2 Samuel 21:10

21:10-14 That a guilty land should enjoy many years of plenty, calls for gratitude; and we need not wonder misused abundance should be punished with scarcity; yet how few are disposed to ask of the Lord concerning the sinful cause, while numbers search for the second causes by which he is pleased to work! But the Lord will plead the cause of those who cannot or will not avenge themselves; and the prayers of the poor are of great power. When God sent rain to water the earth, these bodies were buried, for then it appeared that God was entreated for the land. When justice is done on earth, vengeance from heaven ceases. God is pacified, and is entreated for us through Christ, who was hanged on a tree, and so made a curse for us, to do away our guilt, though he was himself guiltless.

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;

2 Samuel 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 father’s 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.

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. Exodus 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 ( Deuteronomy 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. 1 Samuel 17:44 ; 1 Samuel 17:46 . “If an animal falls at night,” writes an Eastern traveller, “it is not attacked till daylight, unless by the jackals and hyænas; 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.

Verse 10. - Rizpah ... took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock; rather, against the rock , so as to form a little hut or shelter to protect her from the glaring blaze of the sunshine. The word "upon" has led many commentators to suppose that she used it as a bed; but this is not the meaning of the Hebrew, though given by the Vulgate. The sackcloth was the loose wrapper or cloak which formed the outer dress of mourners. As regards the bodies of those crucified or impaled, the Law required that they should be taken down and buried that same evening ( Deuteronomy 21:23 ). Here they remained exposed for six months, as a grim trophy of Gibeonite vengeance. Until water dropped upon them out of heaven; Hebrew, was poured upon them ; until copious and heavy rains came. The outpouring of these rains would put an end to the famine, and be regarded as a proof that the wrath of Heaven was appeased. There is no reason for supposing that these rains came before the usual period, in autumn, which was about the middle of October. Thus, for six months, with no other protection than her mantle of sackcloth hung against the rock, this noble woman watched the decaying bodies of her loved ones, until at last her devoted conduct touched David's heart, and their remains were honourably interred. 2 Samuel 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.

Dropped - Rather, "poured," the proper word for heavy rain Exodus 9:33 . The "early rain," or heavy rain of autumn, usually began in October, so that Rizpah's devoted watch continued about six months. How rare rain was in harvest we learn from 1 Samuel 12:17-18 ; Proverbs 26:1 . The reason of the bodies being left unburied, contrary to Deuteronomy 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 God's 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 Matthew 24:28.)

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 David’s enemies were ready to suggest; but by God’s special command, who was pleased to execute this judgment upon them, as partly and principally for the punishment of Saul’s sin, so secondarily for the stablishing of David’s 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.

2Sa 21:10, 11. Rizpah's Kindness unto the Dead. 10. Rizpah … took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock—She erected a tent near the spot, in which she and her servants kept watch, as the relatives of executed persons were wont to do, day and night, to scare the birds and beasts of prey away from the remains exposed on the low-standing gibbets.