---
title: "2 Samuel 21 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/2-samuel/21/
description: "A famine of three years, for the sin of Saul against the Gabaonites, at whose… 2 Samuel 21 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# 2 Samuel 21

2 Samuel 21 is chapter 21 of 24 in the Second Book of Samuel. Here are all 22 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> A famine of three years, for the sin of Saul against the Gabaonites, at whose desire seven of Saul's race are crucified. War again with the Philistines.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## 2 Samuel 21 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. And a famine occurred, during the days of David, for three years continuously. And David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: “This is because of Saul, and his house of bloodshed. For he killed the Gibeonites.”
2. Therefore, the king, calling for the Gibeonites, spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but were the remnant of the Amorites. And the sons of Israel had sworn an oath to them, but Saul wished to strike them in zeal, as if on behalf of the sons of Israel and Judah.
3. Therefore, David said to the Gibeonites: “What shall I do for you? And what shall be your satisfaction, so that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?”
4. And the Gibeonites said to him: “There is no quarrel for us over silver or gold, but against Saul and against his house. And we do not desire that any man of Israel be put to death.” The king said to them, “Then what do you wish that I should do for you?”
5. And they said to the king: “The man who unjustly afflicted and oppressed us, we ought to destroy in such manner that not even one of his stock may be left behind in all the parts of Israel.
6. Let seven men from his sons be given to us, so that we may crucify them to the Lord in Gibeon of Saul, formerly the chosen place of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”
7. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord which had been made between David and Jonathan, the son of Saul.
8. And so the king took the two sons of Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom she conceived of Adriel, the son of Barzillai, who was from Meholath,
9. and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites. And they crucified them on a hill in the sight of the Lord. And these seven fell together in the first days of the harvest, when the barley is beginning to be reaped.
10. Then Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, taking a haircloth, spread it under herself on a rock, from the beginning of the harvest until water dropped from heaven upon them. And she did not permit the birds to tear them by day, nor the beasts by night.
11. And it was reported to 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 his son Jonathan, from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had suspended them after they had slain Saul at Gilboa.
13. And he brought the bones of Saul, and the bones of his son Jonathan, from there. And they collected the bones of those who had been crucified.
14. And they buried them with the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan, in the land of Benjamin, to the side of the sepulcher of his father Kish. And they did all that the king had instructed. And after these things, God showed favor again to the land.
15. Then the Philistines again undertook a battle against Israel. And David descended, and his servants with him, and they fought against the Philistines. But when David grew faint,
16. Ishbibenob, who was of the ancestry of Arapha, the iron of whose spear weighed three hundred ounces, who had been girded with a new sword, strove to strike down David.
17. And Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, defended him, and striking the Philistine, he killed him. Then David’s men swore an oath to him, saying, “You shall no longer go out to war with us, lest you extinguish the lamp of Israel.”
18. Also, a second war occurred in Gob against the Philistines. Then Sibbecai from Hushah struck down Saph, from the stock of Arapha, of the ancestry of the giants.
19. Then there was a third war in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus, a son of the forest, a weaver from Bethlehem, struck down Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like the beam used by a cloth maker.
20. A fourth battle was in Gath. In that place, there was a lofty man, who had six digits on each hand and each foot, that is, twenty-four in all, and he was from the origins of Arapha.
21. And he blasphemed Israel. So Jonathan, the son of Shimei, the brother of David, struck him down.
22. These four men were born of Arapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and his servants.

## 2 Samuel 21 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Facta est quoque fames in diebus David tribus annis jugiter: et consuluit David oraculum Domini. Dixitque Dominus: Propter Saul, et domum ejus sanguinum, quia occidit Gabaonitas.
2. Vocatis ergo Gabaonitis rex, dixit ad eos (porro Gabaonitæ non erant de filiis Israël, sed reliquiæ Amorrhæorum: filii quippe Israël juraverant eis, et voluit Saul percutere eos zelo, quasi pro filiis Israël et Juda),
3. dixit ergo David ad Gabaonitas: Quid faciam vobis? et quod erit vestri piaculum, ut benedicatis hæreditati Domini?
4. Dixeruntque ei Gabaonitæ: Non est nobis super argento et auro quæstio, sed contra Saul, et contra domum ejus: neque volumus ut interficiatur homo de Israël. Ad quos rex ait: Quid ergo vultis ut faciam vobis?
5. Qui dixerunt regi: Virum qui attrivit nos et oppressit inique, ita delere debemus, ut ne unus quidem residuus sit de stirpe ejus in cunctis finibus Israël.
6. Dentur nobis septem viri de filiis ejus, ut crucifigamus eos Domino in Gabaa Saul, quondam electi Domini. Et ait rex: Ego dabo.
7. Pepercitque rex Miphiboseth filio Jonathæ filii Saul, propter jusjurandum Domini quod fuerat inter David et inter Jonathan filium Saul.
8. Tulit itaque rex duos filios Respha filiæ Aja quos peperit Sauli, Armoni, et Miphiboseth: et quinque filios Michol filiæ Saul quos genuerat Hadrieli filio Berzellai, qui fuit de Molathi,
9. et dedit eos in manus Gabaonitarum: qui crucifixerunt eos in monte coram Domino: et ceciderunt hi septem simul occisi in diebus messis primis, incipiente messione hordei.
10. Tollens autem Respha filia Aja cilicium, substravit sibi supra petram ab initio messis, donec stillaret aqua super eos de cælo: et non dimisit aves lacerare eos per diem, neque bestias per noctem.
11. Et nuntiata sunt David quæ fecerat Respha filia Aja, concubina Saul.
12. Et abiit David, et tulit ossa Saul, et ossa Jonathæ filii ejus, a viris Jabes Galaad, qui furati fuerant ea de platea Bethsan in qua suspenderant eos Philisthiim cum interfecissent Saul in Gelboë:
13. et asportavit inde ossa Saul, et ossa Jonathæ filii ejus: et colligentes ossa eorum qui affixi fuerant,
14. sepelierunt ea cum ossibus Saul et Jonathæ filii ejus in terra Benjamin, in latere, in sepulchro Cis patris ejus: feceruntque omnia quæ præceperat rex, et repropitiatus est Deus terræ post hæc.
15. Factum est autem rursum prælium Philisthinorum adversum Israël, et descendit David, et servi ejus cum eo, et pugnabant contra Philisthiim. Deficiente autem David,
16. Jesbibenob, qui fuit de genere Arapha, cujus ferrum hastæ trecentas uncias appendebat, et accinctus erat ense novo, nisus est percutere David.
17. Præsidioque ei fuit Abisai filius Sarviæ, et percussum Philisthæum interfecit. Tunc juraverunt viri David, dicentes: Jam non egredieris nobiscum in bellum, ne extinguas lucernam Israël.
18. Secundum quoque bellum fuit in Gob contra Philisthæos: tunc percussit Sobochai de Husati, Saph de stirpe Arapha de genere gigantum.
19. Tertium quoque fuit bellum in Gob contra Philisthæos, in quo percussit Adeodatus filius Saltus polymitarius Bethlehemites Goliath Gethæum, cujus hastile hastæ erat quasi liciatorium texentium.
20. Quartum bellum fuit in Geth: in quo vir fuit excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, id est, viginti quatuor: et erat de origine Arapha.
21. Et blasphemavit Israël: percussit autem eum Jonathan filius Samaa fratris David.
22. Hi quatuor nati sunt de Arapha in Geth, et ceciderunt in manu David et servorum ejus.

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 8: They were the sons of Merob, who was married to Hadriel: but they are here called the sons of Michol, because she adopted them, and brought them up as her own.
- Verse 19: So it is rendered in the Latin Vulgate, by giving the interpretation of the Hebrew names, which are Elhanan the son of Jaare.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).