Atlas Biblica

    2 Samuel · 22 verses

    2 Samuel 21

    Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

    The chapter

    What happens here

    Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

    The chapter can spare one Mephibosheth and hand another over to the Gibeonites; later, faced with a man carrying twenty-four digits, it pauses to count them.

    The famine and the seven descendantsvv. 1–9

    Three years of famine send David to seek the LORD, who points to Saul’s bloodshed against the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites decline silver, gold, and—at first hearing—any execution, then ask for seven of Saul’s male descendants to be hanged at Gibeah of Saul. David spares Mephibosheth son of Jonathan because of his oath with Jonathan, but takes Armoni and another Mephibosheth, along with Merab’s five sons, and delivers all seven to the Gibeonites. The chapter is perfectly capable of using the same name twice in two consecutive sentences and leaving the reader to keep the family tree upright.

    Rizpah on the rockvv. 10–14

    Rizpah spreads sackcloth on a rock and keeps watch from harvest until rain falls, allowing neither bird nor beast to reach the bodies. David hears of it and gathers the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, together with the bones of the seven hanged men. Saul and Jonathan are buried in Zela, in the tomb of Kish, and then God answers the prayers for the land. It is a stern little sequence: rain, bones, a burial, and an answer.

    The Philistine battlesvv. 15–22

    War resumes with the Philistines, and David becomes exhausted. Ishbi-benob, descendant of Rapha, comes with a bronze spear of three hundred shekels and a new sword, intending to kill him; Abishai strikes him down. David’s men then forbid David from going out with them again, lest the lamp of Israel be extinguished. At Gob, Sibbecai kills Saph; at Gob again, Elhanan kills the brother of Goliath, whose spear-shaft is compared with a weaver’s beam. Finally at Gath appears a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all—and Jonathan son of Shimei kills him. Four descendants of Rapha fall, and the chapter leaves its arithmetic unusually tidy.

    The text

    Read it

    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. 2 Sam 21:1During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.”

    2. 2 Sam 21:2At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.)

    3. 2 Sam 21:3So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?”

    4. 2 Sam 21:4The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.

    5. 2 Sam 21:5And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel,

    6. 2 Sam 21:6let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.

    7. 2 Sam 21:7Now 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.

    8. 2 Sam 21:8But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

    9. 2 Sam 21:9And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

    10. 2 Sam 21:10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

    11. 2 Sam 21:11When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done,

    12. 2 Sam 21:12he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa.

    13. 2 Sam 21:13So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.

    14. 2 Sam 21:14And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.

    15. 2 Sam 21:15Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But David became exhausted.

    16. 2 Sam 21:16Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David.

    17. 2 Sam 21:17But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel may not be extinguished.”

    18. 2 Sam 21:18Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.

    19. 2 Sam 21:19Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

    20. 2 Sam 21:20And there was also a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,

    21. 2 Sam 21:21and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him.

    22. 2 Sam 21:22So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 187 passages were voted onto 21 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 171 Kings 11:36I will give one tribe to his son, so that My servant David will always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put My Name.
    • 1Joshua 7:11–12Israel has sinned; they have transgressed My covenant that I commanded them, and they have taken some of what was devoted to destruction. Indeed, they have stolen and lied, and they have put these things with their own possessions.
    • 10Deuteronomy 21:23you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
    • 172 Samuel 18:3But the people pleaded, “You must not go out! For if we have to flee, they will not care about us. Even if half of us die, they will not care. But you are worth ten thousand of us. It is better now if you support us from the city.”
    • 61 Samuel 10:24Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.” And all the people shouted, “Long live the king!”
    • 71 Samuel 20:15and do not ever cut off your loving devotion from my household—not even when the LORD cuts off every one of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
    • 72 Samuel 4:4And Jonathan son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the report about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but as she was hurrying to escape, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
    • 71 Samuel 23:18So the two of them made a covenant before the LORD. And David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.
    • 71 Samuel 18:3Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself.
    • 81 Samuel 18:19So when it was time to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was given in marriage to Adriel of Meholah.
    • 82 Samuel 3:7Now Saul had a concubine named Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. So Ish-bosheth questioned Abner, “Why did you sleep with my father’s concubine?”
    • 121 Samuel 31:10–13They put his armor in the temple of the Ashtoreths and hung his body on the wall of Beth-shan.
    • 12Joshua 17:11Within Issachar and Asher, Manasseh was assigned Beth-shean, Ibleam, Dor (that is, Naphath), Endor, Taanach, and Megiddo, each with their surrounding settlements.
    • 14Joshua 18:28Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim—fourteen cities, along with their villages. This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.
    • 181 Chronicles 11:29Sibbecai the Hushathite, Ilai the Ahohite,
    • 221 Chronicles 20:8So these descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.

    Onward

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