5 The Gibeonites said to him, “Saul made plans against us. He tried to destroy all our people who are left in the land of Israel.
6 Saul was the Lord’s chosen king. So bring seven of his sons to us. Then we will kill them and hang them on stakes. We will put them in front of the Lord at Gibeah, Saul’s hometown.”The king said, “I will give them to you.”
7 But the king protected Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth. (Jonathan was Saul’s son.) David did this because of the promise he had made to Jonathan in the Lord’s name. So the king did not let them hurt Mephibosheth.
8 But the king did take Armoni and Mephibosheth, sons of Rizpah and Saul. (Rizpah was the daughter of Aiah.) And the king took the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merab. Adriel was the father of Merab’s five sons. (Adriel was the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.)
9 David gave these seven sons to the Gibeonites. Then the Gibeonites killed them and hung them on stakes on a hill before the Lord. All seven sons died together. They were put to death during the first days of the harvest season. (The barley harvest was just beginning.)
10 Aiah’s daughter Rizpah took the rough cloth that was worn to show sadness. Then she put it on a rock for herself. She stayed there from the beginning of the harvest until the rain fell on her sons’ bodies. During the day she did not let the birds of the sky touch her sons’ bodies. At night she did not let the wild animals touch them.
11 People told David what Aiah’s daughter Rizpah, Saul’s slave woman, was doing.