Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 21:10
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
10. spread it ] As a rough tent to shelter her while she watched the corpses. The usage of the word is decisive against understanding it to mean spread it under her for a bed, as is done by the Vulg. and most commentators.
dropped upon them ] Was poured upon them (cp. Exo 9:33): that is, until heavy rains shewed that the crime was expiated and the judgment of drought withdrawn. The bodies were left hanging, instead of being taken down on the day of execution (Deu 21:23), until assurance was given that the satisfaction had been accepted. If the rain did not fall until the usual season, Rizpah must have kept her devoted watch for six months, from April to October.
neither the birds nor the beasts ] To become the prey of bird and beast the certain fate of an unburied corpse was the depth of ignominy. Cp. 1Sa 17:44; 1Sa 17:46. “If an animal falls at night,” writes an Eastern traveller, “it is not attacked till daylight, unless by the jackals and hynas; but if it be slaughtered after sunrise, though the human eye may scan the firmament for a vulture in vain, within five minutes a speck will appear overhead, and wheeling and circling in a rapid downward flight, a huge griffon will pounce on the carcase. In a few minutes a second and third will dart down; another and another follows griffons, Egyptian vultures, eagles, kites, buzzards and ravens, till the air is darkened by the crowd. ‘Wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.’ ” Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 169.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Dropped – Rather, poured, the proper word for heavy rain Exo 9:33. The early rain, or heavy rain of autumn, usually began in October, so that Rizpahs devoted watch continued about six months. How rare rain was in harvest we learn from 1Sa 12:17-18; Pro 26:1. The reason of the bodies being left unburied, contrary to Deu 21:23, probably was that the death of these men being an expiation of the guilt of a violated oath, they were to remain until the fall of rain should give the assurance that Gods anger was appeased, and the national sin forgiven.
Birds of the air … beasts of the field – It is well known how in the East, on the death e. g. of a camel in a caravan, the vultures instantly flock to the carcass. (Compare Mat 24:28.)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
2Sa 21:10-14
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth.
Rizpah: or, relative suffering
We may generally see the cause of any suffering if we only go far enough. David began to enquire, and found out the cause. The demand of the Gibeonites was in harmony only with that crude, cruel, harsh age. They demanded that the survivors of Sauls race should be handed over to them, that they might do that which they thought would appease outraged law. Some have supposed that David was glad of the opportunity of getting rid–after an Eastern fashion–of possible rivals to the throne; but this could not have been his motive, or he would not otherwise have spared the one who was the only direct and lineal descendant, Mephibosheth, the eldest son of the deceased heir apparent, Jonathan. If all forsake those who hang as accursed, Rizpah will not. She cannot hinder the seizure of her sons and relatives, but she can watch that no further dishonour shall be done to their bodies. She takes sackcloth, spreads it to shield her by day and to rest on at night. Stifled by the heat, and chilled by the cold night air, she remains near to those sun-scorched, haggard, weird, blackened, dishonoured bodies, watching to save them from further ignominy.
I. We may gaze with admiring wonder at a womans faithfulness, love, and patience. What faith I She believed that sooner or later God would be entreated for the land, and that when the rains came it would show that guilt had been appeased, and that her dear ones might at least have honourable burial. She believed that they hung there, not for their own sin, but for the sin of others, and, therefore, she does not forsake them. It is so easy to turn our back on those whom the world forsakes. Rizpah would not believe her sons were wrong. How like a woman! They are always slowest to believe wrong, and always readiest to bear the heaviest burdens for those they love. And what a burden, to watch through all those slowly passing weeks.
II. The sorrows that are silently endured. In thousands of homes every day, there are wives and sisters and daughters who are watching as assiduously, either by the bedside of loved sufferers, or mourning at their death, as Rizpah on the rock of Gibeah. How many there are out of whose lives all that is bright is gone, because one to whom they gave their hearts best devotion is lying pulseless, in the blank stare of death.
III. The bitterest trials of life come through the wrongdoings of others. Rizpah had nothing to do with Sauls sin, and yet, she had to bear some of the fearful consequences. Here, too, we see how Christ has suffered through the sin of others. There was no sill in Him. Yet was He treated as a sinner, because He became one with us. Love bound Him to us. How He drove back the vultures of sin and the demons of darkness! How He hung on the cross in the full blaze of a broken law that He might take away the sin of the world! How He has waited since, like Rizpah, at the door of the heart, to give life and peace, and to let the rain of His mercy drop on us out of heaven! Our sins nailed Him to the tree, but He does not love us the less. He knows that when we see how He has loved us, love will break or melt our hearts. For that sign of penitence and love He waits through the long years, as Rizpah did through dabs of furnace heat and nights of intensest cold, for the sign of coming rain from heaven. Oil, how unwearied is Jesus in His waiting for souls I His locks are wet with the dews of heaven, and His form withered as by the solar heat!
IV. The overwhelming influence of a devoted life is seen in this act of Rizpah. That silent, watching woman little thought how others were taking note of her,–how her heroic action would be recorded in the Book which would be the most widely read of all books. Example has immense power. Men submit to it more readily than to any commands. Of it speaks Hudibras–
Example, that imperious dictator
Of all thats good or bad to human nature;
By it the worlds corrupted or reclaimed,
Hopes to be saved or studies to be damned.
However obscure, we cannot be sure but that our example may have a good or an evil influence. In proportion to the extent of our circle, so our power for good or evil.
V. faithful love is finally rewarded. Rizpah, at last, when the dead are buried, can rest, and Duly think with a shudder of the long and weary days when her strong arm drove off the vultures, or of the nights when the wild beasts were only kept at bay by the fire that flashed from her eye, and the force that she threw into her voice. And as we think of Him who was homeless, rejected, crucified, we ask, Will not Christ see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied? (F. Hastings.)
