The Second of Samuel
or, according to the Greek Septuagint, THE SECOND OF KINGS
1 And it came about after Saul’s death, and when David himself had returned from striking down the A·malʹek·ites,*+ that David continued to dwell at Zikʹlag+ two days. 2 And it came about on the third day that, look! a man+ was coming from the camp, from Saul, with his garments ripped apart+ and dirt upon his head;+ and it came about that when he came to David, he at once fell down to the earth+ and prostrated himself.
3 And David proceeded to say to him: “Where do you come from?” at which he said to him: “From the camp of Israel I have escaped.” 4 And David went on to say to him: “How did the matter turn out? Tell me, please.” To this he said: “The people have fled from the battle and also many of the people have fallen so that they died,+ and even Saul+ and Jonʹa·than+ his son have died.” 5 Then David said to the young man that was telling him: “How do you really know that Saul has died and also Jonʹa·than his son?”+ 6 At this the young man that was telling him said: “I unexpectedly chanced to be on Mount Gil·boʹa,+ and there was Saul supporting himself upon his spear;+ and, look! the charioteers* and the mounted men had caught up with him.+ 7 When he turned back and saw me, then he called me, and I said, ‘Here I am!’ 8 And he went on to say to me, ‘Who are you?’ at which I said to him, ‘I am an A·malʹek·ite.’+ 9 Then he said, ‘Stand, please, over me and definitely put me to death, for the cramp* has seized me, because all my soul+ is yet in me.’ 10 So I stood over him and definitely put him to death,+ for I knew that he could not live after he had fallen. Then I took the diadem+ that was upon his head and the bracelet that was upon his arm, that I might bring them to my lord here.”
11 At this David took hold of his garments and ripped them apart,+ and so did all the men also that were with him. 12 And they began to wail and weep+ and fast+ until the evening over Saul and over Jonʹa·than his son and over the people of Jehovah* and over the house of Israel,+ because they had fallen by the sword.
13 David now said to the young man that was telling him: “Where are you from?” to which he said: “I am the son of an alien resident, an A·malʹek·ite.”+ 14 Then David said to him: “How was it that you did not fear+ to thrust your hand out to bring the anointed*+ of Jehovah to ruin?” 15 With that David called one of the young men and said: “Go near. Smite him.” Accordingly he struck him down so that he died.+ 16 David then said to him: “The bloodguilt for you* be upon your own head,+ because your own mouth has testified against you,+ saying, ‘I myself definitely put the anointed of Jehovah to death.’”+
17 And David proceeded to chant this dirge+ over Saul and Jonʹa·than his son+ 18 and to say that the sons of Judah+ should be taught “The Bow.”+ Look! It is written in the book of Jaʹshar:*+
20 Do not, YOU people, tell it in Gath;+
Do not announce it in the streets of Ashʹke·lon,+
For fear that the daughters of the Phi·lisʹtines may rejoice,
For fear that the daughters of the uncircumcised men may exult.+
21 YOU mountains of Gil·boʹa,+ let no dew, let no rain be upon YOU, nor let there be fields of holy contributions;*+
Because there the shield of mighty ones was befouled,*
The shield of Saul, so that there was none anointed with oil.+
22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of mighty ones,
The bow of Jonʹa·than did not turn back,+
And the sword of Saul would not return without success.+
23 Saul and Jonʹa·than,+ the lovable ones and the pleasant ones during their life,
And in their death they were not separated.+
Swifter than the eagles they were,+
24 YOU daughters of Israel, weep over Saul,
Who clothed YOU in scarlet with finery,
Who put ornaments of gold upon YOUR clothing.+
25 How have the mighty ones fallen in the midst of the battle!+
Jonʹa·than slain upon your high places!+
26 I am distressed over you, my brother Jonʹa·than,
Very pleasant you were to me.+
More wonderful was your love to me than the love from women.+
2 And it came about afterward that David proceeded to inquire of Jehovah,+ saying: “Shall I go up into one of the cities of Judah?” At this Jehovah said to him: “Go up.” And David went on to say: “Where shall I go up?” Then he said: “To Heʹbron.”+ 2 Accordingly David went up there and also his two wives, A·hinʹo·am+ the Jezʹre·el·i·tess and Abʹi·gail+ the wife of Naʹbal the Carʹmel·ite. 3 And the men+ that were with him David brought up, each with his household; and they took up dwelling in the cities of Heʹbron [territory]. 4 Then the men of Judah+ came and anointed+ David there as king over the house of Judah.+
And they came telling David, saying: “The men of Jaʹbesh-gilʹe·ad were the ones that buried Saul.” 5 Hence David sent messengers to the men of Jaʹbesh-gilʹe·ad+ and said to them: “Blessed may YOU be of Jehovah,+ because YOU exercised this loving-kindness*+ toward YOUR lord,* toward Saul, in that YOU buried him.+ 6 And now may Jehovah exercise toward YOU loving-kindness+ and trustworthiness,* and I too shall exercise to YOU this goodness because YOU have done this thing.+ 7 And now let YOUR hands strengthen themselves and prove yourselves valiant men,+ because YOUR lord Saul is dead, and it is even I whom the house of Judah have anointed as king+ over them.”
