praying, God, whatever this is, tell us what it is.

Fix it. Now, God now has answered the prayer and entreated the land. And what did he do? Caused rain. He caused rain. Now, for those that hold the position that David was wrong, okay? And I understand when reading that, you go, man, why didn't David ask?

David should have asked, okay? I mean, I understand the idea. But we understand now that what David has done, he has now taken the blood guiltiness on the land, he has now punished those whose the house of Saul had done, that now God says, okay, the plague's lifted.

It's over. The sacrifice has been accepted. Sure. And if what David did was wrong... Still be a drought. Yeah, that's how I understand it, okay? If somebody disagrees with me, I'm fine with it. You still have to answer the question, well, then why was the famine lifted?

If David was in disobedience for letting the Gibeonites make the terms, which I don't think the Gibeonites made the terms, I think they understood the law of Moses. That's how I understand it. Go ahead.

Well, it's just interesting, too.

I agree with you. I think they said that. And it's interesting how he said, neither for us shalt thou kill any certain people.