And there was a famine in the days of David for three years successively: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slew the Gabaonites.

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.

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.

Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda:)

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),

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,

David therefore said to the Gabaonites: What shall I do for you? and what shall be the atonement for you, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

dixit ergo David ad Gabaonitas: Quid faciam vobis? et quod erit vestri piaculum, ut benedicatis hæreditati Domini?

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.

And the Gabaonites said to him: We have no contest about silver and gold, but against Saul and against his house: neither do we desire that any man be slain of Israel. And the king said to them: What will you then that I should do for you?

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?

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.

And they said to the king: The man that crushed us and oppressed us unjustly, we must destroy in such manner that there be not so much as one left of his stock in all the coasts of Israel.

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.

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.

Let seven men of his children be delivered unto us, that we may crucify them to the Lord in Gabaa of Saul, once the chosen of the Lord. And the king said: I will give them.

Dentur nobis septem viri de filiis ejus, ut crucifigamus eos Domino in Gabaa Saul, quondam electi Domini. Et ait rex: Ego dabo.

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. And David said, You shall have them.

And the king spared Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

Pepercitque rex Miphiboseth filio Jonathæ filii Saul, propter jusjurandum Domini quod fuerat inter David et inter Jonathan filium Saul.

But he spared Miphiboseth, the heir of Saul through Jonathan, to honour the covenant which Jonathan, Saul’s son, had made with him;

So the king took the two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni, and Miphiboseth: and the five sons of Michol the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Hadriel the son of Berzellai, that was of Molathi:

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,

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,

And gave them into the hands of the Gabaonites: and they crucified them on a hill before the Lord: and these seven died together in the first days of the harvest, when the barley began to be reaped.

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.

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;

And Respha the daughter of Aia took haircloth, and spread it under her upon the rock from the beginning of the harvest, till water dropped upon them out of heaven: and suffered neither the birds to tear them by day, nor the beasts by night.

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.

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.

And it was told David, what Respha the daughter of Aia, the concubine of Saul, had done.

Et nuntiata sunt David quæ fecerat Respha filia Aja, concubina Saul.

The news of what Saul’s concubine, Respha the daughter of Aia, had done, reached David’s ears.

And David went, and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabes Galaad, who had stolen them from the street of Bethsan, where the Philistines had hanged them when they had slain Saul in Gelboe.

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:

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;

And he brought from thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered up the bones of them that were crucified,

et asportavit inde ossa Saul, et ossa Jonathæ filii ejus: et colligentes ossa eorum qui affixi fuerant,

carried these away, and collected the bones, too, of the men crucified at Gabaa,

And they buried them with the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in the side, in the sepulchre of Cis his father: and they did all that the king had commanded, and God shewed mercy again to the land after these things.

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.

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.

And the Philistines made war again against Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David growing faint,

Factum est autem rursum prælium Philisthinorum adversum Israël, et descendit David, et servi ejus cum eo, et pugnabant contra Philisthiim. Deficiente autem David,

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;

Jesbibenob, who was of the race of Arapha, the iron of whose spear weighed three hundred ounces, being girded with a new sword, attempted to kill David.

Jesbibenob, qui fuit de genere Arapha, cujus ferrum hastæ trecentas uncias appendebat, et accinctus erat ense novo, nisus est percutere David.

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.

And Abisai the son of Sarvia rescued him, and striking the Philistine killed him. Then David’s men swore unto him, saying: Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, lest thou put out the lamp of Israel.

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.

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.

There was also a second battle in Gob against the Philistines: then Sobochai of Husathi slew Saph of the race of Arapha of the family of the giants.

Secundum quoque bellum fuit in Gob contra Philisthæos: tunc percussit Sobochai de Husati, Saph de stirpe Arapha de genere gigantum.

In another battle against the Philistines, at Gob, Saph, of the giant breed of Arapha, was slain by Sobochai, from Husathi;

And there was a third battle in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus the son of the Forrest an embroiderer of Bethlehem slew Goliath the Gethite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

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.

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.

A fourth battle was in Geth: where there was a man of great stature, that had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, four and twenty in all, and he was of the race of Arapha.

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.

In a fourth, at Geth, there was a man of huge stature that had twelve fingers and twelve toes, another of the Araphite breed;

And he reproached Israel: and Jonathan the son of Samae the brother of David slew him.

Et blasphemavit Israël: percussit autem eum Jonathan filius Samaa fratris David.

and he taunted Israel, till Jonathan, son of David’s brother Semma, struck him down.

These four were born of Arapha in Geth, and they fell by the hand of David, and of his servants.

Hi quatuor nati sunt de Arapha in Geth, et ceciderunt in manu David et servorum ejus.

All these four were Araphites from Geth, all slain by David and his men.