God Appeased by Homicide? 2 Samuel 21:1–14 in View of Some Hittite and Assyrian Parallels

Present-day readers, including Jews and Christians, tend to be shocked by the account of the purposeful execution of seven descendants of Saul in 2 Samuel 21:1–14. Traditionally, the narrative was presumed to justify David’s decision to have them killed. Nowadays, the story is often read with suspicion. Does the homicide really serve a purpose, and is the way in which it is justified convincing? The elimination of Saul’s relatives may have served David well. A new analysis of three non-biblical texts from the ancient Near East demonstrates that the plot of the biblical episode largely fits a known conceptual pattern. This pattern indicates what a responsible king must do in times of misery. The comparison shows that some critical readings of 2 Samuel 21:1–14 lack a solid basis, while others have a point. Despite the elements that do not make sense to twenty-first-century readers, both the biblical and the non-biblical texts appear to exhibit positive aspects of ancient religious thinking.