2 Samuel 21:10

“And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, etc.] Both as a token of mourning for her sons, and as fittest to defend from the weather, the heat by day of cold by night: and spread it for her upon the rock; the hill on which her sons were hanged; this she spread as a canopy or tent to sit under, and be covered with it; not to cover the bodies with it, but herself, and where she sat to mourn the loss of her sons, and to watch their bodies, that they might not be devoured by birds and breasts of prey, as after observed: and here she sat from the beginning of harvest until water dropped on them out of heaven; that is, as the Jews say f356, from the sixteenth of Nisan, when barley harvest…”

“RIZPAH'S KINDNESS UNTO THE DEAD. (Sa2 21:10-11) Rizpah . . . took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock--She erected a tent near the spot, in which she and her servants kept watch, as the relatives of executed persons were wont to do, day and night, to scare the birds and beasts of prey away from the remains exposed on the low-standing gibbets.”

“Dropped - Rather, “poured,” the proper word for heavy rain Exodus 9:33. The “early rain,” or heavy rain of autumn, usually began in October, so that Rizpah’s devoted watch continued about six months. How rare rain was in harvest we learn from 1 Samuel 12:17-18; Proverbs 26:1. The reason of the bodies being left unburied, contrary to Deuteronomy 21:23, probably was that the death of these men being an expiation of the guilt of a violated oath, they were to remain until the fall of rain should give the assurance that God’s anger was appeased, and the national sin forgiven. Birds of the air ... beasts of the field - It is well known how in the East, on the death e. g. of a camel in a caravan,…”

“Spread it - As a tent to dwell in: being informed that their bodies were not to be taken away speedily, as the course of the law was in ordinary cases, but were to continue there until God was intreated, and removed the present judgment. On the rock - In some convenient place in a rock, near adjoining. Until water - Until they were taken down: which was not to be done 'till God had given rain as a sign of his favour, and a mean to remove the famine, which was caused by the want of it. Thus she let the world know, that her sons died not for any sin of their own, not as stubborn and rebellious sons, whose eye had despised their mother: but for their father's sin, and therefore her mind could…”

“21:10 Because the Gibeonites were not Israelites (21:2), they had no law such as the Israelite one in Deut 21:22-23 requiring the quick and proper burial of a criminal. Rizpah was intent that her sons not be further shamed after their death.”

“Rizpah: Sa2 21:8, Sa2 3:7 took sackcloth: Kg1 21:27; Joe 1:18 from the: Sa2 21:9; Deu 21:13 until water: Some suppose that this means a providential supply of rain, in order to remove the famine; but from the manner in which it is introduced, it seems to denote the autumnal rains, which commence about October. For five months did this broken-hearted woman watch by the bodies of her sons! Deu 11:14; Kg1 18:41-45; Jer 5:24, Jer 5:25, Jer 14:22; Hos 6:3; Joe 2:23; Zac 10:1 the birds: Gen 40:19; Eze 39:4 2 Kings (2 Samuel) 21:11”