Rizpah
One of the most affecting narratives in Holy Writ–a story, full of beauty and pathos, is the solitary vigil of Rizpah as she watched with a mothers love over the dead bodies of her two sons. In years gone by she had been a favourite with Saul. Her home was in the kings palace; in his love she found both home and happiness. She had no wishes ungratified; whatever could add to her wondrous beauty or minister to her womans vanity was freely at her command. The hues of health and youth mantled in her checks, the rose and the lily lent to her their charms, the light, of hope sat upon her calm brow and brightly beamed in her dark eve; her light, elastic step told of the joy that filled her heart. The stream of life flowed gently on, as a river of peace; the present hour was without a cloud of care; the visions of the future were as bright and rose-coloured as her own playful fancy could paint them. All men paid their court to her, they lived upon her smiles; she was the beneficent fairy who administered happiness and favour to the admiring throng. Far above all these and more than all these was the kings love, the love of Saul, not more distinguished for his manly honours than for the grace of his manly beauty, for his heroic courage and valour, for his warlike triumphs–those qualities which might well commend him to her womans heart. He was the lover of her youth, the father of her children, the two beautiful boys, who were not only the source of the young mothers pride and joy, but the pledge and assurance of her continued reign in the royal heart. Well might she move on in her peerless beauty and pride, careless of the whispering envy that followed her steps, and mindful only of the great prize she had won and so gracefully bore. The scene changes; we stand upon the mountains of Gilboa. Over them like a sirocco has swept the rude blast of war; they are covered with the dying and the dead. Woe, woe to the land, for the Philistines have triumphed; the beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places, the mighty are fallen. Weep, O ye daughters of Israeli weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet and other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Such might have been the exclamations of Rizpah over the dead body of Saul. Her bosom was rent with anguish, her heart broken with sorrow. At one fell blow all her hopes were crushed; vain now were her beauty and her pride. The palace was no longer a fitting home for one so forlorn and distressed; its stores of wealth, its jewelry and costly array, had departed from her for ever; another king had come to the throne who knew not Rizpah. But what cared she? Why, when Saul was himself lost, tell her of past splendour and past joys? Had she not already suffered the worst that could befall her, since the kings death, from one of the new kings captains–insult, ignominy, and shame? A consuming sorrow preyed upon her life; grief had done the work of years, and, if she lived on it was but for the sake of her two sons. They were all that was left her of her former wealth, and while the mother love survives the human heart still preserves its capacity to suffer and endure. So she went forth–she, so delicately nurtured and cared for; her summer friends had all forsaken her; she went forth into a world of poverty and loneliness with her two sons. She sought some retired hamlet, that she might devote her life to her sorrow and to them. They had now come to the years of youth, or, it may be, of manhood, and were able to do something to repair the mothers toss and to repay her love. Their united toil provided the scanty fare and supplied their simple wants. With untiring patience and love they devoted themselves to her comfort, living not for themselves, but for her. Rizpah could not but be touched with the spectacle; she could but see with maternal pride their beauty and virtues. Despite herself, hope would re-kindle in her heart, not for her own future, that was dead for ever, but for theirs; she could but think and believe they so honoured her that their days would be long in the land. They might, they ought, to regain their ancestral name and wealth; they would be the comfort and the solace of her declining years, and would pay her the last sad offices of love. God, had come very near to her, but He had not left her altogether without comfort; while her two sons survived, such sons as mother never had before, she need not wholly despair. It was perchance while Rizpah thus communed with her own heart in her chamber and was still, while she was thus recovering from the staggering blow which Providence had dealt upon her, that she heard the tramp of horses feet approaching her lowly cottage; she looks up, and the kings messenger is at the door. Her heart beats with agitation, but not with fear. Already God has heard her prayers; her two sons are to be restored to the kings court; even on earth they will reap in part their reward. The royal David has heard the touching story of their love; her visions and her hopes are to be realized. Her neighbours and her friends know, alas l how vain such an imagination is. They have suffered from the famine; the only remedy and relief has been bruited abroad–the sacrifice of the seven sons of Saul on the hill before the Lord; it has reached all ears but the ears of Rizpah. Who should break such a tale to that lone and sorrowing woman? Who should bear to her what might be her own as well as the death-warrant of her two sons? What manly courage would not shrink from her wail of woe? Without any fault or crime of theirs, having violated no law human or divine, they, the good sons, were to die a death of shame; like malefactors, they were to be hanged upon a tree. It is one of the strange workings of Providence we can neither fathom nor explain, the visiting upon the innocent children the fathers sins, though it is every day exemplified before our eyes. The sacrifice was ordained; it was accepted of God. The kings messenger had come; he tells his sorrowful errand, and Rizpah makes no resistance and no reply. Her heart is paralyzed, she is dead to the world; naught survives in her but that maternal love which, like the instinct of modesty, may remain long after all outward consciousness is gone. The signal is at length given, the fatal drop falls, and the sacrifice is complete; the seven sons of Saul have ceased to live; the multitude depart, and Rizpah is left alone with her misery and her dead. Now commences her sad, solitary vigil. Her two sons have died like criminals; no sacred burial rites await them. The gibbet on which they perished is to be their only tomb; they are left to be a prey to the unclean birds of heaven and to the wild beasts of the field. From this last indignity the love of Rizpah shields them. What a picture for the pencil of the painter or for the pen of the poet! What a proof of the strength and devotion of maternal level It survives death and the grave; it lives through good and through evil report; in the discharge of its office it fears no danger and shuns no toil. Who can tell but she may yet win them that last favour man can bestow upon the sons of Saul–the rite of burial? So she watches in darkness and in light; the very stillness of her sorrow spreads over her a halo of sanctity that scares away all that would molest or make afraid. A vigil so remarkable soon attracts the notice of the passers-by, the piteous tale is told from one to another, until at length it reaches King Davids ears. His royal heart, is moved with compassion for her sorrows. He collects the bodies of Saul and Jonathan and of their dead sons, and gives them such royal burial as it became a king to bestow. Thus the work of Rizpah was done, her painful vigil ended; and she lays down to die, perhaps to share the grave of Saul and of her two sons, and God was entreated for the land, and instead of famine plenty reigns. Oh! wondrous power of maternal love, hallowing by its sacred influences even the gibbet of infamy, and lending a halo to the noisomeness of death and the grave. Oh only love of earth which finds its prototype in the love of God! (G. F. Cushman, D. D.)
Rizpah.
In the days of David, King of Israel, there prevailed a famine which lasted three years. On inquiring of the Lord the cause, David received for answer that it was because of Saul and his bloody house. Already is one striking lesson to be derived from the history. We learn, not only that the weather is in the hands of God,–Rain and sunshine, wind and storm, fulfilling His word; but also, that one of the causes which influence Him in sending the weather which produces abundance, or which occasions famine, is the conduct of the people. Now the crime of Saul was this. Whereas Joshua and the men of Israel on first coming into Canaan had entered into a solemn covenant with the Gibeonites that they would do them no injury, but suffer them to dwell on unmolested, Saul had sought to slay them. That ancient oath and covenant of the people of the land,–made upwards of four hundred years before,–Saul, the unscrupulous, irreligious Captain of the Lords people, had broken; and three years of famine were the penalty, inflicted on all Israel for the sin of their ruler. Money they spurned. They would have the lives of seven of Sauls sons. Accordingly, seven men were surrendered, and hanged in the hill before the Lord. Two mothers here come to view,–Rizpah and Michal. Of the latter, little is related: but we are guided to a very solemn warning to be derived from this seemingly casual mention of her name. Sauls daughter had loved David when she knew him as the warlike and victorious captain; but despised him when she beheld him as the religious King, transported with holy joy at the recovery and return of the Ark of God. Michal proved childless: but she is found from this place of Scripture to have adopted five of her sisters children and made them hers. Yet, mark you! Those five children are taken from her to complete the number required to make atonement for her fathers sin; and she remains childless until the day of her death. Very different is the character of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah,–who becomes for evermore a pattern to mankind in respect of piety towards the dead. The sackcloth which she is said to have taken and spread upon the rock, was a token of her mourning, as well as an emblem of her grief. What is of more importance, is the hint afforded us of Rizpahs piety towards God no less than towards man, contained in those words,–until water dropped upon them out of Heaven. Cursed (says the Law,) is every one that hangeth upon a tree: and here were seven men appointed to sustain the curse which rested upon the land, and to make atonement for the sin of Saul and of his bloody house. So long as the famine (occasioned by the want of rain) lasted, so long was it to be thought that the wrath of God rested upon the people, and the atonement remained unaccepted by the injured majesty of Heaven. The poor mother watched, therefore, in sackcloth, upon the hard rock; until water dropped upon them out of Heaven: and Rizpah enjoyed the blessed assurance that the Lord was pacified, and that His wrath had indeed passed away! Only one circumstance more requires to be mentioned. It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul had done. David beholds in Rizpahs conduct a lesson to himself; and he proceeds at once to copy the example of piety which that sorrowful bereaved mother has set him. He bethinks him of the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son which are still lying dishonoured at Jabesh-gilead; sends for them; causes the bones of the seven sons who had been hanged at Gibeah to be gathered also; and honourably buries them. So true is it that no one lives to himself; but the effect of good example spreads, and (as in the case before us) a weak womans example becomes a model for the imitation of the monarch on the throne! We never know, we cannot possibly tell the remote consequences of our acts for good or for evil. We cannot even pretend to describe their present influence, and the results which they may immediately occasion. (J. W. Burgon, M. A.)
