Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Samuel 21:2

"And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them (now the Gibeonites were not 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 for the children of Israel and Judah);" — 2 Samuel 21:2 (ASV)

For his bloody house. Better: for the blood-guilty house. Saul’s family and descendants are regarded, according to the universal ideas of the times, as sharers in his guilt. The story of the Gibeonites and of Joshua’s league with them is told in Joshua 9, but Saul’s attempt to destroy them is mentioned only here. It is clear, from what is said of them in 2 Samuel 21:8, that they had never become incorporated with the Israelites by circumcision but remained a distinct people.

Saul’s sin consisted in the violation of the solemn oath, made in the Lord’s name, by which the nation of Israel was bound to the Gibeonites. “His zeal” in that case was of the same ungodly character as many other acts of his reign, in which pride, arrogance, and self-will were cloaked under a zeal for God’s honor and His people’s welfare.

The Amorites. More precisely, the Gibeonites were Hivites (Joshua 9:7); but they are called Amorites (meaning mountaineers) as a common general name for the ancient people of Palestine.

Two questions are often asked in connection with this narrative:

1. Why should the punishment for Saul’s sin have been so long delayed?
2. And why should it finally have fallen upon David and his people, who had no share in committing the sin?

The answer to both questions is that Israel both sinned and was punished as a nation.

Saul killed the Gibeonites, not simply as the son of Kish, but as the king of Israel, and therefore involved all Israel with him in the violation of the national oath. Consequently, until the evil was put away by the execution of the immediate offender or his representatives, all Israel had to suffer.

The lesson of the continuity of the nation’s life, and of its continued responsibility from age to age, was greatly enhanced by the delay. Furthermore, there were so many other grievous sins for which Saul was to be punished that it was hardly possible to make clear during his lifetime the special Divine displeasure for this particular sin.