8 As for Abʹner+ the son of Ner the chief of the army that had belonged to Saul, he took Ish-boʹsheth,+ Saul’s son, and proceeded to bring him across* to Ma·ha·naʹim,+ 9 and to make him king over Gilʹe·ad+ and the Ashʹur·ites* and Jezʹre·el+ and over Eʹphra·im+ and Benjamin+ and over Israel, all of it. 10 Forty years old Ish-boʹsheth, Saul’s son, was when he became king over Israel, and for two years he ruled as king. Only the house of Judah+ proved themselves followers of David. 11 And the number of the days that David proved to be king in Heʹbron over the house of Judah came to be seven years and six months.+
12 In time Abʹner the son of Ner and the servants of Ish-boʹsheth, Saul’s son, went out from Ma·ha·naʹim+ to Gibʹe·on.+ 13 As for Joʹab+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah+ and the servants of David, they went out* and later met together by the pool of Gibʹe·on; and they kept sitting, these on this side of the pool and those on that side of the pool. 14 Finally Abʹner said to Joʹab: “Let the young men rise up, please, and let them put on a combat before us.” To this Joʹab said: “Let them rise up.” 15 So they rose up and went across by number, twelve belonging to Benjamin and Ish-boʹsheth,+ Saul’s son, and twelve from the servants of David. 16 And they began grabbing hold of one another by the head, with the sword of each one in the side of the other, so that they fell down together. And that place came to be called Helʹkath-haz·zuʹrim,* which is in Gibʹe·on.+
17 And the fighting came to be extremely hard on that day, and Abʹner+ and the men of Israel were finally defeated before the servants of David. 18 Now the three sons of Ze·ruʹiah+ happened to be there, Joʹab+ and A·bishʹai+ and Asʹa·hel;+ and Asʹa·hel was swift on his feet, like one of the gazelles+ that are in the open field. 19 And Asʹa·hel went chasing after Abʹner, and he did not incline to go to the right or to the left from following Abʹner. 20 At length Abʹner looked behind him and said: “Is this you, Asʹa·hel?” to which he said: “It is I.” 21 Then Abʹner said to him: “Veer to your right or to your left and seize one of the young men as yours and take what you strip+ off him as yours.” And Asʹa·hel did not want to turn aside from following him. 22 So Abʹner said to Asʹa·hel yet again: “Turn your course aside from following me. Why should I strike* you down to the earth?+ How, then, could I raise my face to Joʹab your brother?” 23 But he kept refusing to turn aside; and Abʹner got to strike him in the abdomen+ with the butt end* of the spear, so that the spear came out from his back; and he fell there and died where he was. And it came about that all those who came to the place where Asʹa·hel fell and then died would stand still.+
24 And Joʹab and A·bishʹai went chasing after Abʹner. As the sun was setting they themselves came to the hill of Amʹmah, which is in front of Giʹah on the way to the wilderness of Gibʹe·on.+ 25 And the sons of Benjamin went collecting together behind Abʹner, and they came to be one company and kept standing upon the top of one hill. 26 And Abʹner began to call to Joʹab and say: “Is the sword going to eat+ endlessly? Do you not really know that bitterness is what will develop at last?+ How long, then, will it be before you say to the people to turn back from following their brothers?”+ 27 At that Joʹab said: “As the [true] God* is living,+ if you had not spoken,+ then only by the morning would the people have been withdrawn, each one from following his brother.” 28 Joʹab now blew the horn,+ and all the people came to a halt and did not continue chasing after Israel anymore, and they did not renew the fighting anymore.
29 As for Abʹner and his men, they marched through the Arʹa·bah+ all that night and went crossing the Jordan+ and marching through the entire gully and finally came to Ma·ha·naʹim.+ 30 As for Joʹab, he turned back from following Abʹner and began to collect all the people together. And there were missing from the servants of David nineteen men and Asʹa·hel. 31 And the servants of David, for their part, had struck down those of Benjamin and of the men of Abʹner—there were three hundred and sixty men that died.+ 32 And they proceeded to carry Asʹa·hel+ and bury him in the burial place of his father,+ which is at Bethʹle·hem.+ Then Joʹab and his men went marching on all night long, and it became daylight for them at Heʹbron.+
3 And the war between the house of Saul and the house of David came to be long drawn out;+ and David kept getting stronger,+ and the house of Saul kept declining more and more.+
2 Meantime, sons+ were born to David in Heʹbron,+ and his firstborn came to be Amʹnon+ by A·hinʹo·am+ the Jezʹre·el·i·tess. 3 And his second was Chilʹe·ab+ by Abʹi·gail+ the wife of Naʹbal the Carʹmel·ite, and the third was Abʹsa·lom+ the son of Maʹa·cah the daughter of Talʹmai+ the king of Geshʹur. 4 And the fourth was Ad·o·niʹjah+ the son of Hagʹgith,+ and the fifth was Sheph·a·tiʹah+ the son of A·biʹtal. 5 And the sixth was Ithʹre·am+ by Egʹlah, David’s wife. These were the ones born to David in Heʹbron.
