Rizpah

Rizpah was a concubine of King Saul and the mother of Armoni and Mephibosheth, who were executed by the Gibeonites.

Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, was a concubine of King Saul (2Sa 3:7). She bore Saul two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth (2Sa 21:8). After Saul's death, Abner, the commander of Saul's army, had relations with Rizpah, which was seen as a challenge to the authority of Saul's son and successor, Ish-bosheth (2Sa 3:7). Years later, during the reign of King David, a famine struck Israel for three years (2Sa 21:1). The Lord revealed that the famine was a consequence of Saul's attempt to kill the Gibeonites, with whom Israel had made a treaty (2Sa 21:1-2; Jos 9:3-27). To make atonement, the Gibeonites demanded the execution of seven of Saul's male descendants, including Rizpah's sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth (2Sa 21:5-9). Rizpah displayed great devotion and grief by protecting the bodies of her sons from birds and wild animals, staying with them from the beginning of the harvest until the rains came (2Sa 21:10). When David heard of Rizpah's actions, he ordered the proper burial of the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and the seven executed men (2Sa 21:11-14). Rizpah's story highlights the tragic consequences of Saul's disobedience and the depths of a mother's love and grief in the face of loss.

Coal; hot stone, the daughter of Aiah, and one of Saul’s concubines. She was the mother of Armoni and Mephibosheth (2 Sam. 3:7; 21:8, 10, 11).

It happened that a grievous famine, which lasted for three years, fell upon the land during the earlier half of David’s reign at Jerusalem. This calamity was sent “for Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.” David inquired of the Gibeonites what satisfaction they demanded, and was answered that nothing would compensate for the wrong Saul had done to them but the death of seven of Saul’s sons. David accordingly delivered up to them the two sons of Rizpah and five of the sons of Merab (q.v.), Saul’s eldest daughter, whom she bore to Adriel. These the Gibeonites put to death, and hung up their bodies before the Lord at the sanctuary at Gibeah. Rizpah thereupon took her place on the rock of Gibeah (q.v.), and for five months watched the suspended bodies of her children, to prevent them from being devoured by the beasts and birds of prey, till they were at length taken down and buried by David.

Her marriage to Abner was the occasion of a quarrel between him and Ishbosheth, which led to Abner’s going over to the side of David (2 Sam. 3:17-21).