Reference: Gibeonites
Fausets
Their safety was covenanted by Israel (Joshua 9), even though obtained by a deceit, their ambassadors having taken old sacks and mended wineskins (the tear being tied up like a bag) and old mended sandals ("clouted," i.e. mended coarsely); but they were made "hewers of wood and drawers of water." Israel's error was in making the treaty without inquiring of the Lord; a warning to the church of all ages against the dissimulation of the world, which seeks admission and union with the kingdom of God without real conversion, faith, and sanctification, when it suits its own carnal advantage. Saul in his zeal for Israel where God sanctioned it not, though wanting in zeal against Israel's foe Amalek (1Sa 15:18-20) where God commanded it, sought to slay them, probably (2 Samuel 21) in the dark closing period of his reign seeking to atone for his deficiency as to Amalek and to win the divine favor and popularity with his people by this mis-timed and misplaced zeal.
God remembers the sins of the fathers upon the children, and vindicates His righteousness as Ruler of the nations by making an entail of curse go down from one generation to another for the unexpiated guilt of bloodshed and violation of covenants. The three years' famine, the Lord's answer when consulted as to the cause, that it was "for Saul and his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites," and after the execution of Saul's seven (seven, the sacred number, denotes the performance of a work of God) sons "the Lord being entreated for the hind," prove that David did not contrive or eagerly fall in with this device for ridding himself of the remainder of Saul's royal line. Nay, he showed by the honorable burial he gave their remains, and by sparing Mephibosheth, that he entertained no such feeling, nor had he by this time anything to fear from Saul's family.
The whole matter was divinely ordered to teach solemn moral lessons of God's government to the king and the nation (Ex 20:5; 34:7; Le 26:34-40; Nu 14:18-34, especially Nu 35:33, "blood it defileth the land, and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it"; Isa 14:20-21; 65:6-7; Jer 2:9; 32:18). The "water dropping upon them (the hanged or crucified seven) out of heaven" marked the cessation of the heaven sent drought and the point of time when the bodies might be taken down from the stakes and buried. Ordinarily bodies were taken down for burial before night (De 21:22-23); but in this case guilt rested on the whole land, and therefore the expiatory sacrifice was to remain exposed to birds of prey (the greatest ignominy, 1Sa 17:44) before Jehovah, until the cessation of the drought showed that His wrath was appeased.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Thou shalt not bow down to them nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons unto the third and fourth generation of those that hate me
keeping mercy for thousands, letting go of iniquity and rebellion and sin; and by no means will I absolve the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons and upon the sons' sons, unto the third and to the fourth generation.
Then shall the land rest for her sabbaths all the days that it lies desolate, while you are in your enemies' land; even then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths. All the time that it shall be desolate, it shall rest that which it did not rest in your sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. read more. And upon those that are left alive of you I will send such cowardice into their hearts in the lands of their enemies, that the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursue. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, when none pursue; and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the Gentiles, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those that are left of you shall pine away for their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and for the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. And they shall confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers for their trespass which they trespassed against me and that also they have walked contrary unto me,
The LORD is longsuffering and of great mercy, letting go of iniquity and transgression and absolving, but by no means absolving the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons unto the third and fourth generations. Pardon now the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even until now. read more. Then the LORD said, I have pardoned according to thy word. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD. Because all those men who saw my glory and my signs which I have done in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swore unto their fathers, neither shall any of those that provoked me see it. But my slave Caleb, because there was another spirit in him, and he proved to follow after me, I will bring him into the land that he entered into, and his seed shall receive it by inheritance, and even the Amalekite and the Canaanite who dwell in the valley. Turn around tomorrow and go into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea. And the LORD spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, How long shall I hear this evil congregation, which murmurs against me, the complaints of the sons of Israel, which they murmur against me? Say unto them, As truly as I live, saith the LORD, according as ye have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you. Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness, all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me; doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore to make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, whom ye said should be a prey, I will bring them in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherded in the wilderness forty years and bear your fornications until your carcasses are wasted in the wilderness. After the number of the days in which ye spied out the land, even forty days, each day for a year, ye shall bear your iniquities forty years, and ye shall know my reason for annulling my promise.
So ye shall not pollute the land where ye are, for this blood shall defile the land; and the land cannot be reconciled of the blood that is shed therein except by the blood of the one that shed it.
And when a man shall have committed a sin worthy of death, and he is to be put to death, and thou shall have hung him on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt without fail bury him that same day (for he that is hanged is accursed of God) that thy land not be defiled, which the LORD thy God gives thee for an inheritance.
And the LORD sent thee on a journey and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners of Amalek and fight against them until they are consumed. Why then didst thou not hear the voice of the LORD but didst fly upon the spoil and didst evil in the sight of the LORD? read more. And Saul said unto Samuel, But I have obeyed the voice of the LORD and have gone the way which the LORD sent me and have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the heaven and to the beasts of the field.
Thou shalt not be numbered with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people; the seed of evildoers shall not be forever. Prepare slaughter for his sons for the iniquity of their fathers that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, For your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, who have burned incense upon the mountains and blasphemed me upon the hills; therefore, I will measure their former work into their bosom.
Therefore I will yet enter into judgment with you, saith the LORD, and I will plead with your children's children.
that thou dost show mercy in thousands and recompense the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their sons after them, the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of the hosts, is his name,
Morish
Gib'eonites
The people of Gibeon and perhaps of the three confederate cities
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, Peradventure ye dwell among us, and how shall we make a covenant with you?
And the sons of Israel journeyed and came unto their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon and Chephirah and Beeroth and Kirjathjearim.
Now, therefore, ye are cursed, and ye shall always be slaves and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.
Then there was a famine in the days of David for three consecutive years, and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is because of Saul and because of his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites and said unto them: (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the sons of Israel had sworn unto them, and Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah). read more. Therefore, David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make reconciliation that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD? And the Gibeonites replied unto him, We have no quarrel regarding silver nor gold with Saul, nor with his house; neither do we desire that anyone in Israel should die. And he said unto them, What ye shall say that will I do for you. And they answered the king, The man that consumed us and that devised against us, let us destroy him that nothing of him remains in any of the borders of Israel. Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will disjoint them, hanging them from a tree, unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she gave birth unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she had given birth unto Adriel, the son of Barzillai, the Meholathite; and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they disjointed them hanging them from a tree in the hill before the LORD; and they fell all seven together and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, took sackcloth and spread it upon the rock from the beginning of harvest until water rained upon them out of heaven and allowed neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. And it was told David what Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. Then David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son, from the men of Jabeshgilead, who had stolen them from the plaza of Bethshan where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa; and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan, his son; and they gathered the bones of those that had been disjointed by being hanged from a tree, and they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan, his son, in the land of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father; and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.
and Ismaiah, the Gibeonite, a mighty man among the thirty, and more than the thirty; and Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan, Josabad, the Gederathite,
And next to them restored Melatiah, the Gibeonite, and Jadon, the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon and of Mizpah, on behalf of the captain of the king over the land on this side the river.