6 And it came about that while the war between the house of Saul and the house of David kept up, Abʹner+ himself was continually strengthening his position in the house of Saul. 7 Now Saul had had a concubine whose name was Rizʹpah,+ the daughter of Aʹiah.+ Later Ish-boʹsheth*+ said to Abʹner: “Why was it that you had relations with the concubine+ of my father?” 8 And Abʹner got very angry+ at the words of Ish-boʹsheth and went on to say: “Am I a dog’s+ head that belongs to Judah? Today I keep exercising loving-kindness toward the house of Saul your father, to his brothers and his personal friends, and I have not let you find yourself in the hand of David; and yet you call me to account for an error concerning a woman today. 9 So may God do to Abʹner and so may he add to it,+ if, just as Jehovah swore to David,+ that is not the way that I shall do to him, 10 so as to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and to establish the throne of David over Israel and over Judah from Dan to Beʹer-sheʹba.”+ 11 And he was not able to say one word more in reply to Abʹner because of being afraid of him.+
12 Accordingly Abʹner sent messengers to David on the spot, saying: “To whom does the land belong?” adding: “Do conclude your covenant with me, and, look! my hand will be with you to turn to your side the whole of Israel.”+ 13 To this he said: “Good! I myself shall conclude a covenant with you. Only one thing there is that I am asking of you, saying, ‘You may not see my face+ except first you bring Miʹchal,+ Saul’s daughter, when you come to see my face.’” 14 Further, David sent messengers to Ish-boʹsheth,+ Saul’s son, saying: “Do give over my wife Miʹchal, whom I engaged to myself for a hundred foreskins+ of the Phi·lisʹtines.” 15 So Ish-boʹsheth sent and took her from her husband,* Palʹti·el*+ the son of Laʹish. 16 But her husband kept walking with her, weeping as he walked after her as far as Ba·huʹrim.+ Then Abʹner said to him: “Go, return!” At that he returned.
17 Meanwhile there had come to be communication by Abʹner with the older men of Israel, saying: “Both yesterday and previously+ YOU proved yourselves seeking David as king over YOU. 18 And now act, for Jehovah himself said to David, ‘By the hand of David+ my servant I shall save my people Israel from the hand of the Phi·lisʹtines and from the hand of all their enemies.’” 19 Then Abʹner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin,+ after which Abʹner also went to speak in the ears of David at Heʹbron all that was good in the eyes of Israel and in the eyes of the whole house of Benjamin.
20 When Abʹner came to David at Heʹbron, and with him twenty men, David proceeded to make a feast+ for Abʹner and for the men that were with him. 21 Then Abʹner said to David: “Let me rise up and go and collect all Israel together to my lord the king, that they may conclude a covenant with you, and you will certainly become king over all that your soul craves.”+ So David sent Abʹner off, and he got on his way in peace.+
22 And here David’s servants and Joʹab were coming from a raid, and the spoil+ that they brought with them was abundant. As for Abʹner, he was not with David in Heʹbron, for he had sent him off, and he was on his way in peace. 23 And Joʹab+ and all the army that was with him came in, and they now reported to Joʹab, saying: “Abʹner+ the son of Ner+ came to the king, and he proceeded to send him off, and he is on his way in peace.” 24 So Joʹab went in to the king and said: “What have you done?+ Look! Abʹner has come to you. Why was it that you sent him off so that he successfully went away? 25 You well know Abʹner the son of Ner,* that it was to fool you that he came and to get to know your going out and your coming in+ and to get to know everything that you are doing.”+
26 With that Joʹab went out from David and sent messengers after Abʹner, and they then had him return+ from the cistern of Siʹrah; and David himself did not know of it. 27 When Abʹner returned to Heʹbron,+ Joʹab now led him aside inside the gate to speak with him quietly.+ However, there he struck him in the abdomen,+ so that he died because of the blood of Asʹa·hel+ his brother. 28 When David heard of it afterward, he at once said: “I and my kingdom, from the standpoint of Jehovah, are innocent for time indefinite of bloodguilt+ for Abʹner the son of Ner. 29 May it whirl back upon the head+ of Joʹab and upon the entire house of his father, and let there not be cut off from Joʹab’s house+ a man with a running discharge+ or a leper+ or a man taking hold of the twirling spindle+ or one falling by the sword or one in need of bread!”+ 30 As for Joʹab and A·bishʹai+ his brother, they killed Abʹner+ over the fact that he had put Asʹa·hel their brother to death at Gibʹe·on in the battle.+
31 Then David said to Joʹab and all the people that were with him: “Rip YOUR garments apart+ and tie on sackcloth+ and wail before Abʹner.” Even King David was walking behind the couch. 32 And they had the burial of Abʹner in Heʹbron; and the king began to raise his voice and weep at Abʹner’s burial place, and all the people gave way to weeping.+ 33 And the king went on to chant over Abʹner and say:
“As with the death of a senseless+ person should Abʹner die?
