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| 1 |
1 There was a famine in David’s reign that lasted three years continuously; and when David consulted the Lord’s oracle he was told, It is because of Saul; he slew the Gabaonites, and the guilt of blood still rests upon his line. 2 The Gabaonites did not belong to Israel; they were of the old Amorrhite stock, and their lives had been spared in fulfilment of an oath, but Saul, jealous for the honour of Israel and of Juda, had tried to exterminate them. So king David summoned them, 3 and asked what he could do to content them; what amends he could make, to recover their good will for the Lord’s chosen people. 4 Of silver and gold, the Gabaonites told him, there is no question here; our quarrel is with Saul and his kin; we would not take any toll of Israelite lives. What would you have me do, then? the king asked. 5 And they said, We must efface the memory of the man who persecuted us and wrongfully oppressed us, leaving none of his stock alive from end to end of Israel. 6 Hand over to us seven men of his line, and let us crucify them before the Lord at Gabaa, that is named after him; there dwelt he when the Lord chose him out to be king.[1] And David said, You shall have them. 7 But he spared Miphiboseth, the heir of Saul through Jonathan, to honour the covenant which Jonathan, Saul’s son, had made with him; 8 he took two sons that were born to Saul by Respha, daughter of Aia, one called Armoni and one that bore his cousin’s name of Miphiboseth, and five sons of Michol, Saul’s daughter, that she bore to Hadriel, son of Berzellai, at Molathi, 9 and handed these over to the Gabaonites. And the Gabaonites crucified them before the Lord, there on the hillside. It was in the first days of the harvest, when the barley was beginning to be cut, that the seven of them perished, all at one time; 10 and Respha, the daughter of Aia, spread herself a covering of sackcloth and sat there on the rock, from the beginning of harvest till the first rains fell on them; bird by day nor beast by night should touch them. 11 The news of what Saul’s concubine, Respha the daughter of Aia, had done, reached David’s ears. 12 And thereupon he recovered the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabes-Galaad, who had stolen them back when the Philistines hung them up in the streets of Bethsan, soon after Saul’s death on Gelboe; 13 carried these away, and collected the bones, too, of the men crucified at Gabaa, 14 and buried them. So they were laid in the tomb of Cis, that was Saul’s father, in the Benjamite country, beside the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan; all this was done at the king’s command. And now the land was restored to God’s favour. | 1 Facta est quoque fames in diebus David tribus annis jugiter: et consuluit David oraculum Domini. Dixitque Dominus: Propter Saul, et domum ejus sanguinum, quia occidit Gabaonitas. 2 Vocatis ergo Gabaonitis rex, dixit ad eos (porro Gabaonitæ non erant de filiis Israël, sed reliquiæ Amorrhæorum: filii quippe Israël juraverant eis, et voluit Saul percutere eos zelo, quasi pro filiis Israël et Juda), 3 dixit ergo David ad Gabaonitas: Quid faciam vobis? et quod erit vestri piaculum, ut benedicatis hæreditati Domini? 4 Dixeruntque ei Gabaonitæ: Non est nobis super argento et auro quæstio, sed contra Saul, et contra domum ejus: neque volumus ut interficiatur homo de Israël. Ad quos rex ait: Quid ergo vultis ut faciam vobis? 5 Qui dixerunt regi: Virum qui attrivit nos et oppressit inique, ita delere debemus, ut ne unus quidem residuus sit de stirpe ejus in cunctis finibus Israël. 6 Dentur nobis septem viri de filiis ejus, ut crucifigamus eos Domino in Gabaa Saul, quondam electi Domini. Et ait rex: Ego dabo. 7 Pepercitque rex Miphiboseth filio Jonathæ filii Saul, propter jusjurandum Domini quod fuerat inter David et inter Jonathan filium Saul. 8 Tulit itaque rex duos filios Respha filiæ Aja quos peperit Sauli, Armoni, et Miphiboseth: et quinque filios Michol filiæ Saul quos genuerat Hadrieli filio Berzellai, qui fuit de Molathi, 9 et dedit eos in manus Gabaonitarum: qui crucifixerunt eos in monte coram Domino: et ceciderunt hi septem simul occisi in diebus messis primis, incipiente messione hordei. 