Rizpahs watch; or, the story of a mothers love
Rizpah, the widow of Saul, was getting to be an old woman when her two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth, were hanged in Gibeah, at the demand of the Gibeonites, who had been ravished and desolated by the cruel wickedness of Saul, their father. These men suffered not only for their own sin, but for the sins of the wicked family in which they were born, and especially for the sins of their father. Rizpah stands out as the true type of the undying loyalty of motherhood. What the world owes to good mothers, who have sacrificed themselves with all joy that they might live again in their children, no statistician will ever be able to adequately determine. John Newton, who caused his mother much sorrow while she lived, was brought back to righteousness long after she had gone to heaven by the recollection of the lessons she had taught him. God brought her back to him again in a vision, and the memory of her prayers and of her tender solicitude broke his heart and turned him away from sin. John Randolph once said: I should have been an atheist if it had not been for one recollection–and that was the memory of the time when my departed mother used to take my little hand in hers and cause me on my knees to say, Our Father, which art in heaven. When General Grant was at West Point, he wrote to his mother: Your kind words of admonition are ever present with me. How well do they strengthen me in every good word and work. Should I become a soldier for my country, I look forward with hope to have you spared to share with me any advancement I might gain, and I trust that my future conduct will prove me worthy of the patriotic instruction you and father have given me. No human being in this world has so much power over the life of man or woman, taking it all in all, as the mother. A mother gives the very emphasis and tone and colour to the speech of her child, and that is only an outward indication of the way she moulds the plastic soul within. Of all the most important classes for the welfare of the world, mothers lead the van. No wonder Napoleon said, in his wicked day, What France needs is good mothers. And as there is no devotion more beautiful and splendid than that of a mothers, so there is nothing that wins a higher meed of love and gratitude in return, The affection which the noblest and truest men and women in the world have had for their mothers brightens up the pages of history. Lord Macaulay once said that it was worth while being sick to be nursed by a mother. William Cowper said: Every creature that bears an affinity to my mother is dear to me. When Thomas Guthrie, the great Scotch preacher, was on his deathbed, his latest words were these: How strange to think that within twenty-four hours I may see my mother and my Saviour! How much it means when God says that He will comfort us, when we give our hearts to Him, as a mother comforteth her child! How can anyone fear to yield completely to the mother-like arms of Divine love? It is this mother-God to whom I call you to-night, (L. A. Banks, D. D.)
Changes of fortune
Some of the worst distresses have come to scenes of royalty and wealth. What porter at the mansions gate has not let in champing and lathered steed bringing evil despatch? On what tesselated hall has there not stood the solemn bier? Under what exquisite fresco has there not been enacted a tragedy of disaster? What curtained couch hath heard no err of pain? What harp hath never trilled with sorrow? What lordly nature hath never leaned against carved pillar and made utterance of woe. Gall is not less bitter when quaffed from a golden chalice than when taken from a pewter mug. Sorrow is often attended by running footmen, and laced lackeys mounted behind. Queen Anne Boleyn is desolate in the palace of Henry VIII. Adolphus wept in German castles over the hypocrisy of friends. Pedro I. among Brazilian diamonds shivered with fear of massacre. Stephen of England sat on a rocking throne. And every mast of pride has bent in the storm, and the highest mountains of honour and fame are covered with perpetual snow. Sickness will frost the rosiest cheek, wrinkle the smoothest brow, and stiffen the sprightliest step. Rizpah quits the courtly circle and sits on the rock. Perhaps you look back upon scenes different from those in which now from day to day you mingle. You have exchanged the plenty and luxuriance of your fathers house for privation and trials known to God and your own heart. The morning of life was flushed with promise. Troops of calamities since then have made desperate charge upon you. Darkness has come. Sorrows have swooped like carrion birds from the sky and barked like jackals from the thicket. You stand amid your slain, anguished and woestruck. So it has been in all ages. Vashti must doff the spangled robes of the Persian Court, and go forth blasted from the palace gate. Hagar exchanges Oriental comfort for the wilderness of Beersheba. Mary Queen of Scots must pass out from flattery and pomp to suffer ignominious death in the Castle of Fotheringay. The wheel of fortune keeps turning, and mansions and huts exchange, and he who rode in the chariot pushes the barrow, and instead of the glare of festal lights is the simmering of the peat-fire, and in place of Sauls palace is the rock, the cold rock, the desolate rock. But that is the place to which God comes. Jacob with his head on a stone saw the shining ladder. Israel in the desert beheld the marshalling of the fiery baton. John on barren Patmos heard trumpeting, and the clapping of wings, and the stroke of seraphic fingers on golden harps, and nothing but heavenly strength nerved Rizpah for her appalling mission amid the scream of wild birds and the steady tread of hungry monsters. (T. De Wilt Talmage.)