34 Your hands had not been bound ones,+
And your feet had not been put into fetters of copper.+
As one falling before the sons of unrighteousness+ you have fallen.”
At that all the people wept+ over him again.
35 Later all the people came to give David bread+ for consolation while it was yet that day, but David swore, saying: “So may God do to me+ and so may he add to it, if before the sun sets+ I shall taste bread or anything at all!” 36 And all the people themselves took notice, and it was good in their eyes. Like everything that the king did, it was in the eyes of all the people good.+ 37 And all the people and all Israel got to know on that day that it had not originated with the king to have Abʹner the son of Ner put to death.+ 38 And the king went on to say to his servants: “Do YOU not know that it is a prince and a great man that has fallen this day in Israel?+ 39 And I today am weak although anointed+ as king, and these men, the sons of Ze·ruʹiah,+ are too severe for me.+ May Jehovah repay the doer of what is bad according to his own badness.”+
4 When the son+ of Saul heard that Abʹner had died in Heʹbron,+ then his hands became feeble+ and all the Israelites themselves were disturbed. 2 And there were two men, chiefs of the marauding bands,+ that happened to belong to the son of Saul,* the name of the one being Baʹa·nah and the name of the other being Reʹchab, the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, of the sons of Benjamin; for Be·erʹoth,+ too, used to be counted as part of Benjamin. 3 And the Be·erʹoth·ites went running away to Gitʹta·im,+ and they came to be alien residents there down to this day.
4 Now Jonʹa·than,+ the son of Saul, had a son lame in the feet.+ Five years old he happened to be when the report about Saul and Jonʹa·than came from Jezʹre·el;+ and his nurse began to carry him and flee, but it came about that as she was running in panic to flee, he then had a fall and was lamed. And his name was Me·phibʹo·sheth.+
5 And the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah, proceeded to go and come to the house of Ish-boʹsheth+ about when the day had heated up, as he was taking his noonday siesta. 6 And here they came into the middle of the house as men fetching wheat, and then struck him in the abdomen;+ and Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah+ his brother themselves escaped detection. 7 When they went into the house, he was lying upon his couch in his inner bedroom, and then they struck him so that they put him to death,+ after which they removed his head+ and took his head and walked on the road to the Arʹa·bah all night long. 8 Eventually they came bringing the head of Ish-boʹsheth+ to David at Heʹbron and said to the king: “Here is the head of Ish-boʹsheth the son of Saul your enemy+ who looked for your soul;+ but Jehovah gives to my lord the king revenge+ this day upon Saul and his offspring.”
9 However, David answered Reʹchab and Baʹa·nah his brother, the sons of Rimʹmon the Be·erʹoth·ite, and said to them: “As Jehovah who redeemed+ my soul+ out of all distress+ is living,+ 10 when there was one reporting to me,+ saying, ‘Here Saul is dead,’ and he himself in his own eyes became like a bringer of good news, I, however, took hold of him and killed+ him in Zikʹlag when it was due [for me] to give him the messenger’s fee; 11 how much more so when wicked men+ themselves have killed a righteous man in his own house upon his bed? And now should I not require his blood from YOUR hands,+ and must I not clear YOU out of the earth?”+ 12 With that David commanded the young men and they killed them+ and cut off their hands and their feet and hanged+ them by the pool in Heʹbron; and the head of Ish-boʹsheth they took and then buried in the burial place of Abʹner in Heʹbron.+
5 In time all the tribes of Israel came to David+ at Heʹbron+ and said: “Look! We ourselves are your bone and your flesh.+ 2 Both yesterday and previously+ while Saul happened to be king over us, you yourself became the one leading Israel out and bringing it in.+ And Jehovah proceeded to say to you, ‘You yourself will shepherd+ my people Israel, and you yourself will become leader+ over Israel.’” 3 So all the older men*+ of Israel came to the king at Heʹbron, and King David concluded a covenant+ with them in Heʹbron before Jehovah; after which they anointed+ David as king over Israel.*+
4 Thirty years old was David when he became king. For forty years+ he ruled as king. 5 In Heʹbron he ruled as king over Judah for seven years and six months;+ and in Jerusalem+ he ruled as king for thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. 6 Consequently the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebʹu·sites+ inhabiting the land, and they began to say to David: “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame ones will certainly turn you away,”+ they thinking: “David will not come in here.” 7 Just the same, David proceeded to capture the stronghold of Zion,+ that is, the City of David.+ 8 So David said on that day: “Anyone striking the Jebʹu·sites,+ let him, by means of the water tunnel,+ make contact with both the lame and the blind, hateful to the soul of David!” That is why they say: “The blind one and the lame one will not come into the house.” 9 And David took up dwelling in the stronghold, and it came to be called the City of David; and David began to build all around from the Mound*+ and inward. 10 Thus David went on getting greater and greater,+ and Jehovah the God of armies*+ was with him.+
