The Lamp of Israel

Chapters 21 to 24 form a closing section that looks back over David's reign. The first story begins with a three-year famine. David sought the face of Yahweh and learned that the cause was Saul's slaughter of the Gibeonites, a people the children of Israel had sworn to spare. Saul had broken that oath in his zeal for Israel and Judah, and the guilt still rested on the land.

David asked the Gibeonites how he could make atonement so they would bless Yahweh's inheritance. They refused silver or gold and asked for seven of Saul's descendants, who were put to death at Gibeah. David spared Mephibosheth because of Yahweh's oath between David and Jonathan. Rizpah, mother of two of the men, kept a long vigil on the rock, refusing to let birds by day or animals by night disturb the bodies until water poured on them from the sky.

When David heard of her faithfulness, he gathered the bones of Saul and Jonathan from Jabesh Gilead and buried them with the others in the tomb of Kish in Benjamin. Only then does the text say that God answered prayer for the land. The chapter closes with four battles against descendants of the giant in Gath, including a giant with six fingers and six toes. When David grew weary, Abishai saved him, and the men swore that David must not go out to battle again, lest he quench the lamp of Israel.