2 Samuel 21 Study Notes

21:1 During David’s reign is literally “in David’s days.” The last four chapters of 2 Samuel contain six accounts of matters pertaining to David’s life, though not tied chronologically to the rest of the book. It appears the author had additional information he wished to include about David, and he decided this was the best place to put it. In the first account, God used continuing famine to prompt David to seek the reason behind this calamity. The Lord revealed the answer: Saul and his bloody family had killed the Gibeonites.

21:2 The Gibeonites had remained in the land since the days of Joshua. The Israelites had taken an oath not to destroy them (Jos 9:3-17); Saul, however, had not honored that oath and had killed many of them.

21:3 When David asked What should I do for you? it showed his humble attitude and his concern for justice.

21:4 Israel probably did not allow their subject peoples to put anyone to death without Israelite sanction (cp. restrictions imposed on Israel by Roman authorities, Jn 18:31).

21:5-6 The Gibeonites asked for the death of seven of Saul’s male descendants. Saul had probably killed many more Gibeonites than this; no doubt the number requested was a symbolic representation of the Gibeonite dead. Gibeah was Saul’s hometown; since Saul had killed their people at Gibeon, the Gibeonites probably wanted to reciprocate by hanging his descendants in his hometown.

21:7 Even in complying with the Gibeonites request, David spared Mephibosheth in accord with his earlier oath regarding Jonathan (9:1-10; 1Sm 18:3; 20:12-17; 23:18).

21:8 Rizpah was probably the same concubine with whom Abner had sexual relations (3:7). Saul’s daughter Merab was to have been David’s wife but was given to Adriel instead (1Sm 18:19). This Barzillai is not to be confused with the one who helped David in 19:31-39.

21:9 The beginning of the barley harvest was normally during Nisan (March-April), the beginning of the religious year.

21:10 Rizpah performed a tragic act of love for her sons and Merab’s sons, protecting their bodies from desecration by birds and wild animals. The rain mentioned normally fell in March and April between the barley and wheat harvest, so the exact length of Rizpah’s vigil is unknown.

21:11-13 David heard about what Rizpah had done, and he took action to provide the dead an honored burial. The bones of Saul and his son Jonathan (and presumably those of Abinadab and Malchishua, 1Sm 31:2,12-13) were brought from Jabesh-gilead back to Benjamin. David also gathered up the bones of Saul’s family.

21:14 The remains were placed in the family tomb of Saul’s father Kish (see 1Sm 9:1). The exact location of Zela (other than in Benjamin) is unknown (Jos 18:28). God was receptive to prayer means that the famine ceased (see v. 1).

21:15 Perhaps when the Philistines learned that King David was on the field, they concentrated their efforts against him, explaining his exhaustion.

21:16 Ishbi-benob is unknown outside this passage, but he may have been one of the descendants of the giant (Goliath, 1Sm 17:4), though some scholars understand the Hebrew word translated “giant” (rapha) as a proper name (“one of the descendants of Rapha”). The man intended to kill David because killing him would deal Israel a serious blow.

21:17 David’s nephew Abishai saved the king’s life and struck the Philistine. As they pondered how close David had come to death, they told him not to participate with them in any more battles, an admonition the king seems to have taken to heart (11:1; 18:2; 20:4,6). Through his leadership David, as the figurative lamp of Israel, provided political, military, and spiritual light to the nation.

21:18 Gob (“cistern”) may be either identified with or in the close vicinity of Gezer at the mouth of the Aijalon Valley near Philistine territory (1Ch 20:4). On the giant, see note at v. 16.

21:19 This verse raises the question of who killed Goliath of Gath. First Sm 17:50-51 credits David, but this verse credits Elhanan. One interpretation suggests two different Goliaths, though the identical description of Goliath’s spear being like a weaver’s beam (cp. 1Sm 17:7) makes this option doubtful. Another explanation is to understand Elhanan as David’s original name and David as David’s throne name, but this is not supported elsewhere in Scripture. By far the most likely explanation is that Elhanan killed not Goliath but Goliath’s brother, as 1Ch 20:5 states, and that an early scribe simply miscopied the present verse. Although this verse and 1Ch 20:5 read a bit differently in English, in the Hebrew text only a minor alteration is required to change from one reading to another.

21:20-22 The battle at Gath was against an unnamed giant noted by his malformation. Taunted is the same word used five times in 1Sm 17.