2 Samuel 21
New International Version (NIV)
The Gibeonites Avenged
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.”
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.) 3 David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make atonement so that you will bless the Lord’s inheritance?”
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.
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, 6 let seven of his male descendants be given to us to be killed and their bodies exposed before the Lord at Gibeah of Saul—the Lord’s chosen one.”
So the king said, “I will give them to you.”
7 The king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul,
because of the oath before the Lordbetween David and Jonathan son of
Saul. 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,[a] whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9 He handed them over to the Gibeonites, who killed them and exposed their bodies 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.
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 touch them by day or the wild animals by night. 11 When David was told what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s concubine, had done, 12 he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh Gilead. (They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them after they struck Saul down on Gilboa.) 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.
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.
God tells David that Israel’s famine is due to Saul’s treatment of the Gibeonites. David asks the Gibeonites what they need to atone for Saul’s atrocities, and they ask for 7 of Saul’s male descendants to be killed. David grants their wishes, and then God ends the famine.
As a child, I was told that Christianity was a moral religion, unlike the ancient and barbaric pagan religions that demanded human sacrifice. It was primitive savages who believed their gods would grant good crops if they killed people. This passage contradicts what the idea that the Christian god is not a petty tyrant. I can understand killing someone who does something wrong (like Hitler). I can not understand how killing innocent children makes a god happy.
Where does it says that it pleased God to have them killed? Oh wait, it doesn’t say.
By: caleb on January 8, 2013
at 5:28 am
The Lord said, “It [the famine] is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
The deaths of Saul’s descendants pleased god so he began answering prayers again, as stated in verse 14.
By: edhensley on January 8, 2013
at 11:04 pm
THANKS FOR RAISING THESE MOST INTERESTING QUESTIONS.
There are these kind of passages in the bible that I still grapple with.
In some ways the bible is anthropological, in keeping with historical periods and stages of human development. It is such a human book. On the other hand it nevertheless fascinates how God illuminates step by step from within and through each ordinary human stage of development. The bible reveals as much about how we humans get it wrong as it does about how God is really good and just and one etc. I do sometimes wish he had just simply dictated the full truth in one go and used the mass media to make things very clear.
But then he does not need to his truth is found in the heart if we wish to find it there. That seems to be where he likes to be found and where he likes perhaps to hide. Anyway without faith our hope has no substance. Who wants to be without hope? The universe is great and even comprehensible. So it is more reasonable to have hope. The bible inspires hope and faith in ever increasing ways as it developed through history. We just need to remember it has many different narrative forms, not all to be taken literally.
By: Paul Kiernan on January 8, 2013
at 11:31 pm
“I do sometimes wish he had just simply dictated the full truth in one go and used the mass media to make things very clear.”
If there were a god, this is what he or she would have done.
“We just need to remember it has many different narrative forms, not all to be taken literally.”
But the bible does not tell us what is literal and what is metaphor. Some Christians take Genesis literally and demand that public science classes teach that the earth is only 6000 years old. Some Christians take verses literally that command violence against gays (see Westboro Baptist Church). Once again, if there were a god, he or she would have made it crystal clear as to what is metaphor and what is metaphor.
Finally, god is not necessary to have hope.
By: edhensley on January 9, 2013
at 2:23 am