2 Samuel 21:9

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites,.... The two sons of Rizpah and the five sons of Merab, two sons of Saul and five grandsons:

and they hanged them in the hill before the Lord; in the hill at Gibeah, that they might be seen by all that passed by, and serve to deter from such evils, which brought on them that punishment; gibbetings or crucifixions were commonly made on hills and mountains l: the phrase, "before the Lord", is either the same as "unto the Lord", 2 Samuel 21:6; to make atonement to the Lord, and in his sight; or it denotes that it was done publicly before the sun, and in the sight of it; for it cannot mean before the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, for that was not there:

and they fell [all] seven together; they were hanged together, and died at one and the same time:

and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first [days], in the beginning of barley harvest; which began at the passover, the morrow after the first day of the feast, Leviticus 23:10; which was the sixteenth of Nisan, on which day, the Jews say m, these men were hanged, and which must be about the beginning of our April.

l Vid. Lipsium de Cruce, l. 3. c. 13. m Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 190. 1.