10 Tollens autem Respha filia Aja cilicium, substravit sibi supra petram ab initio messis, donec stillaret aqua super eos de cælo: et non dimisit aves lacerare eos per diem, neque bestias per noctem. 11 Et nuntiata sunt David quæ fecerat Respha filia Aja, concubina Saul. 12 Et abiit David, et tulit ossa Saul, et ossa Jonathæ filii ejus, a viris Jabes Galaad, qui furati fuerant ea de platea Bethsan in qua suspenderant eos Philisthiim cum interfecissent Saul in Gelboë: 13 et asportavit inde ossa Saul, et ossa Jonathæ filii ejus: et colligentes ossa eorum qui affixi fuerant, 14 sepelierunt ea cum ossibus Saul et Jonathæ filii ejus in terra Benjamin, in latere, in sepulchro Cis patris ejus: feceruntque omnia quæ præceperat rex, et repropitiatus est Deus terræ post hæc. |
| 15 |
15 War broke out again between Israel and the Philistines, and David went to battle against them with his men. But David’s strength had left him; 16 and he came near to being struck down by Jesbi-Benob, a man of the Araphite breed, that had a spear-head of ten pounds weight, and a new sword at his side. 17 It was Abisai, Sarvia’s son, that came to the king’s rescue, and gave the Philistine his death-blow. But after that David’s men swore that he should never go into battle with them again; that light must not be lost to Israel. 18 In another battle against the Philistines, at Gob, Saph, of the giant breed of Arapha, was slain by Sobochai, from Husathi; 19 in a third, also at Gob, Elehanan the son of Jaare, an embroiderer from Bethlehem, slew Goliath of Geth, that had a shaft to his spear as big as a weaver’s beam.[2] 20 In a fourth, at Geth, there was a man of huge stature that had twelve fingers and twelve toes, another of the Araphite breed; 21 and he taunted Israel, till Jonathan, son of David’s brother Semma, struck him down. 22 All these four were Araphites from Geth, all slain by David and his men. | 15 Factum est autem rursum prælium Philisthinorum adversum Israël, et descendit David, et servi ejus cum eo, et pugnabant contra Philisthiim. Deficiente autem David, 16 Jesbibenob, qui fuit de genere Arapha, cujus ferrum hastæ trecentas uncias appendebat, et accinctus erat ense novo, nisus est percutere David. 17 Præsidioque ei fuit Abisai filius Sarviæ, et percussum Philisthæum interfecit. Tunc juraverunt viri David, dicentes: Jam non egredieris nobiscum in bellum, ne extinguas lucernam Israël. 18 Secundum quoque bellum fuit in Gob contra Philisthæos: tunc percussit Sobochai de Husati, Saph de stirpe Arapha de genere gigantum. 19 Tertium quoque fuit bellum in Gob contra Philisthæos, in quo percussit Adeodatus filius Saltus polymitarius Bethlehemites Goliath Gethæum, cujus hastile hastæ erat quasi liciatorium texentium. 20 Quartum bellum fuit in Geth: in quo vir fuit excelsus, qui senos in manibus pedibusque habebat digitos, id est, viginti quatuor: et erat de origine Arapha. 21 Et blasphemavit Israël: percussit autem eum Jonathan filius Samaa fratris David. 22 Hi quatuor nati sunt de Arapha in Geth, et ceciderunt in manu David et servorum ejus. |
[1] The word translated ‘crucify’, here and in the following verses, is of uncertain meaning. If the Gabaonites kept the Mosaic law, they should have cut down a man ‘hanged on a tree’ the same day (Deut. 21.23); but it is not certain from the text that the bodies remained hanging. Some think the Hebrew verb signifies, not hanging, but throwing over a rock.
[2] ‘Elehanan son of Jaare’ is represented in the Latin by equivalent words, ‘Adeodatus (the God-given man) son of Saltus (the Forest)’. The word ‘embroiderer’ or ‘weaver’ has probably slipped into the Hebrew text by accident, since it occurs in the next line. In I Par. 20.5 it is the brother of Goliath, not Goliath himself, that is killed; as if the name were a kind of title, borne first by the giant slain in I Kg. 17 and then by his younger brother.
Knox Translation Copyright © 2013 Westminster Diocese
Nihil Obstat. Father Anton Cowan, Censor.
Imprimatur. +Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. 8th January 2012.
Re-typeset and published in 2012 by Baronius Press Ltd
