The seven who were hung, 2 Samuel 21:1-14

Q. Why would David deliver the seven descendants of Saul to the Gibeonites to be hanged? That seems wrong.

A. David ordered them hung because of a three-year famine and to fulfill the Gibeonites’ yearning for retribution against Saul and his actions.

The record of this incident begins with God’s judgement by way of famine on the nation of Israel.[i] When David enquires of God about the problem, “the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.”[ii] Saul sinned against the Gibeonites in cruelty and treachery. This wrong had not been righted. The Israelites swore an oath and made a league to spare the Gibeonites and live at peace with them (Joshua 9). The Gibeonites devised a cunning ruse to persuade the Israelites to make peace with them. God nevertheless expected them to keep their oath (Ecclesiastes 5:4).[iii] Saul violated this covenant. David was right in enquiring of God as to the problem. However, it appears that he erred in enquiring of the Gibeonites rather than God for how to fix the problem. In verse 3, he asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you?” They answer their desire (see verses 5 and 6) – “let seven men of [Saul’s] sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul”.

David does not hesitate. He agrees and delivers seven sons of Saul to the Gibeonites for hanging.[iv] The Gibeonites received their revenge on the house of Saul. Had David enquired of God, perhaps God would have commanded another solution.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men hanged, is an honourable character in this story (cf. 2 Samuel 3:7). The Gibeonites left the bodies hanging for all to see.[v] Rizpah protected the bodies from the devouring by birds and beasts.[vi] When David hears what Rizpah had done, he seems to be moved with compassion and ends the gruesome scenario. Only after David buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan and the bones of the seven that were hanged “God was intreated for the land.”[vii]

This incident in the life of David is unusual and contrary to our modern sensibilities. That God recorded it does not mean he approved it, morally. However, we know that such stories are recorded for our learning and our admonition, and “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter” (Proverbs 25:2).

As someone has said, regardless of the interpretation of this passage, the story will ruffle its readers. I do not have all the answers, but here are a few observations.

Regardless of what we may not understand or misunderstand, God is just. The judgment of the famine and the reason for it is a temporal punishment under the righteous hand of God. Only a fool seeks a quarrel with God.

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. Deuteronomy 32:4

God judges nations. See Ezekiel chapters 25-32.

Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel. Read Jeremiah 18:1-10.

God judged Israel because of “blood-guilt” that had not been justly compensated according to the law. Seven of Saul’s sons were executed. Though the capital punishment was carried out by the Gibeonites, it seems that God’s wrath was not satisfied until all the associated dead were buried – “after that God was intreated for the land.” All told, it is a sad episode in Israel’s history that illustrates that God is not mocked, but whatsoever a man, or a nation, soweth, that will also be reaped.

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[i] 2 Samuel 21:1-14 is a section of 2 Samuel chapters 21-24, which may be a non-chronological supplement to the narrative of the reign of David. “Then” would be a sort of reference to other things that happened “in the days of David” rather than a chronological referent. “Then” does not bear the pure chronological weight as a statement such as “it came to pass after these things” in 1 Kings 17:17. Shimei, a Benjamite, a man of the family of the house of Saul, cursed David as a bloody man (2 Samuel 16:5-14). This may refer to the incident of 2 Samuel 21:1-14. Many believe it to be.
[ii] It is not clear exactly when this occurred. According to John Gill, “the Jews commonly say that he slew them when he slew the priests at Nob, they being hewers of wood and drawers of water to them, and were slain with them.” See Joshua 9:27 and 1 Samuel 22:17-19. However, their answer in verse 5 suggests this was an ongoing process in the reign of Saul to eliminate the presence of the Gibeonites as inhabitants of Israel. The land was polluted with blood, Numbers 35:33-34. 2 Samuel 21:2 – his bloody house – possibly implicates Saul’s family in the attempted extermination of the Gibeonites.
[iii] For their submission, the Gibeonites achieved survival and received protection (Joshua 9:25 and Joshua 10:6-7)
[iv] David’s action are seen by some as a violation of his oath to Saul, 1 Samuel 24:21-22. He does not, however, seek the extermination of all Saul’s descendants, and he carefully keeps his oath to Jonathan (1 Samuel 18:3; 20:15–17, 42; 23:18).
[v] A violation of Deuteronomy 21:22-23.
[vi] Such a fate was incurred in the curse of an Israel that would “not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.”
[vii] It seems that the nation was also guilty of not honouring their dead leaders of the first dynasty with a proper burial. Compare 1 Samuel 31:8–13.