11 And Hiʹram+ the king of Tyre proceeded to send messengers+ to David, and also cedar trees+ and workers in wood and workers in stone for walls, and they began to build a house for David.+ 12 And David came to know that Jehovah had firmly established him as king over Israel+ and that he had exalted+ his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.+
13 Meantime, David went on taking more concubines+ and wives+ out of Jerusalem after he came from Heʹbron; and more sons and daughters continued to be born to David. 14 And these are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem: Sham·muʹa+ and Shoʹbab+ and Nathan+ and Solʹo·mon,+ 15 and Ibʹhar and E·liʹshu·a+ and Neʹpheg+ and Ja·phiʹa,+ 16 and E·lishʹa·ma+ and E·liʹa·da and E·liphʹe·let.+
17 And the Phi·lisʹtines got to hear that they had anointed David as king over Israel.+ At that all the Phi·lisʹtines came up to look for David. When David heard of it, then he went down to the place hard to approach.+ 18 And the Phi·lisʹtines, for their part, came in and kept tramping about in the low plain of Rephʹa·im.+ 19 And David began to inquire+ of Jehovah, saying: “Shall I go up against the Phi·lisʹtines? Will you give them into my hand?” At this Jehovah said to David: “Go up, for I shall without fail give the Phi·lisʹtines into your hands.”+ 20 So David came to Baʹal-pe·raʹzim,+ and David got to strike them down there. At that he said: “Jehovah has broken through my enemies+ ahead of me, like a gap made by waters.” That is why he called the name of that place Baʹal-pe·raʹzim.*+ 21 Consequently they left their idols*+ there, and so David and his men took them away.+
22 Later the Phi·lisʹtines came up once again+ and tramped about in the low plain of Rephʹa·im.+ 23 At that David inquired+ of Jehovah, but he said: “You must not go up. Go around to the rear of them, and you must come against them in front of the baʹca bushes.*+ 24 And let it occur that, when you hear the sound of a marching* in the tops of the baʹca bushes, at that time you act with decision,+ because at that time Jehovah will have gone out ahead of you to strike down the camp of the Phi·lisʹtines.”+ 25 Accordingly David did that way, just as Jehovah had commanded him,+ and he went striking down+ the Phi·lisʹtines from Geʹba*+ to as far as Geʹzer.+
6 And David proceeded again to gather all the choice men in Israel,+ thirty thousand. 2 Then David and all the people that were with him rose up and went to Baʹal·e-juʹdah+ to bring up from there the ark+ of the [true] God, where a name is called on, the name+ of Jehovah of armies,+ sitting on the cherubs.+ 3 However, they had the ark of the [true] God ride upon a new wagon,+ that they might carry it from the house of A·binʹa·dab,+ which was on the hill; and Uzʹzah and A·hiʹo,+ the sons of A·binʹa·dab, were leading the new wagon.
4 So they carried it from A·binʹa·dab’s house, which was on the hill—with the ark of the [true] God; and A·hiʹo was walking ahead of the Ark. 5 And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before Jehovah with all sorts of instruments of juniper wood and with harps+ and with stringed instruments+ and with tambourines+ and with sistrums* and with cymbals.+ 6 And they came gradually as far as the threshing floor of Naʹcon,* and Uzʹzah+ now thrust [his hand] out to the ark of the [true] God and grabbed hold of it,+ for the cattle nearly caused an upset. 7 At that Jehovah’s anger+ blazed against Uzʹzah and the [true] God struck him down+ there for the irreverent act, so that he died there close by the ark of the [true] God.+ 8 And David became angry over the fact that Jehovah had broken through in a rupture against Uzʹzah, and that place came to be called Peʹrez-uzʹzah* down to this day.+ 9 And David became afraid of Jehovah+ on that day and began to say: “How will the ark of Jehovah come to me?”+ 10 And David was not willing to remove the ark of Jehovah to him at the City of David.+ So David had it carried aside to the house of Oʹbed-eʹdom+ the Gitʹtite.+
11 And the ark of Jehovah kept dwelling at the house of Oʹbed-eʹdom the Gitʹtite three months; and Jehovah kept blessing+ Oʹbed-eʹdom and all his household.+ 12 Finally the report was made to King David, saying: “Jehovah has blessed the house of Oʹbed-eʹdom and all that is his on account of the ark of the [true] God.” At that David proceeded to go and bring the ark of the [true] God out of the house of Oʹbed-eʹdom up to the City of David with rejoicing.+ 13 And it came about that when the carriers+ of the ark of Jehovah had marched six steps, he immediately sacrificed a bull and a fatling.+
14 And David was dancing around before Jehovah with all his power, all the while David being girded with an ephʹod+ of linen. 15 And David and all the house of Israel were bringing up the ark+ of Jehovah with joyful shouting+ and sound of horn.+ 16 And it occurred that when the ark of Jehovah came into the City of David, Miʹchal,+ Saul’s daughter, herself looked down through the window and got to see King David leaping and dancing around before Jehovah; and she began to despise+ him in her heart.+ 17 So they brought the ark of Jehovah in and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it;+ after which David offered up burnt sacrifices+ and communion sacrifices+ before Jehovah. 18 When David was finished with offering up the burnt sacrifices and the communion sacrifices, he then blessed+ the people in the name of Jehovah+ of armies. 19 Further, he apportioned+ to all the people, to the whole crowd of Israel, man as well as woman, to each one a ring-shaped cake of bread and a date cake and a raisin cake,+ after which all the people went each to his own house.
