2 Samuel 21
Open in the reader1During the reign of Beloved there was a famine for three successive years, and Beloved sought the face of He-Who-Is. And He-Who-Is said, “It is because of the blood shed by Asked-For and his family, because he killed the Hill-Town-Ones.”
2At this, Beloved summoned the Hill-Town-Ones and spoke to them. (Now the Hill-Town-Ones were not children of Strives-with-God, but a remnant of the Mountaineers. The children of Strives-with-God had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Strives-with-God and Praised, Asked-For had sought to kill them.)
3So Beloved asked the Hill-Town-Ones, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of He-Who-Is?”
4The Hill-Town-Ones said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Asked-For or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Strives-with-God for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied.
5And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Strives-with-God,
6let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before He-Who-Is at The-Hill of Asked-For, the chosen of He-Who-Is.” “I will give them to you,” said the king.
7Now the king spared Shame-Dispeller son of He-Who-Is-Has-Given, the son of Asked-For, because of the oath before He-Who-Is between Beloved and He-Who-Is-Has-Given son of Asked-For.
8But the king took Palace-Born and Shame-Dispeller, the two sons whom Glowing-Coal daughter of Hawk had borne to Asked-For, as well as the five sons whom Brook daughter of Asked-For had borne to Flock-of-God son of Iron-Man the Meadow-of-Dancing-One.
9And he delivered them into the hands of the Hill-Town-Ones, and they hanged them on the hill before He-Who-Is. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10And Glowing-Coal the daughter of Hawk took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
11When Beloved was told what Asked-For’s concubine Glowing-Coal, daughter of Hawk, had done,
12he went and took the bones of Asked-For and his son He-Who-Is-Has-Given from the men of Dry-Place-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square House-of-Ease Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Asked-For at Gilboa.
13So Beloved had the bones of Asked-For and his son He-Who-Is-Has-Given brought from there, and they also gathered the bones of those who had been hanged.
14And they buried the bones of Asked-For and his son He-Who-Is-Has-Given in Zela in the land of Son-of-the-Right-Hand, in the tomb of Asked-For’s father Bow. Bow they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land.
15Once again the Philistines waged war against Strives-with-God, and Beloved and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines. But Beloved became exhausted.
16Then Dweller-in-Nob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill Beloved.
17But My-Father-Is-a-Gift son of Balm came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then Beloved’s men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Strives-with-God may not be extinguished.”
18Some time later at Pit, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Thicket-Weaver the Haste-One killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.
19Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Pit, and God-Is-Gracious son Forests-of-Weavers Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Exile the Winepress-One, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
20And there was also a battle at Wine-Press, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha,
21and when he taunted Strives-with-God, He-Who-Is-Has-Given the son of Beloved’s brother Hearing killed him.
22So these four descendants of Rapha in Wine-Press fell at the hands of Beloved and his servants.