Sins of lathers visited upon children
But it hardly ends before you cry out: What a hard thing that those seven boys should suffer for the crimes of a father and grandfather! Yes. But it is always so. Let everyone who does wrong know that he was not only, as in this case, against two generations, children and grandchildren, but against all the generations of coming time. That is what makes dissipation and uncleanness so awful. It reverberates in other times. It may skip one generation, as is suggested in the Ten Commandments: which say: Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation. Mind you, it says nothing about the second generation, but mentions the third and the fourth. That accounts for what you sometimes see, very good parents with very bad children. Go far enough back in the ancestral line and you find the source of all the turpitude. Visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation. If, when Saul died, the consequences of his iniquity could have died with him, it would not have been so sad. Alas, no! Look on that hill a few miles out from Jerusalem and see the ghastly burdens of those seven gibbets, and the wan and wasted Rizpah watching them. Go to-day through the wards and alms-houses, and the reformatory institutions where unfortunate children are kept, and you will find that nine out of ten had drunken or vicious parents. Yea, day by day, in the streets of our cities you find men and women wrecked of evil parentage. They are moral corpses. Like the seven sons of Saul–though dead–unburied. Alas! for Rizpah, who, not for six months, but for years and years has watched them. She cannot keep the vultures and the jackals off. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The courage of woman amid great emergencies
What mother, or sister, or daughter would dare to go out to fight the cormorant and jackal? Rizpah did it. And so would you if an emergency demanded. Woman is naturally timid and shrinks from exposure, and depends on stronger arms for the achievement of great enterprises. And she is often troubled lest there might be occasions demanding fortitude when she would fail. Not so. Some of those who are afraid to look out of door after nightfall, and who quake in the darkness at the least uncertain sound, and who start at the slam of the door, and turn pale in a thunderstorm, if the day of trial came would be heroic and invulnerable. God has arranged it so that woman needs the trumpet of some great contest of principle or affection to rouse up her slumbering courage. Then she will stand under the cross fire of opposing hosts at Chalons to give wine to the wounded. Then she will carry into prison and dark lane the message of salvation. Then she will brave the pestilence. Deborah goes out to sound terror into the heart of Gods enemies. Abigail throws herself between a raiding party of infuriated men and her husbands vineyards. Rizpah fights back the vultures from the Rook. Among the Orkney Islands an eagle swooped and lifted a child to its eyrie far up on the mountains. With the spring of a panther the mother mounts hill above hill, crag above crag, height above height, the fire of her own eye outflashing the glare of the eagles; and with unmailed hand stronger than the iron beak and the terrible claw she hurled the wild bird down the rocks. In the French Revolution, Cazotte was brought to be executed when his daughter threw herself on the body of her father and said, Strike! barbarians! You cannot reach my father but through my heart! The crowd parted, and linking arms father and daughter walked out free. During the siege of Saragossa, Augustina carried refreshments to the gates. Arriving at the battery of Portillo she found that all the garrison had been killed. She snatched a match from the hand of a dead artilleryman and fired off a twenty-six pounder, then leaped on it and vowed she would not leave it alive. The soldiers looked in and saw her daring, and rushed up and opened another tremendous fire on the enemy. The life of James I. of Scotland was threatened. Poets have sung those times, and able pens have lingered upon the story of manly endurance, but how few tell the story of Catherine Douglas, one of the Queens maids, who ran to bolt the door, but found the bar had been taken away so as to facilitate the entrance of the assassins. She thrust her arm into the staple. The murderers rushing, against it, her arm was shattered. Yet how many have since lived and died who never heard the touching, self-sacrificing, heroic story of Catherine Douglas and her poor shattered arm. You know how calmly Madame Roland went to execution and how cheerfully Joanna of Naples walked to the castle of Mute, and how fearlessly Madame Grimaldi listened to her condemnation, and how Charlotte Corday smiled upon the frantic mob that pursued her to the guillotine. And there would be no end to the recital if I attempted to present all the historical incidents which show that womens courage will rouse itself for great emergencies. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
A mother buries remains of her executed sons,
In the time of George IV., two men were convicted of robbing the Brighton mail-coach, and were hung on gibbets on the spot where the crime had been committed. When the clothes and the flesh had at length fallen away, an aged woman was observed to go night after night, in all weather, to the lonely spot, and bring away something in her apron. These were the bones of her son, which she interred with her own hands in the parish churchyard. (Memoir of Lord Tennyson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 10. Rizpah – took sackcloth] Who can read the account of Rizpah’s maternal affection for her sons that were now hanged, without feeling his mind deeply impressed with sorrows?
Did God require this sacrifice of Saul’s sons, probably all innocent of the alleged crime of their father? Was there no other method of averting the Divine displeasure? Was the requisition of the Gibeonites to have Saul’s sons sacrificed to God, to be considered as an oracle of God? Certainly not; God will not have man’s blood for sacrifice, no more than he will have swine’s blood. The famine might have been removed, and the land properly purged, by offering the sacrifices prescribed by the law, and by a general humiliation of the people.
Until water dropped upon them] Until the time of the autumnal rains, which in that country commence about October. Is it possible that this poor broken-hearted woman could have endured the fatigue, (and probably in the open air,) of watching these bodies for more than five months? Some think that the rain dropping on them out of heaven means the removal of the famine which was occasioned by drought, by now sending rain, which might have been shortly after these men were hanged; but this by no means agrees with the manner in which the account is introduced: “They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah – took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven.” No casual or immediately providential rain can be here intended; the reference must be to the periodical rains above mentioned.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Spread it for her, as a tent to dwell in; being informed that their bodies were not to be taken away speedily, as the course of the law was in other and ordinary cases, Deu 21:23, but were to continue there until God was entreated, and did remove the present judgment. And God was herein pleased to dispense with his own law, that it might plainly appear that these were not put to death by David for politic reasons, as that he and his sons might be freed from competitors, which doubtless Davids enemies were ready to suggest; but by Gods special command, who was pleased to execute this judgment upon them, as partly and principally for the punishment of Sauls sin, so secondarily for the stablishing of Davids throne to himself and to his seed for ever, as he had promised.
Upon the rock; in some convenient place in a rock, near adjoining.
Until water dropped upon them out of heaven, i.e. until they were taken down; which was not to be done till God had given rain as a sign of his favour, and a mean to remove the famine, which was caused by the want of it. To
rest on them, i.e. on their carcasses.
Nor the beasts of the field; from which she might preserve herself and them by divers methods.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
10. Rizpah . . . took sackcloth, andspread it for her upon the rockShe erected a tent near thespot, in which she and her servants kept watch, as the relatives ofexecuted persons were wont to do, day and night, to scare the birdsand beasts of prey away from the remains exposed on the low-standinggibbets.
