Rizpah's Vigil and the Giants of Gath

"There was a famine in the days of David three years." "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." The Gibeonites, protected by Joshua's oath, ask for seven of Saul's sons "and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul." David spares Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake and gives them Armoni and Mephibosheth, sons of Rizpah, and five sons of Merab (Hebrew: Michal; see below). They are put to death "in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest."

"And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night."

David is told; he brings the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh-gilead and buries them, with the bones of the seven, in the tomb of Kish in Benjamin. "After that God was intreated for the land." Then the Philistine wars: Abishai saves David from Ishbi-benob, "of the sons of the giant [Rapha]"; Sibbecai kills Saph; "Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam"; Jonathan son of Shimeah kills a man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. "These four were born to the giant in Gath."

Rizpah

Rizpah was Saul's concubine, accused in 3:7. Here she acts alone: from barley harvest (April) to the rains (October), she protects her sons' bodies from scavengers, a terrible public act of mourning. In the ancient world exposure of the dead was the worst disgrace; her vigil moves David to give Saul's whole house an honorable burial.

Collective punishment

The execution of descendants for Saul's crime conflicts with Deuteronomy 24:16 ("every man shall be put to death for his own sin"). The text presents it as the Gibeonites' demand and links the famine to Saul's broken oath (Joshua 9). Readers have long found it troubling; some historians see it as a political removal of Saul's heirs. Both concerns are fair.

Michal or Merab? (21:8)

The Hebrew, the library's Greek and the Vulgate all say "the five sons of Michal… whom she bore to Adriel." But Merab was given to Adriel (1 Samuel 18:19), and Michal had no child (6:23). The KJV renders "brought up for Adriel"; two Hebrew manuscripts and some Greek witnesses read Merab, which most modern translations follow. See the passage page.

Elhanan and Goliath (21:19)

The Hebrew says Elhanan killed "Goliath the Gittite." The library's Greek and Vulgate agree (the Vulgate translates the names: "Adeodatus son of Saltus the weaver"). The KJV adds "the brother of" in italics, from 1 Chronicles 20:5, which says Elhanan killed "Lahmi the brother of Goliath." See the passage page.

The Rapha

"Born to the Rapha" may mean descendants of a man named Rapha, or members of a group of warriors linked with the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 2–3). The six-fingered man is an unusual physical detail; polydactyly is a known human condition. There is no authenticated evidence of a non-human "giant" population.