Rizpah
A concubine of Saul, and the mother of two of his sons. Abner's taking of her provoked the quarrel with Ish-bosheth that lost the northern kingdom. Her great moment came later: when David handed over seven of Saul's descendants to the Gibeonites, who executed them and left the bodies exposed, Rizpah spread sackcloth on a rock and stayed from the beginning of harvest until the rains, driving off the birds by day and the beasts by night. When David heard, he gathered the bones and buried them in the family tomb.
What we know — and how we know it
Where in scripture
2 SamuelNow Saul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah; and Ishbosheth said to Abner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
2 Samuel 3:7
But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.
2 Samuel 21:8
Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
2 Samuel 21:10 — Guards her sons' bodies
David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.
2 Samuel 21:11
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, a public-domain translation.
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