2Sa21:12-22. DAVID BURIESTHE BONES OF SAULAND JONATHAN INTHEIR FATHER’SSEPULCHER.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth,…. Both as a token of mourning for her sons, and as fittest to defend from the weather, the heat by day of cold by night:
and spread it for her upon the rock; the hill on which her sons were hanged; this she spread as a canopy or tent to sit under, and be covered with it; not to cover the bodies with it, but herself, and where she sat to mourn the loss of her sons, and to watch their bodies, that they might not be devoured by birds and breasts of prey, as after observed: and here she sat
from the beginning of harvest until water dropped on them out of heaven; that is, as the Jews say n, from the sixteenth of Nisan, when barley harvest began, to the seventeenth of Marchesvan, when the former rain fell; that is, from the beginning of April to the beginning of October: but it is not likely that she continued so long watching the bodies, nor would there be any need of it to keep the birds and beasts from them; for after they had hung so many months, there would be nothing left for them; but rather the meaning is, that she continued there until it pleased God to send rain from heaven, which had been restrained, and a famine came upon it, because of the ill usage of the Gibeonites: and very probably the order from the king was, that the bodies should hang till rain came, that it might be observed what was the reason of their suffering; and no doubt Rizpah sat there praying that rain might come, and which, as Abarbinel thinks, came in a few days after, though not usual in summertime; but this was an extraordinary case, as in 1Sa 12:17; and was done to show the Lord was entreated for the land; and so Josephus says o, that upon the hanging up of these men, God caused it to rain immediately, and restored the earth to its former fruitfulness. According to the law in
De 21:22, the bodies should have been taken down and buried the same day: but these men suffered not for their own personal, sins, but for the sins of others, and to avert a public calamity, and therefore must hang till that was removed; nor were they executed by men bound by that law; and besides their continuing on the tree was according to the will of God, till he was entreated, who could dispense with this law; to which may be added, the ceremonial and judicial laws, of which this was one, gave place to those of a moral nature p, as this did to that of sanctifying the name of God in a public manner; hence the saying of one of the Rabbins upon this q, which is by many wrongly expressed,
“it is better that one letter should be rooted out of the law, than that the name of God should not be sanctified openly;”
that is, a lesser precept give way to a greater, or a ceremonial precept to a moral one, such as the sanctification of the name of God is:
and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day; as it is usual for crows r and ravens, and such sort of birds, to light on bodies thus hung up, and pick their flesh:
nor the beasts of the field by night; for it seems it was usual to make the gibbets, and so in some other nations the crosses, so low, that wild beasts could easily come at the bodies and devour them; so Blandina was hung upon a tree so low, that she might be exposed to the wild beasts to feed upon her, but not one of them would touch her body s; now Rizpah, by her servants, had ways and means to frighten away the birds, and beasts from doing any injury to the carcasses.
n Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 190. 1. o Antiqu. l. 7. c. 12. sect. 1. p See Stillingfleet’s Origines Sacr. p. 140. q T. Bab. Yebamot, fol. 79. 1. r “—- non pasces in cruce corvos”, Horat. Epist, l. 1. Epist. 16. ver. 48. s Euseb. Eccl. Hist. l. 5. c. 1. Vid. Lipsium de Cruce, l. 3. c. 11. & l. 3. c. 13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Death of Saul’s Sons. | B. C. 1021. |
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: 13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. 14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country 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.
Here we have, I. Saul’s sons not only hanged, but hanged in chains, their dead bodies left hanging, and exposed, till the judgment ceased, which their death was to turn away, by the sending of rain upon the land. They died as sacrifices, and thus they were, in a manner, offered up, not consumed all at once by fire, but gradually by the air. They died as anathemas, and by this ignominious usage they were represented as execrable, because iniquity was laid upon them. When our blessed Saviour was made sin for us he was made a curse for us. But how shall we reconcile this with the law which expressly required that those who were hanged should be buried on the same day? Deut. xxi. 23. One of the Jewish rabbin wishes this passage of story expunged, that the name of God might be sanctified, which, he thinks, is dishonoured by his acceptance of that which was a violation of his law: but this was an extraordinary case, and did not fall within that law; nay, the very reason for that law is a reason for this exception. He that is thus left hanged is accursed; therefore ordinary malefactors must not be so abused; but therefore these must, because they were sacrificed, not to the justice of the nation, but for the crime of the nation (no less a crime than the violation of the public faith) and for the deliverance of the nation from no less a judgment than a general famine. Being thus made as the off-scouring of all things, they were made a spectacle to the world (1Co 4:9; 1Co 4:13), God appointing, or at least allowing it.
II. Their dead bodies watched by Rizpah, the mother of two of them, v. 10. It was a great affliction to her, now in her old age, to see her two sons, who, we may suppose, had been a comfort to her, and were likely to be the support of her declining years, cut off in this dreadful manner. None know what sorrows they are reserved for. She may not see them decently interred, but they shall be decently attended. She attempts not to violate the sentence passed upon them, that they should hang there till God sent rain; she neither steals nor forces away their dead bodies, though the divine law might have been cited to bear her out; but she patiently submits, pitches a tent of sackcloth near the gibbets, where, with her servants and friends, she protects the dead bodies from birds and beasts of prey. Thus, 1. She indulged her grief, as mourners are too apt to do, to no good purpose. When sorrow, in such cases, is in danger of growing excessive, we should rather study how to divert and pacify it than how to humour and gratify it. Why should we thus harden ourselves in sorrow? 2. She testified her love. Thus she let the world know that her sons died, not for any sin of their own, not as stubborn and rebellious sons, whose eye had despised to obey their mother; if that had been the case, she would have suffered the ravens of the valley to pick it out and the young eagles to eat it, Prov. xxx. 17. But they died for their father’s sin and therefore her mind could not be alienated from them by their hard fate. Though there is not remedy, but they must die, yet they shall die pitied and lamented.
III. The solemn interment of their dead bodies, with the bones of Saul and Jonathan, in the burying-place of their family. David was so far from being displeased at what Rizpah had done that he was himself stirred up by it to do honour to the house of Saul, and to these branches of it among the rest; thus it appeared that it was not out of any personal disgust to the family that he delivered them up, and that he had not desired the woeful day, but that he was obliged to do it for the public good. 1. He now bethought himself of removing the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the place where the men of Jabesh-Gilead had decently, but privately and obscurely, interred them, under a tree,1Sa 31:12; 1Sa 31:13. Though the shield of Saul was vilely cast away, as if he had not been anointed with oil, yet let not royal dust be lost in the graves of the common people. Humanity obliges us to respect human bodies, especially of the great and good, in consideration both of what they have been and what they are to be. 2. With them he buried the bodies of those that were hanged; for, when God’s anger was turned away, they were no longer to be looked upon as a curse, 2Sa 21:13; 2Sa 21:14. When water dropped upon them out of heaven (v. 10), that is, when God sent rain to water the earth (which perhaps was not many days after they were hung up), then they were taken down, for then it appeared that God was entreated for the land. When justice is done on earth vengeance from heaven ceases. Through Christ, who was hanged on a tree and so made a curse for us, to expiate our guilt (though he was himself guiltless), God is pacified, and is entreated for us: and it is said (Acts xiii. 29) that when they had fulfilled all that was written of him, in token of the completeness of the sacrifice and of God’s acceptance of it, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a sepulchre.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Right Solution Reached Belatedly, vs. 10-14
In these verses is recorded one of the most pathetic scenes of distraught motherhood to be found in the annals of literature. Rizpah bereft of her children, forbidden even to bury their bodies, lovingly spreads her sackcloth pallet on the rock in the open air to keep vigil day and night. In the day she warded off the carrion eating birds from the decaying bodies and by night she fought off the wolves and jackals. Some commentators speak of a period of near two months in which Rizpah was thus occupied. It seems to have lasted from the barley harvest through the wheat harvest to the rainy season which ordinarily followed.