20 David now returned to bless his own household,+ and Miʹchal,+ Saul’s daughter, came on out to meet David and then said: “How glorious the king of Israel made himself today+ when he uncovered himself today to the eyes of the slave girls of his servants, just as one of the empty-headed men* uncovers himself outright!”+ 21 At this David said to Miʹchal: “It was before Jehovah, who* chose me rather than your father and all his household to put me in command+ as leader over Jehovah’s people Israel, and I will celebrate before Jehovah.+ 22 And I will make myself even more lightly esteemed than this,+ and I will become low in my* eyes; and with the slave girls whom you mentioned, with them I am determined to glorify myself.”+ 23 So, as regards Miʹchal,+ Saul’s daughter, she came to have no child down to the day of her death.
7 And it came about that, when the king dwelt in his own house+ and Jehovah himself had given him rest from all his enemies round about,+ 2 then the king said to Nathan+ the prophet: “See, now, I am dwelling in a house of cedars+ while the ark of the [true] God is dwelling in the middle of tent cloths.”+ 3 Upon that Nathan said to the king: “Everything that is in your heart—go, do,+ because Jehovah is with you.”
4 And it came about on that night that the word+ of Jehovah came to Nathan, saying: 5 “Go, and you must say to my servant David, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Should you yourself build me a house for me to dwell in?+ 6 For I have not dwelt in a house from the day of my bringing the sons of Israel up out of Egypt to this day,+ but I was continually walking+ about in a tent+ and in a tabernacle.+ 7 During all the time that I have walked about among all the sons of Israel,+ was there a word that I spoke with one of the tribes* of Israel+ that I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why did YOU people not build me a house of cedars?’”’ 8 And now this is what you will say to my servant David, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “I myself took you from the pasture ground from following the flock+ to become a leader+ over my people Israel. 9 And I shall prove to be with you wherever you do go,+ and I will cut off all your enemies from before you;+ and I shall certainly make for you a great name,+ like the name of the great ones that are in the earth. 10 And I shall certainly appoint a place+ for my people Israel and plant+ them, and they will indeed reside where they are, and no more will they be disturbed; and the sons of unrighteousness will not afflict them again as they did at the first,+ 11 even from the day that I put judges+ in command over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies.+
“‘“And Jehovah has told you that a house+ is what Jehovah will make for you. 12 When your days come to the full,+ and you must lie down with your forefathers,+ then I shall certainly raise up your seed after you, which will come out of your inward parts; and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingdom.+ 13 He is the one that will build a house for my name,+ and I shall certainly establish the throne of his kingdom firmly to time indefinite.+ 14 I myself shall become his father,+ and he himself will become my son.+ When he does wrong, I will also reprove him with the rod+ of men and with the strokes of the sons of Adam.* 15 As for my loving-kindness,* it will not depart from him the way I removed it from Saul,+ whom I removed on account of you. 16 And your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast to time indefinite before you; your very throne will become one firmly established to time indefinite.”’”+
17 According to all these words and according to all this vision was the way that Nathan spoke to David.+
18 At that King David came in and sat down before Jehovah and said: “Who am I,+ O Sovereign Lord Jehovah? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? 19 As though this should even be something little in your eyes, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, yet you also speak respecting the house of your servant down to a distant future time; and this is the law given for mankind,*+ O Sovereign Lord Jehovah.+ 20 And what more can David add and speak to you, when you yourself know your servant well,+ O Sovereign Lord Jehovah? 21 For the sake of your word+ and in agreement with your own heart+ you have done all these great things to cause your servant to know them.+ 22 That is why you are indeed great,+ O Sovereign Lord Jehovah; for there is no other like you,+ and there is no God except you+ among all of whom we have heard with our ears. 23 And what one* nation in the earth is like your people Israel,+ whom God went to redeem to himself as a people+ and to assign himself a name+ and to do for them* great and fear-inspiring things+—to drive out* because of your people, whom you have redeemed+ to yourself from Egypt, the nations and their gods? 24 And you proceeded to establish your people Israel+ firmly for yourself as your people to time indefinite; and you yourself, O Jehovah, have become their God.+
25 “And now, Jehovah God,* the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house carry out to time indefinite and do just as you have spoken.+ 26 And let your own name become great to time indefinite,+ saying, ‘Jehovah of armies is God over Israel,’+ and let the very house of your servant David become firmly established before you.+ 27 For you, Jehovah of armies the God of Israel, have made a revelation to your servant’s ear, saying, ‘A house I shall build for you.’+ That is why your servant has taken heart* to pray to you with this prayer.+ 28 And now, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you are the [true] God; and as for your words, let them prove to be truth,*+ since you promise to your servant this goodness.+ 29 And now take it upon yourself and bless+ the house of your servant [for it] to continue to time indefinite before you;+ for you yourself, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, have promised, and due to your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed to time indefinite.”+
8 And it came about afterward that David proceeded to strike the Phi·lisʹtines+ down and subdue them,+ and David got to take Methʹeg-amʹmah out of the hand of the Phi·lisʹtines.
