Verse 6
6. Seven men A sacred number, not only among the Israelites, but among other Oriental nations.
Hang them up Impale or crucify them. According to the Jewish interpreters the persons were first put to death, and then their bodies were impaled or tied upon a stake. Compare Joshua 8:29, note.
Unto the Lord That is, to expiate his wrath.
Gibeah of Saul See marginal references. The place of Saul’s residence was chosen to make the punishment of his crimes more signal.
Whom the Lord did choose Mark the sentiment and the terrible irony. Hang up unto the Lord the sons of him whom the Lord chose!
I will give them David dared not refuse the demand, for the penal famine pressed upon the land, and the law had said, “The land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein but by the blood of him that shed it.” Numbers 35:33. It has been asked why similar satisfaction was not required for the massacre of the priests at Nob. 1 Samuel 22:9-19. “The answer is, that the people, and even the family of Saul, had no sympathy with or part in this tragedy, which none but an alien (Doeg) could be found to execute. But both the people and Saul’s family had made themselves parties in the destruction of the unhappy Gibeonites by their sympathy, their concurrence, their aid, and, above all, as we must believe, by their accepting the fruits of the crime.” Kitto.
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