Single lesson
David and the Gibeonites
2 Samuel 21:1–14
This lesson helps older students trace a hard part of David’s story with care. It is designed for older readers because the passage includes execution and prolonged mourning. Students will follow the account in order and consider what it says about God and people.
Before you teach
In these verses, a famine lasts for three years in David’s days, and David seeks Yahweh. Yahweh connects the trouble with Saul’s violence against the Gibeonites. David then asks the Gibeonites what should be done, acts as king, hears of Rizpah’s long mourning, and later takes, gathers, and buries the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and the others. After that, God answers prayer for the land.
Students will be able to sequence 2 Samuel 21:1–14, name two significant choices in the passage, and explain from the text that God gave David an answer when he sought him and that people acted in response to oaths, loss, and the king’s command.
Welcome: Name the hard questions in the passage
5 minExplain that this is a serious story, so the class will stay close to the words of the passage and avoid guessing. Introduce the goal: to put the events in order and notice what the text clearly says. Point out that David begins by seeking Yahweh during a three-year famine, which sets up the whole account.
2 Samuel 21:1
Read and explain: What David learns and asks
10 minRead verses 1 to 6 aloud. Help students track the flow: famine, David seeking Yahweh, Yahweh’s answer about Saul and the Gibeonites, David calling the Gibeonites, and David asking what he should do. Note that the Gibeonites were a remnant of the Amorites and that Israel had sworn to them. Also note that David asks how to make atonement so that they may bless Yahweh’s inheritance.
2 Samuel 21:1, 2 Samuel 21:2, 2 Samuel 21:3, 2 Samuel 21:4, 2 Samuel 21:5, 2 Samuel 21:6
Discuss: Choices, oath, and outcomes
8 minRead verses 7 to 9. Ask students to observe that David spares Mephibosheth because of Yahweh’s oath between David and Jonathan. Then note that David gives seven descendants of Saul to the Gibeonites, and the passage records their deaths at the beginning of barley harvest. Keep discussion on what choices are named in the text and what outcomes are directly reported.
2 Samuel 21:7, 2 Samuel 21:8, 2 Samuel 21:9
Make and respond: Sequence the turning point
10 minStudents make eight simple sequence cards from the passage, each with a short event line: famine, David seeks Yahweh, David asks the Gibeonites, David promises to do what they say, Mephibosheth is spared, seven are handed over, Rizpah keeps watch, David arranges burial, God answers prayer. Students place them in order and mark which ones are choices and which are outcomes.
2 Samuel 21:1, 2 Samuel 21:3, 2 Samuel 21:6, 2 Samuel 21:7, 2 Samuel 21:9, 2 Samuel 21:10, 2 Samuel 21:14
Closing: Rizpah, burial, and answered prayer
7 minRead verses 10 to 14. Draw attention to Rizpah’s persistent mourning, David hearing about it, and David taking, gathering, and burying the bones. Finish with the final sentence of the passage: after these things, God answered prayer for the land. Invite students to summarise the story in three sentences using only details from the passage.
2 Samuel 21:10, 2 Samuel 21:11, 2 Samuel 21:12, 2 Samuel 21:13, 2 Samuel 21:14
Questions to explore
Why does David begin this account by seeking Yahweh?
Look at the first verse and answer from the text: there was a famine for three years, and Yahweh gave David an explanation connected to Saul and the Gibeonites.
2 Samuel 21:1
What detail explains why David spared Mephibosheth?
Focus on the reason stated in the verse itself. The passage says David spared him because of Yahweh’s oath between David and Jonathan.
2 Samuel 21:7
What happens after David arranges the burial of Saul, Jonathan, and the others?
Read the final verse carefully. The text ends by saying they performed all that the king commanded, and after that God answered prayer for the land.
2 Samuel 21:14
Make, think or respond
Event Order and Choice Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or card
- pens or pencils
- Bible text
- optional coloured markers
Try it together
- Ask students to write eight short event cards from the passage, one event per card.
- Have students work alone or in pairs to place the cards in order from verse 1 to verse 14.
- Ask them to mark each card with C for a choice people made or O for an outcome the passage reports.
- Finish by comparing sequences and discussing which verses support each card.
This activity helps students follow the order of 2 Samuel 21:1–14 and distinguish choices from outcomes named in the passage.
Adapt for your group
- For younger or less confident readers, give six teacher-chosen event lines instead of eight and sequence them together as a whole group.
- For older students, add a second task: identify where the text mentions an oath, mourning, burial, and answered prayer, and record the supporting verses.
An optional closing prayer
‘God, help us read serious parts of Scripture carefully. Teach us to listen closely to what you say, to be truthful about hard things, and to remember that David sought you, you answered him, and people in this passage acted in response to oath, loss, and command. Amen.’
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
2 Samuel 21
1 There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”
2 The king called the Gibeonites and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);
3 and David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless Yahweh’s inheritance?”
4 The Gibeonites said to him, “It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” He said, “I will do for you whatever you say.”
5 They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,
6 let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” The king said, “I will give them.”
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8 But 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 Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
9 He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites; and they hanged them on the mountain before Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.
10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
11 David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;
13 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
14 They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.