The Gibeonites Avenged

21 During the reign of David, there was a famine^(A) for three successive years; so David sought^(B) the face of the Lord. The Lord said, “It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

² The king summoned the Gibeonites^(A) and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not a part of Israel but were survivors of the Amorites; the Israelites had sworn to spare them, but Saul in his zeal for Israel and Judah had tried to annihilate them.)

²³ David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less,^(A) because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars^(B) in the sky.

²⁴ Joab son of Zeruiah began to count the men but did not finish. God’s wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering,^(A) and the number was not entered in the book^[a] of the annals of King David.