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.
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See that thou neither bow thyself unto them neither serve them: for I, the LORD thy God, am a jealous God, and visit the sin of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
and keepest mercy in store for thousands, and forgivest wickedness, trespass and sin - for there is no man innocent before thee - and visitest the wickedness of the fathers upon the children and upon children's children, even unto the third and fourth generation."
Then the land shall rejoice in her Sabbaths, as long as it lieth void and ye in your enemies' land: even then shall the land keep holy day and rejoice in her Sabbaths. And as long as it lieth void it shall rest, for that it could not rest in your Sabbaths, when ye dwelt therein. read more. "'And upon them that are left alive of you, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the land of their enemies: so that the sound of a leaf that falleth, shall chase them and they shall flee as though they fled a sword, and shall fall no man following them. And they shall fall one upon another, as it were before a sword even no man following them, and ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies: And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you, shall pine away in their unrighteousness, even in their enemies' land, and also in the misdeeds of their fathers shall they consume. And they shall confess their misdeeds and the misdeeds of their fathers; in their trespasses which they have trespassed against me, and for that also that they have walked contrary unto me.
'The LORD is long yer he be angry, and full of mercy, and suffereth sin and trespass, and leaveth no man innocent, and visiteth the unrighteousness of the fathers upon the children, even upon the third and fourth generation.' Be merciful I beseech ye therefore, unto the sin of this people according unto thy great mercy, and according as thou hast forgiven this people from Egypt even unto this place." read more. And the LORD said, "I have forgiven it, according to thy request. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with my glory. For of all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tempted me now this ten times and have not hearkened unto my voice, there shall not one see the land which I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that railed upon me, see it. But my servant Caleb, because there is another manner spirit with him, and because he hath followed me unto the utmost: him I will bring into the land which he hath walked in, and his seed shall conquer it, and also the Amalekites and Canaanites which dwell in the low countries. Tomorrow turn you and get you into the wilderness: even the way toward the reed sea." And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, "How long shall this evil multitude murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel which they murmur against me. Tell them that the LORD sayeth, 'As truly as I live, I will do unto you even as ye have spoken in mine ears. Your carcasses shall lie in this wilderness, neither shall any of these numbers which were numbered from twenty years and above of you which have murmured against me come in to the land over which I lifted mine hand to make you dwell therein - save Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun. And your children, which ye said should be a prey: them I will bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have refused, and your carcases shall lie in this wilderness. And your children shall wander in this wilderness forty years and suffer for your whoredom until your carcasses be wasted in the wilderness, after the number of the days in which ye searched out the land forty days, and every day a year: so that they shall bear your unrighteousness forty years, and ye shall feel my vengeance.
"'And see that ye pollute not the land which ye are in, for blood defileth the land. And the land can none otherwise be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of it that shed it.
If a man have committed a trespass worthy of death and is put to death for it and hanged on tree: let not his body remain all night upon the tree, but bury him the same day. For the curse of God is on him that is hanged. Defile not thy land therefore, which the LORD thy God giveth thee to inherit.
And then the LORD sent thee on a journey, and said unto thee, 'See that thou utterly destroy those sinners, the Amalekites and fight against them until ye have utterly destroyed them.' And wherefore hast thou now not obeyed the voice of the LORD: But didst turn to the prey and hast wrought wickedness in the sight of the LORD?" read more. And Saul said unto Samuel, "I have obeyed the voice of the LORD, and went the way which the LORD sent me; and have brought Agag the king of the Amalekites, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
And he said to David, "Come to me and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field."
and art not buried with them. Even because that thou hast wasted thy land, and destroyed thy people. For the generation of the wicked shall be without honour, forever. There shall a way be sought to destroy their children, for their fathers' wickedness: They shall not rise up again to possess the land, and fill the world full of castles and towns.
Behold, it is written before my face, and shall not be forgotten, but recompensed. I shall reward it them into their bosom: I mean your misdeeds, and the misdeeds of your fathers together, sayeth the LORD, which have made their smokes upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their old deeds into their bosom again.
"Wherefore I am constrained, sayeth the LORD, to make my complaint upon you, and upon your children.
Thou showest mercy upon thousands, thou recompensest the wickedness of the fathers, into the bosom of the children that come after them. Thou art the great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of Hosts:
Morish
Gib'eonites
The people of Gibeon and perhaps of the three confederate cities
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And the men of Israel said unto the Hivites, "Peradventure you dwell among us, and then how should we make peace with you?"
For the children of Israel took their journey and came unto their cities the third day: and their cities were Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth and Kiriathjearim.
And now therefore cursed be you, and there shall not cease to be of you, bondmen and hewers of wood and drawers of water unto the house of my God."
Then there fell a hunger in the days of David: three years, year by year. And David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, "It is for Saul's sake and the house of blood, because he slew the Gibeonites." And the king called the Gibeonites and spake unto them. Now these Gibeonites are not of the children of Israel, but a remnant of the Amorites - and the children of Israel sware unto them. And yet Saul sought to slay them, for a zeal that he had to the children of Israel and of Judah. read more. Wherefore David said unto them, "What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I content you that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?" And the Gibeonites said unto him, "We have no matter of silver or of gold with Saul or with his house: neither have we any man that we would kill in Israel." Then he said, "What say ye that I shall do for you?" And they said unto the king, "The man that consumed and imagined to bring us to nought, him we ought to destroy, that nought of him continue in any of the coasts of Israel. Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, that we may hang them up unto the LORD, in Gibeah of Saul the LORD's elect." And David said, "I will give them you." But the king had compassion on Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them: that is to say, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But he took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah which she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Miphiyboseth, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul which she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite, and delivered them unto the hands of the Gibeonites, which hanged them in the hill before the LORD. And they fell all seven together in the first days of harvest: even in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it under her upon the rock, even from the beginning of harvest until rain dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to fall on them by day nor beasts of the field by night. And when it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah the concubine of Saul had done, he went and took the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son, and of the men of Jabesh in Gilead, which they had stolen from the street of Bet-Shean, where the Philistines had hanged them in the days when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa. And he brought thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they fetched away the bones of them that were hanged, and buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin, in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father. And when they had performed all that the king commanded, God was then at one with the land.
and Ishmaiah a Gibeonite as mighty as any of thirty and more mighty too; and Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan and Jozabad of Gedor;
Next unto them builded Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, men of Gibeon and of Mizphah; where he that was captain on this side the water had a mansion.