1 Durante o reinado de Davi, houve uma fome que durou três anos. Davi consultou o Senhor, que lhe disse: "A fome veio por causa de Saul e de sua família sanguinária, por terem matado os gibeonitas".

2 O rei então mandou chamar os gibeonitas e falou com eles. ( Os gibeonitas não eram de origem israelita, mas remanescentes dos amorreus. Os israelitas tinham feito com eles um acordo sob juramento; mas Saul, em seu zelo por Israel e Judá, havia tentado exterminá-los. )

3 Davi perguntou aos gibeonitas: "Que posso fazer por vocês? Como posso reparar o que foi feito, para que abençoem a herança do Senhor? "

4 Os gibeonitas responderam: "Não exigimos de Saul ou de sua família prata ou ouro, nem queremos matar ninguém em Israel". Davi perguntou: "O que querem que eu faça por vocês? ",

5 e eles responderam: "Quanto ao homem que quase nos exterminou e que pretendia destruir-nos, para que não tivéssemos lugar em Israel,

6 que sete descendentes dele sejam executados perante o Senhor, em Gibeá de Saul, no monte do Senhor". "Eu os entregarei a vocês", disse o rei.

7 O rei poupou Mefibosete, filho de Jônatas e neto de Saul, por causa do juramento feito perante o Senhor entre Davi e Jônatas, filho de Saul.

8 Mas o rei mandou buscar Armoni e Mefibosete, dois filhos de Rispa, filha de Aiá, que ela teve com Saul, e os cinco filhos de Merabe, filha de Saul, que ela teve com Adriel, filho de Barzilai, de Meolá.

9 Ele os entregou aos gibeonitas, que os executaram no monte, perante o Senhor. Os sete foram mortos ao mesmo tempo, nos primeiros dias da colheita de cevada.

10 Então Rispa, filha de Aiá, pegou um pano de saco e o estendeu para si sobre uma rocha. Desde o início da colheita até cair chuva do céu sobre os corpos, ela não deixou que as aves de rapina os tocassem de dia, nem os animais selvagens à noite.

11 Quando Davi foi informado do que Rispa, filha de Aiá, concubina de Saul, havia feito,

12 ele mandou recolher os ossos de Saul e de Jônatas, tomando-os dos cidadãos de Jabes-Gileade. ( Eles haviam roubado os ossos da praça de Bete-Seã, onde os filisteus os tinham pendurado, no dia em que mataram Saul no monte Gilboa. )

13 Davi trouxe de lá os ossos de Saul e de seu filho Jônatas, que foram recolhidos dentre os ossos dos que haviam sido executados.

14 Enterraram os ossos de Saul e de Jônatas no túmulo de Quis, pai de Saul, em Zela, na terra de Benjamim, e fizeram tudo o que o rei ordenou. Depois disso, Deus respondeu as orações em favor da terra de Israel.

15 Houve, ainda, outra batalha entre os filisteus e Israel; Davi e seus soldados foram lutar contra os filisteus. Davi se cansou muito,

16 e Isbi-Benobe, descendente de Rafa, prometeu matar Davi. ( A ponta de bronze da lança de Isbi-Benobe pesava três quilos e seiscentos gramas, e ele ainda estava armado com uma espada nova. )

17 Mas Abisai, filho de Zeruia, foi em socorro de Davi e matou o filisteu. Então os soldados de Davi lhe juraram, dizendo: "Nunca mais sairás conosco à guerra, para que não apagues a lâmpada de Israel".

18 Houve depois outra batalha com os filisteus, em Gobe. Naquela ocasião Sibecai, de Husate, matou Safe, um dos descendentes de Rafa.

19 Noutra batalha contra os filisteus em Gobe, Elanã, filho de Jaaré-Oregim, de Belém, matou Golias, de Gate, que possuía uma lança cuja haste parecia uma lançadeira de tecelão.

20 Noutra batalha, em Gate, havia um homem de grande estatura e que tinha seis dedos em cada mão e seis dedos em cada pé, vinte e quatro dedos ao todo. Ele também era descendente de Rafa,

21 e desafiou Israel, mas Jônatas, filho de Siméia, irmão de Davi, o matou.

22 Esses quatro eram descendentes de Rafa, em Gate, e foram mortos por Davi e seus soldados.

1 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. 2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); 3 and David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of Jehovah? 4 And the Gibeonites said unto him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. 5 And they said unto the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6 let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah. And the king said, I will give them.

7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Jehovah’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 9 And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Jehovah, and they fell all seven together. And they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul in Gilboa; 13 and he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.

15 And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David waxed faint; 16 and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David. 17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succored him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel.

18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite slew Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. 19 And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20 And there was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. 21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, slew him. 22 These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.