What Does II Samuel 21:12 Mean?

David retrieves the bones of Saul and Jonathan: "And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa." The verse connects the current narrative to the conclusion of 1 Samuel, where the men of Jabesh-gilead rescued the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from the wall of Beth-shan and burned them in their own city.

David's decision to retrieve the bones from Jabesh-gilead demonstrates that the Gibeonite settlement has not destroyed his respect for Saul's dynasty. The king who surrendered seven of Saul's descendants to execution now honors the memory of Saul and Jonathan by recovering their remains and providing a proper burial in the family tomb. The gesture is both politically astute and personally sincere: David's love for Jonathan has survived every crisis, and the recovery of the bones is the final act of friendship for the man whose covenant saved David's life.

The Lord Jesus promised the resurrection of the body, the day when every bone that was buried, burned, or scattered will be reconstituted by the power of God. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth." The bones that David recovered from Jabesh-gilead await the same resurrection that every believer anticipates, and the burial that David ordered is not the final chapter but the penultimate one, waiting for the trumpet that will call the dead from their tombs.