David Reburies the Bones of Saul and Jonathan in the Family Tomb at Zela

2 Samuel 21 narrates a haunting epilogue to the long arc of Saul's house. A three-year famine struck Israel during David's reign; when David inquired of the Lord, the answer came: "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." Saul had violated the ancient covenant Joshua had sworn with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9) by attempting to wipe them out during his reign — a crime nowhere narrated in detail but whose blood-debt now hung over the land. David asked the surviving Gibeonites what atonement they sought; they demanded seven of Saul's male descendants be handed over for execution.

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