RIZPAH
Was daughter of Aiah, concubine to King Saul. Saul having put to death many of the Gibeonites, God, to punish this massacre, sent a famine which lasted three years. To expiate this, David, who was then king, gave to the Gibeonites two sons of Saul by Rizpah, and five sons of Michal, the daughter of Saul, whom the Gibeonites hanged on the mountain near Gibeah. Rizpah spread a sackcloth on the rock, and watched night and day to prevent ravenous beasts and birds from devouring the dead bodies; till David, pitying her, had their bones brought and interred in the tomb of Kish. Abner, Saul's general, married Rizpah after Saul's death, which was so much resented by Ishbosheth, son of Saul, that Abner vowed and procured his ruin
Her sad story has been the theme of poets; and the picture of the childless mother, watching beside the bleaching bones of her murdered sons, is an illustration of the truth and tenderness of woman's love, which every human heart must feel.