2 Samuel 21:6
21:6 let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute 1 them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the Lord’s chosen one.” 2 The king replied, “I will turn them over.”
2 Samuel 21:9
21:9 He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them 3 died 4 together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning 5 of the barley harvest.
1 tn The exact nature of this execution is not altogether clear. The verb יָקַע (yaqa’) basically means “to dislocate” or “alienate.” In Gen 32:26 it is used of the dislocation of Jacob’s thigh. Figuratively it can refer to the removal of an individual from a group (e.g., Jer 6:8; Ezek 23:17) or to a type of punishment the specific identity of which is uncertain (e.g., here and Num 25:4); cf. NAB “dismember them”; NIV “to be killed and exposed.”
2 tc The LXX reads “at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord” (cf. 21:9). The present translation follows the MT, although a number of recent English translations follow the LXX reading here (e.g., NAB, NRSV, NLT).
3 tc The translation follows the Qere and several medieval Hebrew mss in reading שְׁבַעְתָּם (shÿva’tam, “the seven of them”) rather than MT שִׁבַעְתִּים (shiva’tim, “seventy”).
4 tn Heb “fell.”
5 tc The translation follows the Qere and many medieval Hebrew mss in reading בִּתְחִלַּת (bithkhillat, “in the beginning”) rather than MT תְחִלַּת (tÿkhillat, “beginning of”).