2 Samuel 21:9
And 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.
And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites,.... The two sons of Rizpah and the five sons of Merab, two sons of Saul and five grandsons:
and they hanged them in the hill before the LORD; in the hill at Gibeah, that they might be seen by all that passed by, and serve to deter from such evils, which brought on them that punishment; gibbetings or crucifixions were commonly made on hills and mountains {l}: the phrase, "before the Lord", is either the same as "unto the Lord", 2 Samuel 21:6; to make atonement to the Lord, and in his sight; or it denotes that it was done publicly before the sun, and in the sight of it; for it cannot mean before the ark, the symbol of the divine Presence, for that was not there:
and they fell all seven together; they were hanged together, and died at one and the same time:
and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest; which began at the passover, the morrow after the first day of the feast, Leviticus 23:10; which was the sixteenth of Nisan, on which day, the Jews say {m}, these men were hanged, and which must be about the beginning of our April.
{l} Vid. Lipsium de Cruce, l. 3. c. 13.
{m} Bemidbar Rabba, fol. 190. 1.