When David heard of what Rizpah was doing he seems to have taken pity and considered that he had not rendered proper respect toward Saul and his family since becoming king. Consequently he sent to Jabesh-gilead and took the bones- of Saul and his sons who had been slain by the Philistines at the battle of Mount Gilboa, and whose bodies had been stolen from them and brought by the men of Jabesh to their city and buried. These with the carcasses of those whom the Gibeonites had executed were then buried in the sepulchre of Kish, Saul’s father, in the land of Benjamin.
The Scriptures then note, “After that God was intreated for the land.” This indicates the Lord was not properly sought until David had recognized his error, or errors, and made all restitution possible by burying the abused bodies, when He at last restored His blessing to the land.
David was guilty of several infractions of God’s law relative to this sorry affair. His initial error was, of course, not seeking the Lord’s will. Then he set aside the law which said the sons should not be put to death for the sins of their fathers (De 24:16) and ignored the law which stated that the dead should not be left hanging on a tree after sundown (De 21:22-23). By leaving them so hanging David was guilty, according to this same law, of defiling the land. Also, David abrogated his solemn promise to Saul in slaying his sons. Though he had made special covenant with Jonathan, because of which he refused to give Mephibosheth up for execution, he had made a similar promise to Saul concerning all his descendants (1Sa 24:20-22). No wonder it was so long before the Lord was entreated for the land.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES
2Sa. 21:10. Until water dropped, etc. The early rain usually began in October. But rain may have been sent earlier as a token of forgiveness. The reason of the bodies being left unburied, contrary to Deu. 21:23, probably was that the death of these men being the expiation of a violated oath they were to remain until the fall of rain should give the assurance that Gods anger was appeased and the national sin forgiven. (Biblical Commentary.)
2Sa. 21:14. And the bones, etc. Although not expressly stated, it is implied that the remains of the crucified men were interred at the same time and place, if not actually in the same tomb. Zelah. The situation of this city is unknown.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.2Sa. 21:10-14
RIZPAH AND DAVID
I. Deep affliction often brings forth a nobility of character which would otherwise remain latent. It is not likely that Rizpah showed herself to be in any respect a remarkable woman before this great bereavement. She manifested probably no exceptional amount of affection for her children, and is hardly likely to have herself sounded the depths of her maternal love. But when plunged into this deep sorrow she revealed a self-sacrificing devotion, which lifted her at once far above the level of ordinary humanity. The death of her children awakened within her a noble heroism which would in all probability have lain dormant under less trying circumstances. This is not an uncommon occurrence. Men and women who seem very commonplace while no special demand is made upon their better nature, often rise into true heroes and heroines in the day of extraordinary trial, when the emotional side of their nature is called upon to assert itself.
II. Such nobility of character forms a common meeting ground for those otherwise widely sundered. There was little in common between David and Sauls concubine. The king had scarcely before this felt any interest, much less admiration, for Rizpah. But being himself a noble man and capable of great self-devotion, this display of deep love and grief bridged over, for a time at least, the gulf that had hitherto divided them. Men are not unfrequently surprised into the discovery that some, from whom in all other respects they are as widely sundered as the poles, are one with them in deep and noble emotion which breaks down the wall of partition raised by opposing interests and differing circumstances. The father who mourned for Absalom as David did could not fail to be touched by such sorrow as Rizpahs, and for the moment we may well believe their common humanity made them forget all past differences.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
It must be borne in mind that the famine did not cease with the hanging of the sons of Saul. For three long months the bereaved daughter of Aiah held her watch. But still the Lord was not entreated for the land. But though private piety is all too weak to avert Gods judgments on a guilty nation, it is of force to draw down from heaven a private blessing, and is never wholly unavailing. Deep, we may well believe, were the communings which Rizpah held with God in her awful loneliness, and fervent her supplications. And David, moved by her affecting piety, buried the bones of her sons with those of Saul and Jonathan and after that, God was entreated for the land. Both the infliction and removal of this scourge of famine afford a striking proof how deeply the well-being and happiness of nations may be affected by the personal character of their rulers, and consequently, what just reason we have to attend to the Apostles exhortation. (1Ti. 2:2.)T. H. L., Dean of Exeter.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Rizpahs Sad Vigil. 2Sa. 21:10-14
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:
13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.
14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.
8.
Why did Rizpah guard the bodies? 2Sa. 21:10
Rizpah took the coarse, hairy cloth which was worn as a sign of mourning and spread it out as a pallet for herself on the rock at the summit of the high place where Sauls heirs were crucified. She was, indeed, mourning over this tragic end of Sauls house, two of whom were her own children. The sackcloth was not used as a tent to keep the sun off herself nor as a covering for the corpses of those who had been executed; it was to soften the surface on which she sat by day, and lay by night, and to express her deep grief. Leaving bodies to be consumed by birds of prey and wild beasts was regarded to be the greatest ignominy that could be heaped on the dead (1Sa. 17:44). The Law had stipulated that when people were executed, they were not to remain hanging overnight but to be buried before nightfall (Deu. 21:22-23). The law was not applicable in this case because the slaying of Sauls sons was to expiate a sin which Saul had committed, and the bodies were to be left spread out before the Lord until the rains fell as a sign of the end of the famine. Mention is made of the fact that Rizpah sat there from the beginning of the harvest which would come in late spring, until the rains came in the fall at the beginning of Palestines wet season. Josephus assumes that the rain fell at once and before the ordinary early rain (Antiquities VII; xii; 1). News of this lonely vigil of this tragic figure was brought to David by those who had seen what she was doing.
9.
How was David able to move the bones of Saul? 2Sa. 21:12
Although the corpses of Jonathan and Saul had been stolen from the walls of Beth-shan by the men of Jabesh-gilead, the bodies may have been only partially burned (1Sa. 31:12). Some charred remains of the body must have been left. The bones of these men were then buried with the bones of those seven sons who had been hanged. Such concern for the human body was typical of the Jewish people and is another indication of the fact that Godfearing people through the years have practiced only the burial of the corpse. The earthly remains of Sauls heirs were buried in the homeland of Israels first king.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
RIZPAH’S MATERNAL AFFECTION, 2Sa 21:10.
This single verse contains a mournful tale, which none can read without emotion.
10. Took sackcloth The sign of mourning.
Spread it for her upon the rock For the purpose of a seat and bed.
Until water dropped Until rain came and ended the three years’ famine, which had probably been caused by drought; but how long she had to wait upon the rock beside the exposed bodies of her sons before the rain came is not quite clear.
Josephus says that it came soon after the execution, and Harmer thinks it was a late spring rain, which is sometimes known to fall as late as June in seasons when the usual rains of spring have failed. But the statement, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped, most naturally means that she kept up her sad and woful watching during all the summer season, from April until the early autumnal rains began.