2 And he went on to strike down the Moʹab·ites+ and measure them with a line, making them lie down* on the earth, that he might measure two lines to put them to death, and a full line to preserve them alive;+ and the Moʹab·ites came to be David’s servants+ to carry tribute.*+
3 And David went on to strike down Had·ad·eʹzer*+ the son of Reʹhob the king of Zoʹbah+ as he was going his way to put his control back again at the river Eu·phraʹtes.*+ 4 And David got to capture from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand men on foot;+ and David proceeded to hamstring+ all the chariot horses,+ but he let a hundred chariot horses* of them remain.
5 When Syria* of Damascus+ came to help Had·ad·eʹzer the king of Zoʹbah, David then struck down among the Syrians twenty-two thousand men.+ 6 Further, David put garrisons+ in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians came to be David’s servants to carry tribute.+ And Jehovah continued to save David wherever he went.+ 7 Moreover, David took the circular shields+ of gold that happened to be on the servants of Had·ad·eʹzer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 And from Beʹtah* and Be·roʹthai, cities of Had·ad·eʹzer, King David took copper in very great quantity.+
9 Now Toʹi* the king of Haʹmath+ got to hear that David had struck down all the military force of Had·ad·eʹzer.+ 10 So Toʹi sent Joʹram his son to King David to ask him about his welfare+ and congratulate* him over the fact that he had fought against Had·ad·eʹzer so that he struck him down (for Had·ad·eʹzer had become trained in warfare against Toʹi); and in his hand there proved to be articles of silver and articles of gold and articles of copper.+ 11 These also King David sanctified* to Jehovah, together with the silver and the gold that he had sanctified from all the nations that he had subdued,+ 12 from Syria and from Moʹab+ and from the sons of Amʹmon and from the Phi·lisʹtines+ and from Amʹa·lek+ and from the spoil of Had·ad·eʹzer the son of Reʹhob the king of Zoʹbah.+ 13 And David proceeded to make a name when he came back from striking down the Eʹdom·ites* in the Valley of Salt+—eighteen thousand.+ 14 And he kept garrisons placed in Eʹdom.+ In all Eʹdom he placed garrisons, and all the Eʹdom·ites came to be servants of David;+ and Jehovah kept saving David wherever he went.+
15 And David kept reigning over all Israel;+ and David was continually rendering judicial decision and righteousness+ for all his people.+ 16 And Joʹab+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah was over the army; and Je·hoshʹa·phat+ the son of A·hiʹlud was recorder.* 17 And Zaʹdok+ the son of A·hiʹtub and A·himʹe·lech+ the son of A·biʹa·thar* were priests, and Se·raiʹah was secretary. 18 And Be·naiʹah*+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da [was over]* the Cherʹe·thites+ and the Pelʹe·thites.+ As for the sons of David, they became priests.*+
9 And David proceeded to say: “Is there yet anyone that is left over of the house of Saul, that I may exercise loving-kindness+ toward him for the sake of Jonʹa·than?”+ 2 Now the house of Saul had a servant whose name was Ziʹba.+ So they called him to David, and the king then said to him: “Are you Ziʹba?” to which he said: “I am your servant.” 3 And the king went on to say: “Is there nobody of the house of Saul anymore, that I may exercise toward him the loving-kindness of God?”+ At this Ziʹba said to the king: “There is yet a son of Jonʹa·than, lame in the feet.”+ 4 Then the king said to him: “Where is he?” So Ziʹba said to the king: “Look! He is in the house of Maʹchir+ the son of Amʹmi·el at Lo-deʹbar.”+
5 Immediately King David sent and took him from the house of Maʹchir the son of Amʹmi·el at Lo-deʹbar. 6 When Me·phibʹo·sheth the son of Jonʹa·than the son of Saul came in to David, he at once fell upon his face and prostrated himself.+ Then David said: “Me·phibʹo·sheth!” to which he said: “Here is your servant.” 7 And David went on to say to him: “Do not be afraid, for without fail I shall exercise loving-kindness+ toward you for the sake of Jonʹa·than your father;+ and I must return to you all the field+ of Saul your grandfather,* and you yourself will eat bread at my table constantly.”+
