6 Give us seven of Saul’s sons. Saul was the Lord’S chosen king, so we will hang his sons in front of the Lord on Mount Gibeah of Saul.” King David said, “All right, I will give them to you.”
7 But the king protected Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth. Jonathan was Saul’s son, and David had made a promise in the Lord’S name to Jonathan. So the king did not let them hurt Mephibosheth.
8 David gave them Armoni and Mephibosheth. These were the sons of Saul and Rizpah. Saul also had a daughter named Merab who was married to Adriel son of Barzillai, from Meholah. David took the five sons of Merab and Adriel.
9 David gave these seven men to the Gibeonites who then brought them to Mount Gibeah and hanged them in front of the Lord. Those seven men died together in the spring, during the first days of the barley harvest.
10 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took a mourning cloth and put it on the rock. That cloth stayed on the rock from the time the harvest began until the rains came. Rizpah watched the bodies day and night. She protected them from the wild birds during the day and the wild animals at night.
11 People told David what Saul’s slave woman Rizpah was doing.
12 Then David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan from the men of Jabesh Gilead. (The men of Jabesh Gilead got these bones after Saul and Jonathan were killed at Gilboa. The Philistines had hanged the bodies of Saul and Jonathan on a wall in Beth Shan. But the men of Beth Shan went there and stole the bodies from that public area.)