2 Samuel 21

Rizpah Takes Care of the Bodies

10 Rizpah spread out some sackcloth*21.10 sackcloth: See the note at 3.31. on a nearby rock. She wouldn’t let the birds land on the bodies during the day, and she kept the wild animals away at night. She stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until it started to rain.*21.10 started to rain: This may have been the beginning of the rainy season in September or October. It usually didn’t rain from May to September. Or, it may have been a sign that now there would be enough rain again.

The Burial of Saul and His Descendants

11,12 *1 S 31.8-13.Earlier the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa and had hung their bodies in the town square at Beth-Shan. The people of Jabesh in Gilead had secretly taken the bodies away, but David found out what Saul’s wife*21.11,12 wife: See the note at 3.7. Rizpah had done, and he went to the leaders of Jabesh to get the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan.