Have you heard of Rizpah? It would not surprise me if you haven’t. She is mentioned on only two occasions in Scripture. Not a single word is attributed to her, only actions. She was a concubine of King Saul (2 Samuel 3) and was likely also used as one by Saul’s general, Abner, after Saul’s death. As you may know, a concubine was a wife of secondary status in a polygamous marriage. As God so often does, He used Rizpah, an unlikely choice, to accomplish His will for His people.
King David, Saul’s replacement, faced many challenges during his reign. One was a famine that lasted three years. David inquired of the Lord as to why He was allowing this suffering. In this case, there was a very specific cause. The Lord told David it was because Saul had broken a long-standing covenant with the Gibeonites, made by Joshua when he entered the Promised Land. According to the covenant, the Gibeonites were to be protected and their lives spared. In spite of this promise, Saul had many of them murdered. Now aware of the cause of the famine, David quickly arranged a meeting with the Gibeonite survivors.
David wanted to know what they wanted in order to make amends for Saul’s behavior. The Gibeonites did not want monetary compensation, but instead asked David for seven of Saul’s descendants to be given to them to be killed and their bodies exposed in Saul’s birthplace of Gibeah. David agreed to their wishes.
Whom would David choose? Perhaps because they were involved in the slaughter of the Gibeonites, or for some other reason, David chose to give them five sons of Saul’s oldest daughter, Merab, as well as Armoni and Miphibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah, Saul’s concubine. The Gibeonites publicly hanged all seven men together on a hill outside Gibeah, their remains exposed to the elements and the animals.
Rizpah’s response to the death of these men, especially her sons, is both understandable and relatable. What words can describe the pain of a mother at the loss of her children? Rizpah spread sackcloth on a rock and made her home by the dead bodies. For months she kept guard of the bodies day and night to prevent scavengers of air and land from disturbing them. Her loving vigil was witnessed by many. Word of it got back to King David.
David was so moved by these actions of Rizpah that he decided to give a proper burial not only to these seven men, but he also procured the remains of King Saul and his son Jonathan, David’s loyal friend, from Israel’s enemies, and had them buried in the tomb of Kish, Saul’s father. This was David’s last act of kindness to Saul, a king anointed by God, and his family. It was only after David did these things that God opened the heavens and the rain came to end the three-year famine in the land.
It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for Rizpah to keep vigil day after day as the bodies of her loved ones went through the process of decay. She was already in a vulnerable position in society as a concubine whose husband was dead and whose sons had both been killed. It would have been easy to have given up in despair. Yet her quiet vigil was used by God to move David’s heart.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” (Matthew 5:4)
is a professor at Immanuel Lutheran College in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.