2 Samuel 21:1

And there was a famine in the days of David for three years successively: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slow the Gabaonites.

Douay-Rheims Bible (Challoner, 1752)

In The King James Version

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

In Context

2Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda:)

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Cross References

Genesis 26:1And when a famine came in the land, after that barrenness which had happened in the days of Abraham, Isaac went to Abimelech, king of the Palestines, to Gerara.

Genesis 43:1In the mean time the famine was heavy upon all the land.

Leviticus 26:26After I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled,

Joshua 7:1But the children of Israel transgressed the commandment, and took to their own use of that which was accursed. For Achan, the son of Charmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zare, of the tribe of Juda, took something of the anathema: and the Lord was angry against the children of Israel.

Joshua 9:20But this we will do to them: Let their lives be saved, lest the wrath of the Lord be stirred up against us, if we should be forsworn:

1 Samuel 10:22And after this they consulted the Lord whether he would come thither. And the Lord answered: Behold he is hidden at home.

Matthew Henry on 2 Samuel 21:1

The date of the events of this chapter is uncertain. I incline to think that they happened as they are here placed, after Absalom's and Sheba's rebellion, and towards the latter end of David's reign. That the battles with the Philistines, mentioned here, were long after the Philistines were subdued, appears by comparing 1 Chron. xviii. 1 with xx. 4 . The numbering of the people was just before the fixing of the place of the temple (as appears 1 Chron. xxii. 1 ), and that was towards the close of David's life; and,… Read the whole commentary →

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