John Gill Commentary 2 Samuel 21

Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year
after year
That is, three years running, one after another; some think this, though here related, was before the rebellions of Absalom and Sheba, and not after. Several things may incline to this view: that the sin of Saul should otherwise be so long unpunished, that the bones of Saul and Jonathan were not sooner removed (as here related), and that there should be so many battles with the Philistines after they were subdued, as recorded in this chapter.

And in one of the Jewish ^F5 writings it is said, that this was the year after Saul was slain; though, in other copies of the same book, it is said to be thirty years after; and so in that Abarbinel used, and who is of the mind that what is here related stands in the order in which it was, and of the same opinion are some of our best chronologers ^F6 :

and David inquired of the Lord ;
before the high priest by Urim and Thummim, what should be the cause of the famine perhaps suspecting it was some sins of his; the first year he might take no notice of it, hoping for a more fruitful season the next year, it arising, as he might suppose, from some natural cause; the second year he might begin to think it was for some national sins, but might be remiss in his inquiry into them; but the third year he was alarmed, and concluded there was something extraordinary and special, and feared it was on his account, and this put him on making inquiry:

and the Lord answered, [it is] for Saul, and for [his] bloody house ;
on account of the blood shed by him and his family; which answer must in a good measure relieve the mind of David, if he was fearful it was for his sins:

because he slew the Gibeonites :
which was contrary to the oath that Joshua and all Israel had given them not to slay them, but save them alive, (Joshua 9:15) . When this was done is not certain; the Jews commonly say ^F7 that he slew them when he slew the priests at Nob, they being hewers of wood and drawers of water to them, and were slain with them; or because their maintenance depended on the priests, they being slain, it was in effect slaying them;

but rather this refers to another time, and to other action or actions of Saul, who sought by various means to destroy these people, and root them out of the land. The Heathens had a notion that barrenness, unfruitfulness, and famine, were inflicted by God for murder. Philostratus ^F8 reports of the Ethiopian Indians, that for the murder of their king, Ganges, their ground was unfruitful, their cattle starved, their wives abortive, and their cities and houses fell to ruin, until the murderers were destroyed.

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Pirke Eliezer, c. 17.
• F6: Usser. Annal. Vet. Test. p. 55. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, p. 558.
• F7: T. Bab. Bava Kama, fol. 119. 1.
• F8: Vita Apollon. Tyanei, l. 3. c. 6.

And the king called the Gibeonites
Sent messengers unto them, and summoned them to come to him,

and said unto them ;
what is expressed in (2 Samuel 21:3) ; for what follows is in a parenthesis:

(now the Gibeonites [were] not of the children of Israel;
originally, though they were proselyted to the Jewish religion, and were employed in the menial services of the sanctuary:

but of the remnant of the Amorites;
they were the remains of the old Canaanites, who sometimes in general were called Amorites, otherwise the Gibeonites were called Hivites; see (Joshua 9:7) (11:19) ;

and the children of Israel had sworn unto them ;
by their princes, as Joshua; yet,

and Saul, contrary to this oath, sought to slay them in his zeal to the
children of Israel and Judah) ;
pretending a great concern for them, for their honour and profit; that these men ought not to live in their cities, and take the bread out of their mouths, and be employed in the service of the sanctuary; but that they ought to be expelled, and even cut off, being the old inhabitants of the land, the Lord ordered to be destroyed; and that though the Israelites had given an oath to the contrary, they were drawn into it by guile and deceit, and therefore not binding upon them;

hence he sought by all means to harass and oppress them, and slew many of them, and destroyed them out of their cities, that they might be possessed by Judah and Benjamin; see (2 Samuel 4:2) , compared with (Joshua 9:17) .

Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, what shall I do for
you
By way of satisfaction for the injuries done them:

and wherewith shall I make the atonement ;
for the offences committed, that so the wrath that was gone forth against the land in a famine might be appeased:

that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord ?
pray for a blessing upon the land which the Lord had chosen for his inheritance, and given as such to the people of Israel, that rain might descend upon it, and make it fruitful.

And, the Gibeonites said unto him
In reply to his motion:

we will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house ;
this shall not be the ransom or atonement; it was not silver and gold Saul took from them, but the lives of their brethren, and therefore they insist upon life for life:

neither for us shall you kill any man in Israel ;
who were not of the house of Saul; they did not desire any man should die, but who were of that family by whom they had suffered:

and he said, what you shall say, [that] will I do for you ;
whether by inflicting pecuniary fines, or punishing with death, which latter seems to be what they suggested, and afterwards insisted on; whatever, according to law and justice, was required, he was ready to do it for them.

And they answered the king
Declaring expressly what they would have done: the man that consumed us; meaning Saul, who lessened their number by cruel oppressions of some, and by taking away the lives of others:

and that devised against us, [that] we should be destroyed from
remaining in any of the coasts of Israel ;
who had formed schemes, and published edicts, for banishing them out of the land; perhaps at the same time that he put away wizards and those that had familiar spirits out of the land, under the same pretence for zeal for the glory of God, and the good of the people of the land, (1 Samuel 28:3–9) .