1 And there is a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and David seeketh the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah saith, `For Saul and for the bloody house, because that he put to death the Gibeonites.'
2 And the king calleth for the Gibeonites, and saith unto them--as to the Gibeonites, they [are] not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorite, and the sons of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul seeketh to smite them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah--
3 yea, David saith unto the Gibeonites, `What do I do for you? and with what do I make atonement? and bless ye the inheritance of Jehovah.'
4 And the Gibeonites say to him, `We have no silver and gold by Saul and by his house, and we have no man to put to death in Israel;' and he saith, `What ye are saying I do to you.'
5 And they say unto the king, `The man who consumed us, and who devised against us--we have been destroyed from stationing ourselves in all the border of Israel--
6 let there be given to us seven men of his sons, and we have hanged them before Jehovah, in the height of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah.' And the king saith, `I do give;'
7 and the king hath pity on Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the oath of Jehovah that [is] between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul;