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2 Samuel 21 · a question people ask

When did Saul try to kill the Gibeonites?

In the text

The Bible doesn't tell that story. 1 Samuel never names Gibeon or the Gibeonites, and 2 Samuel speaks of what Saul did only here. The LORD says, "because he put the Gibeonites to death" (21:1). The chapter says, "Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah" (21:2). The Gibeonites call him "The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel" (21:5). The chapter doesn't say when it happened or how many died. It does say who they were: "not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites" (21:2), the people Joshua's princes had sworn to (Joshua 9:15).

The verses

“There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” The king called the Gibeonites and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);”
2 Samuel 21:1-2 · World English Bible
“They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,”
2 Samuel 21:5 · World English Bible
“Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them, to let them live. The princes of the congregation swore to them.”
Joshua 9:15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Samuel 21

2 Samuel 21: The LORD's oath

"After that, God answered prayer for the land" (21:14) comes after the bones of Saul and Jonathan were buried in the tomb of Kish, not straight after the seven died. And in Hebrew that verb, atar, comes only twice in 2 Samuel: here, and in the book's last verse, "So the LORD was entreated for the land" (24:25).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions