Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 181
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S am u el – K I N G S
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and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord. But he gave them Saul’s two
sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of
Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab, the wife of
Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah. The men of Gibeon executed them
on the mountain before the Lord. So all seven of them died together at
the beginning of the barley harvest.
Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the mother of two of the men, spread
burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented
the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped
wild animals from eating them at night. When David learned what Rizpah,
Saul’s concubine, had done, he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When the Philistines had
killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, the people of Jabesh-gilead
stole their bodies from the public square of B
eth-shan, where the Philis
tines had hung them.) So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan,
as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.
Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of Kish,
Saul’s father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God
ended the famine in the land.
Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and
his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted.
Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed
more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came
to David’s rescue and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men declared,
“You are not going out to battle with us again! Why risk snuffing out the
light of Israel?”
After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob. As
they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of
the giants.
During another battle at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem killed
the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of his spear was as thick as a
weaver’s beam!
In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, they encountered a huge
man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-
four in all, who was also a descendant of the giants. But when he defied
and taunted Israel, he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David’s brother
Shimea.
These four Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but David
and his warriors killed them.