Neville Goddard on 2 Samuel 21:1-14 - Mystical Bible Interpretation

Read 2 Samuel 21 in context

Scripture Focus

1Then there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David enquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

2And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them: and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

3Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

4And the Gibeonites said unto him, We will have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of his house; neither for us shalt thou kill any man in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you.

5And they answered the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel,

6Let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD did choose. And the king said, I will give them.

7But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

8But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she brought up for Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite:

9And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

11And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

12And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabeshgilead, which had stolen them from the street of Bethshan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:

13And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

14And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.

2 Samuel 21:1-14

Biblical Context

A famine falls during David's reign, traced to Saul's violent breach of the Gibeonites’ treaty. David seeks atonement through covenant-ordered acts, and the land is healed when the rites are completed.

Neville's Inner Vision

The famine in 2 Samuel 21:1-14 is a symbol in your inner life of drought caused by neglecting a sacred covenant within your mind. When David asks the LORD, you are asked to inquire of your own I AM: what must be done in consciousness to bless the inheritance of the LORD within you? The LORD’s reply—that the distress is due to Saul and his house—points to a past act still unresolved in your state of awareness. The remedy is inner, not external: revise the remembered debt, and affirm that the covenant is now kept. The seven sons to be delivered symbolize releasing seven entrenched patterns of thought that fed the old error; Rizpah’s vigil embodies patient, steady attention to the scene until insight pours from heaven. By bringing these inner bones back into proper order—memory aligned with love—you invite the I AM to be entreated for your land. The land heals as you acknowledge atonement already provided by your true self, restoring vitality to your inner soil.

Practice This Now

Close your eyes and assume you have already fulfilled the inner covenant. Verbalize a revision of a past grievance, declare 'From this moment, I am in harmony with the covenant within me,' and feel the inner land renewing as you imagine the drought dissolving.