2 Samuel 21:6

_LET SEVEN MEN OF HIS SONS BE DELIVERED UNTO US, AND WE WILL HANG THEM UP UNTO THE LORD IN GIBEAH OF SAUL, WHOM THE LORD DID CHOOSE. AND THE KING SAID, I WILL GIVE THEM._ Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord. The practice of the Hebrews, as of most Oriental nations, was to slay first, and afterward to suspend on a gibbet х_ WªHOWQA`ANUWM_ (H3363), we shall suspend on is stake or low cross, we shall impale them, the body being not left hanging after sunset (Deuteronomy 21:22)]. The king could not refuse this demand of the Gibeonites, who, in making it, were only exercising their right as blood-avengers; and although, through fear and a sense of weakness, they had not chimed satisfaction, yet, now that David had been apprised by the oracle of the cause of the long-prev

1-9 Every affliction arises from sin, and should lead us to repent and humble ourselves before God; but some troubles especially show that they are sent to bring sin to remembrance. God's judgments often look a great way back, which requires us to do so, when we are under his rebukes. It is not for us to object against the people's smarting for the sin of their king; perhaps they helped him. Nor against this generation suffering for the sin of the last. God often visits the sins of the fathers upon the children, and he gives no account of any matters. Time does not wear out the guilt of sin; nor can we build hopes of escape upon the delay of judgments. If we cannot understand all the reasons of Providence in this matter, still we have no right to demand that God should acquaint us with those reasons. It must be right, because it is the will of God, and in the end it will be proved to be...

Verse 2 Samuel 21:6. _SEVEN MEN OF HIS SONS_] Meaning sons, grandsons, or other near branches of his family. It is supposed that the persons chosen were principal in assisting Saul to exterminate the Gibeonites. But where is the proof of this?...

SEVEN MEN - Seven was a sacred number not only with the Hebrews but with other Oriental nations Numbers 23:1, Numbers 23:29, and is therefore brought in on this occasion when the judicial death of the sons of Saul was a religious act intended to appease the wrath of God for the violation of an oath Numbers 25:4. WHOM THE LORD DID CHOOSE - Rather, “the Lord’s chosen,” or elect. The same phrase is applied to Moses Psalms 106:23, to the Israelites Isaiah 43:20, and to Christ...

EXPOSITION 2 SAMUEL 21:1 THERE WAS A FAMINE IN THE DAYS OF DAVID; Hebrew, _and there was. _There is an entire absence of any mark of time to show in what part of David's reign this famine took place. It does not even follow, from the mention of Mephibosheth's name, that it must have happened at a time subsequent to the sending for that prince from Machir's house; for it may have been the search after the descendants of Saul which made David remember the son of his old friend. The burial, however, of the bones of Saul and Jonathan as an act of respect to the slaughtered king makes it probable that the narrative belongs to the early part of David's reign, as also does the apparent fact that the seven victims were all young and unmarried. Mephibosheth, we read, had a young son when David sent for him. Now, he was five years old whe

LET SEVEN MEN OF HIS SONS BE DELIVERED UNTO US,.... They settled upon this number, either because they were seven, and no more of the Gibeonites, whom Saul slew, as the Jew say i; two hewers of wood, two drawers of water, a keeper (of a synagogue), a scribe, and a servant; but perhaps the true reason was, they knew there were no more besides Mephibosheth, for whom David had a great respect, and therefore required no more: AND WE WILL HANG THEM UP UNTO THE LORD; not to gratify a revengeful spirit of theirs, but in honour to the justice of God, and to appease his wrath: IN GIBEAH OF SAUL, [WHOM] THE LORD DID CHOOSE; which was Saul's native place, and where he always lived; so that to hang them there was to the greater disgrace of him and his family; and he being chosen of the Lord to be a king of Israel, was an aggravation of his crime in violating the oath made to the Gibeonites AND TH...

IV. THE APPENDIX TO THE HISTORY OF DAVID 1. The Famines and the Wars with the Philistines CHAPTER 21 _ 1. The Famine and the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21:1)_ 2. The Wars with the Philistines (2 Samuel 21:15) The fourth section of the second book of Samuel is an appendix to the history of David. When the great famine happened in the days of David we do not know. After the famine had returned year after year, for three years, David inquired of the Lord. Why did he not inquire in the first year? It is an evidence of the low spiritual state which prevailed at that time. The answer which David received revealed the cause of the judgment which rested upon the land. It was Saul and the blood-guilt in having slain the Gibeonites. The story of the Gibeonites is recorded in...

1 SAMUEL 21-24. These Chapter s form an appendix of material from various sources. One of the editors, perhaps the one to whom the book substantially owes its present form, seems to have met with difficulties in an attempted rearrangement of some of the material; finding no other convenient place for 2 Samuel 21:1 Samuel 24, he added them at the end, as a kind of appendix. He or someone else inserted between them the catalogue of heroes (2 Samuel 21:15; 2 Samuel 23:8); later on someone inserted 1 Samuel 22 and 1 Samuel 23:8 in the middle of the catalogue. The reader must remember that ancient editors and scribes had no

MEN. Hebrew. _'enosh._ App-14....

_seven men_ A sacred number, for their execution was to be a solemn religious act of expiation. _we will hang them up_ They were to be impaled or crucified, as a public exhibition of the punishment inflicted. In all probability they were put to death first. The practice corresponds to that of hanging a criminal's body in chains on the scene of his crime, which was once common in England. _unto the_Lord] For the punishment was demanded by divine justice. Cp. Numbers 25:4. _in Gibeah_ The home of Saul was to be the scene of the punishment. _whom the_Lord _did choose_ The exact title, THE CHOSEN OF JEHOVAH, is nowhere else given to Saul, but is implied by 1 Samuel 10:24. That it should be thus used by his enemies is strange. Was it from a feeling that the