2 Samuel 21:1

THE GIBEONITES AVENGED, 2 Samuel 21:1-9.

1. Then there was a famine The date of this occurrence cannot be exactly determined. It “certainly did not take place in the closing years of David’s reign; on the other hand, it is evident from the remark, in 2 Samuel 21:7, to the effect that Mephibosheth was spared, that it happened after David had received tidings of Mephibosheth, and had taken him to his own table.” Keil.

David inquired Rather, as in the margin, David sought the face of Jehovah; an expression noticeably different from the one so often previously used of inquiring by urim. He now sought the Lord by prayer and supplication, and perhaps was answered by a prophet rather than by urim. After the Israelitish monarchy became fully established, and the age of the great prophets approached, Jehovah communicated less and less by urim, and more and more by prophets.

And for his bloody house The family of Saul, as well as Saul himself, were implicated in the violation of Israel’s oath with the Gibeonites.

He slew the Gibeonites This fact is nowhere else recorded, and it is impossible to form a positive reason for Saul’s action in the case. From 2 Samuel 21:2; 2 Samuel 21:5 we infer that his ostensible reason was to rid Israel of the presence of such foreigners in their midst. In Joshua’s time the people murmured against the league which Joshua made with these Gibeonites; and probably similar murmuring was often heard in Saul’s time, and in his zeal for the peace of Israel he had endeavoured to destroy them from all the land. Or, as Ewald suggests, when the tabernacle was set up again at Gibeon, the ancient Amorite inhabitants may have claimed the right of doing the service of the house of God agreed upon with Joshua, (Joshua 9:23;) and a dispute may have arisen on this point, and Saul, with characteristic recklessness, may have driven matters to fearful violence by attempting the utter extermination of the Gibeonites. It has also been plausibly conjectured that in this way he came into possession of the lands and vineyards which he distributed to his brethren of the tribe of Benjamin. 1 Samuel 22:7. In this case the members of his own family doubtless shared largely in the plunder.