And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that God responded to the plea for the land. – 2 Samuel 21:14 (ESV)
While this is a challenging passage regarding the punishment of the Lord and the sacrifice of Saul’s descendants, there are several things to note. (1) Rizpah (the mother of two of the executed men) waits by her sons’ bodies until the famine lifts. (2) David, moved by her compassion for the dead, reinterred the bones of Saul and Jonathan with the executed men, thus giving them all a proper burial. (3) God does lift the famine. While this seems particularly harsh, we must realize that Saul wanted to exterminate these people, violating a covenant established in Joshua 9. Verse 14 shows us the Lord’s grace to (a) the Gibeonites, since they have come under the shelter of His protection, then the Lord will be their avenger, and (b) to the people of Israel, since now this episode of injustice has come to a close.
