2 Samuel 21:1

Once during David's reign there was a famine for three years in a row, and David asked the Lord about it. The Lord replied, “It's because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.”

Free Bible Version

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

2David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke with them. The Gibeonites were not Israelites, but what was left of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn an oath to them, but in his nationalistic passion for the Israelites and Judah, Saul had tried to wipe them out.

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Cross References

Genesis 26:1There was a famine in the country—not the one that happened before in Abraham's time, but a later one. So Isaac moved to Gerar in the territory of Abimelech, king of the Philistines.

Genesis 43:1The famine continued to be really bad in Canaan,

Leviticus 26:26I will send a famine so bread is in short supply. One oven will serve the needs of ten women baking bread. It will be distributed by weight so that you'll eat but won't have enough.

Joshua 7:1However, the Israelites had not been faithful regarding those things set apart for the Lord. Achan had taken some of them which made the Lord very angry with the Israelites. Achan was the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah.

Joshua 9:20So this is what we're going to do to them. We'll let them live, so that we won't be punished for breaking the oath that we swore to them.”

1 Samuel 10:22So they asked the Lord, “Has he arrived here yet?” The Lord replied, “Go and look—he's hiding among the baggage.”

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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