Editing Rizpah

{{Short description|Concubine of Israelite king Saul}}
[[file:Facial Chronicle - b.03, p.173 - Abner with Rizpah.jpg|thumb|250px|Abner with Rizpah]]
[[Image:Rizpah painting.jpg|thumb|250px|Rizpah with her sons' bodies]]
'''Rizpah''' (riz'-pa, "coal", "hot stone") was the daughter of [[Aiah (biblical figure)|Aiah]], and one of [[Saul]]'s concubines. She was the mother of [[Armoni and Mephibosheth]] ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|3:7|HE}}; {{bibleverse-nb|2|Samuel|21:8-11|HE}}).

After the death of Saul, according to the Bible, [[Abner]] was implicitly accused of having aspirations to the throne by taking Rizpah as his wife, resulting in a quarrel between him and Saul's son and successor, [[Ishbosheth]]. ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|3:7-8|HE}}) The quarrel led to Abner's defection to [[David]], ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|3:17-21|HE}}) who was then king of the breakaway [[Kingdom of Judah]]. This incident led to the downfall of Ishbosheth and the rise of David as king of a reunited [[Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)|Kingdom of Israel]].

A famine lasting three years hit Israel during the earlier half of [[David]]'s reign at [[Jerusalem]]. God revealed that this calamity happened because of "Saul and for his bloody house, because he slew the [[Gibeon (ancient city)|Gibeonites]]." The Gibeonites were not Israelites, but the remnant of the [[Amorites]], which Saul pursued from within Israel. [[David]] inquired of the Gibeonites what satisfaction they demanded, and was answered that nothing would compensate for the wrong Saul had done to them but the death of seven of Saul's sons.({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:1-6|HE}})

David accordingly delivered up to them the two sons of Rizpah and five of the sons of [[Michal]] (according to the [[Masoretic Text]]; the [[Septuagint]] has "[[Merab]]"), Saul's daughter. These the Gibeonites put to death, and hung up their bodies at the sanctuary at [[Gibeah]] ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:8-9|HE}}). Rizpah thereupon took her place on the rock of Gibeah, and for five months watched the suspended bodies of her children, to prevent them from being devoured by the beasts and birds of prey, ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:10|HE}}) till they were at length taken down and buried by David ({{bibleverse|2|Samuel|21:13|HE}}) in the family grave at Zelah with the bones of Saul and [[Jonathan (1 Samuel)|Jonathan]]. Only once both restitution had been made for Saul's betrayal of the Gibeonites and an olive branch extended to Rizpah and the house of Saul by giving Saul's sons the honour of burial with their father did God respond to the plea of the land and end the famine ([https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt08b21.htm#14 2 Samuel 21:14]).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bibler.org/glossary/rizpah.html |title=www.Bibler.org - Dictionary - Rizpah |accessdate=2012-10-29}}</ref>

British rabbi [[Jonathan Magonet]] has described Rizpah as "every mother who sees her sons killed before their time for reasons of state, be they in time of peace or in war.  All that remains is for her to preserve the dignity of their memory and live on to bear witness and call to account the rulers of the world".<ref>{{cite book |last=Magonet |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Magonet |date=1992 |title=Bible Lives |location=London |publisher=SCM |page=11 |isbn=0-334-00102-1}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{eastons|wstitle=Rizpah|short=x}}

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[[Category:11th-century BC women]]
[[Category:11th-century BCE Hebrew people]]
[[Category:Jewish concubines]]
[[Category:Women in the Hebrew Bible]]
[[Category:Family of Saul]]

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