Chapter 21

Then there is a three year famine.  It is because of Saul's attack on the Gibeonites. 

2021 - MSB says we don't have any record of this action by Saul other than its mention here.  So don't go looking for the details.  Remember that the Gibeonites fooled Joshua into making a covenant with them.  They are also called Hivites.  They were in the land when Israel came knocking and were supposed to be eliminated.  But they fooled Joshua, and perhaps, maybe, we speculate that it could be that Saul, in his zeal to clear the land of enemies, attacked those to whom peace had been sworn.  But we don't know if this is what it was about.

2021 - MSB notes also say that these last chapters of 2Sam are like the last chapters of Judges.  They tell about some events that were occurring in Israel.  They are not necessarily in chronological order - either as a group, or in the chapter.  They are a sort of abccba arrangement.  Six things.  The a's are about God's wrath toward Israel in certain matters, the b's are about David's warriors, and the c's are two of David's songs.

David talks to them to see how to make amends with them, and they ask for seven sons of Saul to be hanged before God.  That will appease them.  David gathers up seven descendants of Saul, sparing Mephibosheth because of Jonathan.  Many manuscripts say that five of these were sons of Michal and whomever she went to after David.  Three manuscripts, including the Septuagint, say the five were sons of Merab.  She is mentioned only  here, in this one verse.  The seven are hanged.  The famine ends.

2024 - In NASB95, five of the sons are grandsons of Barzillai the Meholathite.  We ha e seen at least two guys named Barzillai so far but I don't think this is either of them. 

2021 - It is interesting that there were these 7 sons, besides Mephibosheth.  Usually, a new king would be sure and get rid of - that is, they would kill - the descendants of the previous king to make sure there was no insurrection, no challenge to the new king.  This is a lot of sons to remain.  These notes about Michal and Merab...they would not have been sons, but grandsons of Saul.  So...probably all his direct sons were indeed gone.  Realizing this, things seem even more horrible here.  Seven young men who themselves did nothing wrong, paying the price for a very flawed King's mistake.  Is this about the sins of the fathers being visited on the sons? I know God says he doesn't do things this way, and yet he also says he does.  This is a difficult passage to justify in our so very enlightened culture today.

Then war with the Philistines starts up again.  During the battle, David gets tired, and is almost killed.  From then on, David is not allowed to go into battle, lest he be killed.  Guess he just got too old.  As war continues, four descendants of the giants of Gath are killed by Israel, one being Goliath's brother, but there were three others also.  So we have the first a and the first b.  You can see why these were important events.  The first because of it's horror and the tragedy of these 7 young men and their mothers.  The second because killing giants is always a huge deal.