2 Samuel 21:10-14

Rizpah's Sad Vigil. 2 Samuel 21:10-14

10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.
11 And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:
13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.
14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulcher of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was entreated for the land.

8.

Why did Rizpah guard the bodies? 2 Samuel 21:10

Rizpah took the coarse, hairy cloth which was worn as a sign of mourning and spread it out as a pallet for herself on the rock at the summit of the high place where Saul's heirs were crucified. She was, indeed, mourning over this tragic end of Saul's house, two of whom were her own children. The sackcloth was not used as a tent to keep the sun off herself nor as a covering for the corpses of those who had been executed; it was to soften the surface on which she sat by day, and lay by night, and to express her deep grief. Leaving bodies to be consumed by birds of prey and wild beasts was regarded to be the greatest ignominy that could be heaped on the dead (1 Samuel 17:44). The Law had stipulated that when people were executed, they were not to remain hanging overnight but to be buried before nightfall (Deuteronomy 21:22-23). The law was not applicable in this case because the slaying of Saul's sons was to expiate a sin which Saul had committed, and the bodies were to be left spread out before the Lord until the rains fell as a sign of the end of the famine. Mention is made of the fact that Rizpah sat there from the beginning of the harvest which would come in late spring, until the rains came in the fall at the beginning of Palestine's wet season. Josephus assumes that the rain fell at once and before the ordinary early rain (Antiquities VII; xii; 1). News of this lonely vigil of this tragic figure was brought to David by those who had seen what she was doing.

9.

How was David able to move the bones of Saul? 2 Samuel 21:12

Although the corpses of Jonathan and Saul had been stolen from the walls of Beth-shan by the men of Jabesh-gilead, the bodies may have been only partially burned (1 Samuel 31:12). Some charred remains of the body must have been left. The bones of these men were then buried with the bones of those seven sons who had been hanged. Such concern for the human body was typical of the Jewish people and is another indication of the fact that Godfearing people through the years have practiced only the burial of the corpse. The earthly remains of Saul's heirs were buried in the homeland of Israel's first king.