Neither the birds nor the beasts To be devoured by birds or beasts of prey was the foulest ignominy that could visit the dead. Compare 1Sa 17:44.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Sa 21:10-14. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, &c. Commentators have justly observed from hence, that the hanging of these carcases for so long a time in the open air, could not be in consequence of any command from David, because it was an open violation of the law of God, Deu 21:22-23 which commanded that the carcases of all those who were hanged should not remain even one night upon the tree; and the reason of the law, namely, lest the land be defiled, held strong in the present case, inasmuch as the stench of so many carcases for so long a time in a malignant drought, and at the hottest season of the year, might have added a pestilence to the famine; a danger, which it is impossible to imagine that David would deliberately devise both against his people and himself, and consequently demonstrates itself imposed upon him by a superior power; confuting all the little cavils of mean men against the conduct of David upon this occasion; cavils, which are further confuted by the account of Rizpah’s memorable maternal affection for these unhappy victims; which when David heard, did he resent this conduct, which might have been a natural means of propagating a pestilence? He rather emulated it; for he immediately went (2Sa 21:12.) to Jabesh Gilead, and caused the bones of Saul and Jonathan to be removed from thence, and deposited, together with the bones of Saul’s seven sons now interred, in the sepulchre of Kish; himself attending them in person to the grave, as if Rizpah’s kindness to the remains of these unhappy victims reproached his own neglect of doing honour to those of so excellent a man, and so valuable a friend as Jonathan. By a passage in La Roque’s Travels through Syria, says the author of the Observations, it appears, that if the usual rains have failed in the spring, it is of great benefit to have a copious shower, though very late; for he tells us, that when he arrived at Sidon in the end of June, it had not rained there for many months, and that the earth was so extremely dry, that the cotton-plants and mulberry-trees, which make the principal riches of that country, were in a sad condition; and all other things suffered in proportion, so that a famine was feared, which is generally followed by a pestilence. However, after public prayers for rain had been put up by all the sects that lived there, he adds, the rain descended in great abundance, continuing all that day and part of the night. He does not exactly specify the day; but it could not be before the end of June, new style; for he did not arrive at Sidon till then; and it could not be so late as the usual time of the descent of the autumnal rains, for the cotton is ripe in September, till the middle of which month those rains seldom fall; often later; and this rain is supposed to be of great service to the growing cotton; consequently this account refers not to autumnal showers, but a late spring rain, which probably happened soon after his arrival, or about the beginning of July, old style; and though the harvest must have been over at Sidon by the time that this gentleman arrived there, and they had nothing to hope or fear as to that; yet, as the people of those countries depend so much on garden-stuff, the inspissated juice of grapes, olives, &c. they might notwithstanding be apprehensive of a scarcity; which they might hope this late rain would prevent. For the like reasons, such a rain must have been extremely acceptable in the days of David; the more so, if it came much earlier, though we must believe it to have been after all expectations of it in the common way were over: and such a one, I suppose, was granted. Dr. Delaney, indeed, tells us, that the Rabbins suppose the descendants of Saul to have hanged from March, from the very first days of barley harvest, till the following October; and he seems to approve their sentiments. Dr. Shaw mentions this affair but cursorily; however, he appears to have imagined that they hanged till the rainy season came in course. But surely we may much better suppose that it was such a rain as La Roque speaks of, or one rather earlier. Dr. Delaney founds his opinion on a supposition, that the bodies which were hanged up before the Lord, hung till the flesh was wasted from the bones, which he thinks is affirmed in the 13th verse. But no such thing appears to me to be there affirmed. The bodies of Saul and his sons, it is certain, hanged but a very little while on the wall of Beth-shan before the men of Jabesh Gilead removed them, which yet are called bones. 1Sa 31:13. The seven sons of Saul therefore might hang a very little time in the days of king David. And if it should be imagined, that the flesh of Saul was consumed by fire, (2Sa 21:12 of that chapter,) and that so the word bones came to be used in the account of their interment; can any reason be assigned why we should not suppose that these bodies were treated in the same manner? Besides, it appears, that the word bones frequently means the same thing with corpse, which circumstance also totally invalidates this way of reasoning. See Gen 1:25-26. Exo 13:19. 1Ki 13:31.Such a late spring rain as is above mentioned would have been attended, as the rain at Sidon was, with many advantages; and coming after all hope of common rain was over, and presently following the death of these persons, would be a much more merciful management of Providence, and a much nobler proof that the execution was the appointment of God, and not a political stratagem of David, than the passing of six months over without any rain at all, and then its falling only in the common course of things. This explanation also throws light on the last clause of the history, And after that, God was entreated for the land. Dr. Delaney seems to suppose, that the performing of these funeral rites was requisite to the appearing of God: but could that be the meaning of the clause? Were the ignominy of a death which the law of Moses pronounced accursed, and the honour of a royal funeral, both necessary mediums of appeasing the Almighty? Is it not a much easier interpretation of this clause, that the rain which dropped on these bodies was a great mercy to the country; and the return of the rains in due quantities afterwards in their season, proved that God had been entreated for the land? See the Observations, p. 31. Dr. Delaney observes, that the 65th Psalm was written upon this occasion, the five last verses of which, says he, are the most rapturous, truly poetic, and natural image of joy, that fancy can form. On reading them we shall discern, that when the divine poet had seen these desirable and refreshing showers falling from heaven, and the Jordan overflowing his banks, all the consequent blessings were that moment present to his quick poetic sight, and he paints them accordingly.
