2 Samuel 21:1–6, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Samuel 21:1–6
Famine Leads David to the Gibeonites
Three years of famine are tied to Saul and the Gibeonites
There is a famine in David's days three years, year after year. David inquires of the LORD. The answer: it is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites are not of Israel but remnant of the Amorites; Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them in zeal for Israel and Judah.
The narrator reaches back to a treaty Israel made (remembered in Joshua 9) and to a slaughter otherwise unreported here. Ancient bloodguilt logic is being told. It is not being offered as a standing warrant for famine-interpretation or collective punishment.
David asks how to make atonement; they refuse silver and ask for seven sons
David asks, What shall I do for you, and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that you may bless the LORD's inheritance? They will have no silver or gold of Saul, nor that David kill any man in Israel. He says, What you say, I will do. They identify Saul as the man who consumed them and ask that seven of his sons be delivered to hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul. The king says, I will give them.
He agrees before the names are chosen. Expiation language here is violent satisfaction demanded of descendants. The text narrates that logic. It does not authorize human sacrifice, inherited execution, or bargaining with other people's lives.
How this should shape us
Do not use famine, treaty memory, or zeal to justify killing descendants. Seek repair that names the actual wrong without creating new victims, and refuse religious language that makes blood a currency.
Teach it back
Explain 2 Samuel 21:1–6 in your own words. Include its narrative movement, one source-supported detail, one material uncertainty, one person or cost power can obscure, and one use the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: Interpreters differ over source layers, chronology, historicity, characterization, textual readings, and whether the court story mainly legitimates, indicts, or holds David in sustained tension. The package states the received movement first and labels reconstructions.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
2 Samuel 21:1-6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 21:1-6
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 574–575, translation and all translator notes attached to 21:1-6
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Supports: Competing legitimating and critical readings of 2 Samuel 21, ancient treaty and appeasement parallels, and the ethical horror of the executions, exposure, Rizpah's vigil, and burial.
Sanders, 'God Appeased by Homicide? 2 Samuel 21:1–14 in View of Some Hittite and Assyrian Parallels,' in Violence in the Hebrew Bible (2020), chapter 12, pp. 229–269, especially interpretation history and comparative sections pp. 229–240
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage.
Exact location: 2 Samuel 21:1-6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Samuel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated verbs, names, syntax, and the base text behind translation and textual discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Sam.xml, 21:1-6
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: 2 Samuel with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Unit-bounded wording, older-English clarification, textual witnesses, syntax, names, numbers, and major historical or literary notes actually printed for these verses.
Exact location: NET Bible 2 Samuel PDF, printed pp. 574–575, translation and all translator notes attached to 21:1-6
Open source ↗modern scholarly handbook limited access
The Oxford Handbook of King David
Edited by Mahri Leonard-Fleckman and Christine Mitchell
Oxford University Press, 2026
Supports: Current publisher-visible controls for textual plurality, historical and archaeological limits, David's reception, political power, sexual violence, trauma, and the relationship with Kings and Chronicles; abstract-only chapters carry only their exposed claims.
Exact location: Oxford Handbook of King David (2026), official Introduction pp. xxiii–xxvii and chapter 3 abstract and bibliographic record, pp. 37–53
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
The Book of Samuel: Its Composition, Structure and Significance as a Historiographical Source
Moshe Garsiel
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5, 2010; published online 2011
Supports: One early-composition and historiographical-optimism proposal, literary structure, source integration, ethical poetics, and the limits of treating the proposal as consensus.
Exact location: Garsiel, Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 10, article 5 (2010), complete open-access article pp. 1–42, especially the introduction and sections on composition, comparative structure, literary poetics, and historiographical value
Open source ↗scholarly book chapter
God Appeased by Homicide? 2 Samuel 21:1-14 in View of Some Hittite and Assyrian Parallels
Paul Sanders
Violence in the Hebrew Bible: Between Text and Reception, Oudtestamentische Studien 79, Brill, 2020
Supports: Competing legitimating and critical readings of 2 Samuel 21, ancient treaty and appeasement parallels, and the ethical horror of the executions, exposure, Rizpah's vigil, and burial.
Exact location: Sanders, 'God Appeased by Homicide? 2 Samuel 21:1–14 in View of Some Hittite and Assyrian Parallels,' in Violence in the Hebrew Bible (2020), chapter 12, pp. 229–269, especially interpretation history and comparative sections pp. 229–240
Open source ↗