1 Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of the Lord. And the Lord answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gib´e-onites.
2 And the king called the Gib´e-onites, and said unto them; (now the Gib´e-onites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah:)
3 wherefore David said unto the Gib´e-onites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?
4 And the Gib´e-onites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.
5 And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,
6 let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gib´e-ah of Saul, whom the Lord did choose. And the king said, I will give them.