2 Samuel 21:1

During the time that David ruled, there was a famine in Israel for three years. David prayed to Yahweh about it. And Yahweh said, “ In order for the famine to end, Saul’s family needs to be punished [MTY] because Saul killed many people from Gibeon city.”

Translation for Translators

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

2The people of Gibeon were not Israelis; they were a small group of the Amor people-group whom the Israelis had solemnly promised to protect. But Saul had tried to kill all of them because he ◄was very zealous/wanted very much► to enable the people of Judah and Israel to be the only ones living in that land. So the king summoned the leaders of Gibeon

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Cross References

Genesis 26:1Some time later there was a severe ◄famine/scarcity of food► there. That was different from the famine that occurred when Abraham was alive. So Isaac went southeast to Gerar town, to talk to Abimelech, the king of the Philistine people-group. What happened was this: Isaac considered going to Egypt,

Genesis 43:1The famine in Canaan got worse.

Leviticus 26:26When I cut off your food supply, there will be very little flour with which to make bread. As a result, ten women will be able to bake all their bread in only one oven. When the bread is baked, each woman will divide it among the members of her family, but there will be very little for each one, and when they have eaten all of it, they will still be hungry.

Joshua 7:1Yahweh had commanded that all the things that they had captured in Jericho should be destroyed to show that they belong to him. But there was a man from the tribe of Judah named Achan. He was the son of Carmi and grandson of Zabdi and great-grandson of Zerah. He disobeyed what Yahweh had commanded and took for himself some of those things. So Yahweh was very angry with the Israelis.

Joshua 9:20This is what we will do: We will not kill them. If we kill them, God will be very angry with us and punish us because of not doing what we promised to do.

1 Samuel 10:22So they asked Yahweh, “Where is Saul?” Yahweh replied, “He is hiding among the army equipment.”

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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