2 Samuel 21:22: “These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.”

June 30th, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Near the end of the account of David’s life in 2 Samuel, we are told that Goliath (the Philistine giant David killed as a young kid) had relatives, sons and brothers, who over the years were killed by “David and by the hand of his servants.” This gives us great insight into the influence David, a man after God’s own heart, had over the lives of the men who served with him. We remember that when David first appeared at the battle between Israel and the Philistines, everyone in Saul’s army was afraid of Goliath. No one but David was willing to take him on. But he did. And with only a slingshot and a few stones, he defeated the giant.

David was God’s man as well as a man’s man. God took David, who had surrendered his life to the Lord, and made him a model for other men to follow. And in so doing, they too become men of God who didn’t fear giants. Yes, David was a man who fell into great public sin. But he was also a man who understood that the mercy of God extends to those who will humble themselves, confess, and repent of their sins. That is still the kind of person God is looking for today.

There is one other nugget of truth here that makes us smile when we see it. Back in 1 Samuel we read that David ran toward Goliath with 5 smooth stones in his hand. We would naturally assume he took extra stones in case he missed. But with this record that Goliath had at least 4 more giant relatives, we see another possible reason. Perhaps the young David wasn’t afraid he would miss Goliath, but assumed he would have to kill the other 4 too.

“LORD, we repent of our sins and ask for Your forgiveness, that we might walk in Your service this day.”

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1 Samuel 21 KJV

¹ Then came David to Nob to Ahimelech the priest: and Ahimelech was afraid at the meeting of David, and said unto him, Why art thou alone, and no man with thee? ² And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. ³ Now therefore what is under thine hand? give mefive loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.  ⁴ And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread; if the young men have kept themselves at least from women. ⁵ And David answered the priest, and said unto him, Of a truth women have been kept from us about these three days, since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in a manner common, yea, though it were sanctified this day in the vessel.  ⁶ So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. ⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD; and his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chiefest of the herdmen that belonged to Saul. ⁸ And David said unto Ahimelech, And is there not here under thine hand spear or sword? for I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste. ⁹ And the priest said, The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom thou slewest in the valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod: if thou wilt take that, take it: for there is no other save that here. And David said, There is none like that; give it me. ¹⁰ And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? ¹² And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.  ¹⁴ Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?  ¹⁵ Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?

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2 Samuel 21 KJV

¹ Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites. ² And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites werenot of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.) ³ Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD? ⁴ And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. ⁵ And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us thatwe should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,  ⁶ Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them .  ⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD’S oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:  ⁹ And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days , in the beginning of barley harvest. ¹⁰ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹ And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. ¹² And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa: ¹³ And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. ¹⁴ And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land. ¹⁵ Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint. ¹⁶ And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword , thought to have slain David. ¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David sware unto him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the light of Israel.  ¹⁸ And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant. ¹⁹ And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Beth-lehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰ And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of greatstature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. ²¹ And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David slew him. ²² These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.