REFLECTIONS.1. The bodies, contrary to the law of Moses, were left hanging on the tree. The case was extraordinary; and as it was a national crime, thus to violate the solemn oath made to the Gibeonites, it was, no doubt, by Divine command enjoined for the expiation of it, till the long withheld rain should be sent. 2. Thus was the Son of God crucified for sins not his own, suffering for the curse which lay upon our sinful souls; and having by an ignominious death expiated our guilt, the wrath of God was appealed, and he was taken down from the tree.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(10) And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. (11) And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
It should seem that in the instance of those seven Persons of Saul’s house, hung up to perish by the Gibeonites, there was an evident departure from the law, which enjoined, that the body of him that was hanged on a tree, should not in any wise remain all night, for he that is hanged is cursed of GOD. See Deu 21:23 . Therefore there must be some very special design intended from this present occasion. That those bodies actually continued hanging, is, I think, very clear, not only from the watching of Rizpah, (for, wherefore should she have watched, but to preserve them from birds and beasts of prey?) but also from what is said, that David when he brought back the bones of Saul and Jonathan, gathered also the bones of them that were hanged. Besides, as the watching of Rizpah continued until the water dropped upon them out of heaven; it seems that the famine had been occasioned for want of rain, and that when the rain descended, it was considered as an answer from the LORD, of his approbation; and then, and not before, the bodies were taken down and buried. But, if this be the real state of the case, are we not led to the discovery of a most important thing, shadowed out by this? Reader! look at it again. Here are seven persons, contrary to GOD’S own law, kept suspended between heaven and earth, after being hanged. And the law expressly forbade it on this account, for he that is hanged is accursed of GOD . But after this was done, GOD was intreated for the land. And could anything more strikingly set forth, in those remote ages, from the crucifixion of JESUS, a circumstance more in point? Was not JESUS made sin, and a curse for us, and for this express purpose, that he might redeem us from everlasting famine? And after the accomplishment of this great end, was not our GOD entreated for the land? Yes! thou precious Surety of the poor sinner; thou wert made, not merely the curse of the judicial law, but thou wert, made the curse of the moral law; as if designed on purpose to show that the blessed JESUS was hung up between heaven and earth, as if unworthy of either, and in all this, being the sinners’ Surety, though in himself holy, harmless, and undefiled, yet he was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of GOD, in him. 2Co 5:21 . See Gal 3:13 . And as it was by the bones of those sons of Saul, so is it spoken of our LORD JESUS; after they had fulfilled all that was written of him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a sepulchre. Act 13:29 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2Sa 21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
Ver. 10. Took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, ] viz., Where her children and the rest were hanged: that sitting under it, and lamenting her loss, she might be sheltered from the sun’s heat, till she might see whether God’s wrath was appeased by this execution, and rain reobtained after so long a drought causing a dearth. Vide hic ergo et mirare pietatem et patientiam Rizphae, saith an interpreter. See here and wonder at the motherly love and patience of Rizpah, who continued so long in such an open place day and night to watch the dead bodies of her sons, and to keep them from birds and beasts. These are the heart of a mother.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rizpah: 2Sa 21:8, 2Sa 3:7
took sackcloth: 1Ki 21:27, Joe 1:18
from the: 2Sa 21:9, Deu 21:13
until water: Some suppose that this means a providential supply of rain, in order to remove the famine; but from the manner in which it is introduced, it seems to denote the autumnal rains, which commence about October. For five months did this broken-hearted woman watch by the bodies of her sons! Deu 11:14, 1Ki 18:41-45, Jer 5:24, Jer 5:25, Jer 14:22, Hos 6:3, Joe 2:23, Zec 10:1
the birds: Gen 40:19, Eze 39:4
Reciprocal: Job 37:13 – for mercy Pro 30:17 – the ravens
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE QUICKENING OF DAVIDS CONSCIENCE BY RIZPAHS EXAMPLE
And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
2Sa 21:10
I. Consider first the Divine dealings with the house of Saul and the people of Israel.The famine was because Saul and his bloody house had slain the Gibeonites. It was a consequence of that act of his. But the famine was not the punishment of Saul, the most guilty of the offenders. Saul was punished even in this world. In spite of his elevation to the throne and his brilliant successes, he lived a miserable life and died a miserable death. Here was his punishment, but so far as his crime to the Gibeonites was concerned he did not live to share in the misery occasioned by that sinful act.
The thought of this fact, that our actions, independently of their good or evil desert, have inevitable consequences, should make us very circumspect and careful. There exists a mysterious sequence of events which evades our research and reaches beyond the things of this world.
II. The conduct of Rizpah was natural; it was also not without its use, if we look to the moral instead of the physical world.She returned to her home with a softened though a saddened heart, with subdued affections, with a consciousness of having done what she could, and with the knowledge that her conduct had met with the approbation of David.
III. Notice the conduct of David.In his generous heart a generous action was sure to find a ready response. He whose parental affections not even the rebellion of an ungrateful son could annihilate knew how to sympathise with the childless Rizpah, and Rizpah was doubtless consoled when, in a princely burial, she saw honour done to her husbands house.
Justice first, and then mercy. This is the way of the Lord, and David, as the Lords vicegerent, walked in it.
Dean Hook.
Illustrations
(1) The way in which Rizpahs conduct moved David to his duty affords a fine instance of what has been aptly called unconscious influence. She had no design upon the conscience of the king, but her right doing told with great effect. If she had lectured him about his duty to the sleeping dust of his friend, he might have resented her efforts as an impertinence; but he could neither resent nor resist the silent appeal of her actions. Words are often feeble and in vain, but deeds are seldom fruitless. The most eloquent preachers may have to cry out complaininglyWho hath believed our report? The success of example is far more certain, for its fragrance has never been a sweetness wholly wasted on the desert air. Susceptibility to its power is a universal possession. Birds that have become dumb and have forgotten their strains, have had their memories touched, and have been moved to melodious songs again, by being placed where they could hear the carols of other birds. Did any man ever yet, by the grace of God, set his life to holy music without stirring up the instinct of sacred song in some other human breast? No man liveth to himself! No man dieth to himself!
(2) Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, kept watch through day and night when the weather in Palestine is comparatively broken, but she knew no hardship, her love counted not the cost, and her love became contagious, and awoke up in David a desire to treat with similar honour the remains of Saul and Jonathan. Fire spreads itself without impoverishment, and love ignites and stirs love in others. Before now a voice raised in prayerful and passionate attachment to Jesus has made volcanic fire leap out where it had seemed extinct. Do not stint a child of God the alabaster boxes, for though they drive a Judas to desperation, they will lead a Peter or a David to take up the long-forgotten duty.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2Sa 21:10. Rizpah took sackcloth Or rather, hair-cloth, of which tents were commonly made. And spread it for her As a tent to dwell in: being informed that their bodies were not to be taken away speedily, as the course of the law was in ordinary cases, but were to continue there until God was entreated, and removed the present judgment. On the rock In some convenient place in a rock, near adjoining. Until water Until they were taken down: which was not to be done till God had given rain as a sign of his favour, and a means to remove the famine, which was caused by the want of it. Thus she let the world know that her sons died not as stubborn and rebellious sons, whose eye had despised their mother: but for their fathers crime, and that of the nation in violating the public faith, in which crime, if they had participated, it had only been in common with others; and therefore her mind could not be alienated from them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took {h} sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until {i} water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
(h) To make her a tent in which she prayed to God to turn away his wrath.
(i) Because drought was the cause of this famine, God by sending rain showed that he was pacified.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
3. David’s honoring of Saul and Jonathan 21:10-14
The writer did not mention how much time elapsed between the execution of Saul’s descendants and the coming of rain.
"Leaving corpses without burial, to be consumed by birds of prey and wild beasts, was regarded as the greatest ignominy that could befall the dead . . ." [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, p. 462.]
David’s action ended the famine, and God again blessed Israel with rain and fertility. David also proceeded to give Saul and Jonathan honorable burials. [Note: See my note on the significance of burial in the ancient Near East at 1 Samuel 31.]
Because Saul had been unfaithful to Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites, God punished the nation with famine (lack of fertility). When David, who followed the Mosaic Law, righted this wrong, God restored fertility to the land. God reduced Saul’s line from one of the most powerful-looking men in Israel, Saul, to one of the weakest-looking, Mephibosheth. David’s faithfulness to his covenant with Jonathan shows he was a covenant-keeping king like Yahweh. Saul, on the other hand, broke Israel’s covenant with the Gibeonites.