David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David inquired of the Lord. The Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)^(A)

²³ David did not count those below twenty years of age, for the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven.^(A)

²⁴ Joab son of Zeruiah began to count them but did not finish, yet wrath came upon Israel for this, and the number was not entered into the account of the Annals of King David.^(A)