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.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 10. Hair-cloth, to sleep on, occasionally.—Heaven. The famine had been caused by drought. As soon therefore as rain fell, David was assured that God was appeased. He had suffered the bodies to hang so long, for that purpose, though commonly they were to be taken down before night. Menochius.—Respha is supposed, by some, to have guarded the bodies from spring till the rain fell in autumn. But the former opinion seems more plausible. We here behold the custom of watching by the bodies of the dead. See Iliad xxiii.—Beasts. The gibbets were formerly very low. Calmet.—Thus Blandina was exposed to wild beasts. Euseb. Hist. verse 1.