8 At that he prostrated himself and said: “What is your servant, that you have turned your face to the dead dog+ such as I am?” 9 The king now called Ziʹba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him: “Everything that had come to belong to Saul and to all his house I do give+ to the grandson* of your master. 10 And you must cultivate the ground for him, you and your sons and your servants, and you must do the gathering in, and it must serve as food* for [those belonging to] the grandson* of your master,* and they must eat; but Me·phibʹo·sheth himself, the grandson of your master, will eat bread at my table constantly.”+
Now Ziʹba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.+ 11 So Ziʹba said to the king: “In accord with all that my lord the king commands for his servant is the way that your servant will do; but Me·phibʹo·sheth+ is eating at my table* like one of the sons of the king.” 12 Now Me·phibʹo·sheth had a young son* whose name was Miʹca,+ and all those dwelling in the house of Ziʹba were servants to Me·phibʹo·sheth. 13 And Me·phibʹo·sheth himself was dwelling in Jerusalem, for it was constantly at the table of the king that he was eating;+ and he was lame in both of his feet.+
10 And it came about afterward that the king of the sons of Amʹmon+ came to die, and Haʹnun his son began to reign instead of him.+ 2 At this David said: “I shall exercise loving-kindness toward Haʹnun the son of Naʹhash, just as his father exercised loving-kindness toward me.”+ Accordingly David sent by means of his servants+ to comfort him over his father, and the servants of David proceeded to come into the land of the sons of Amʹmon. 3 However, the princes of the sons of Amʹmon said to Haʹnun their lord: “Is David honoring your father in your eyes in that he has sent to you comforters? Is it not for the sake of searching through the city* and to spy+ it out and to overthrow it that David has sent his servants to you?”+ 4 So Haʹnun took the servants of David and shaved off half their beards+ and cut their garments in half to their buttocks and sent them away.+ 5 Later people reported it to David, and he at once sent to meet them, because the men had come to feeling very humiliated; and the king went on to say: “Dwell in Jerʹi·cho+ until YOUR beards grow abundantly. Then YOU must return.”
6 In time the sons of Amʹmon saw that they had become foul-smelling+ to David, and the sons of Amʹmon proceeded to send and hire Syrians of Beth-reʹhob+ and Syrians of Zoʹbah,+ twenty thousand men on foot, and the king of Maʹa·cah,+ a thousand men, and Ishʹtob,* twelve thousand men. 7 When David heard of it, then he sent Joʹab and all the army [and] the mighty men.*+ 8 And the sons of Amʹmon began to go out and draw up in battle formation at the entrance of the gate,* also the Syrians of Zoʹbah and of Reʹhob,+ and Ishʹtob and Maʹa·cah by themselves in the open field.+
9 When Joʹab saw that the battle charges had come to be against him from the front and from the rear, he at once chose some of all the choice+ men in Israel and drew them up in formation to meet the Syrians. 10 And the rest of the people he gave into the hand of A·bishʹai+ his brother, that he might draw them up in formation to meet the sons of Amʹmon.+ 11 And he went on to say: “If the Syrians become too strong for me, then you must serve as a salvation for me; but if the sons of Amʹmon themselves become too strong for you, I must also come to save you.+ 12 Be strong, that we may show ourselves courageous+ in behalf of our people and in behalf of the cities of our God;+ and as for Jehovah, he will do what is good in his own eyes.”+
13 Then Joʹab and the people that were with him advanced to the battle against the Syrians, and they went fleeing from before him.+ 14 As for the sons of Amʹmon, they saw that the Syrians had fled, and they took to flight from before A·bishʹai and hence came into the city.+ After that Joʹab returned from the sons of Amʹmon and came to Jerusalem.+
15 When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated before Israel, they proceeded to gather themselves together. 16 So Had·ad·eʹzer+ sent and brought out the Syrians that were in the region of the River;+ and then they came to Heʹlam,* with Shoʹbach+ the chief of the army of Had·ad·eʹzer before them.
17 When the report was made to David, he immediately gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan and came to Heʹlam. The Syrians now drew up in formation to meet David and began to fight against him.+ 18 And the Syrians took to flight+ from before Israel; and David got to kill of the Syrians seven hundred charioteers+ and forty thousand horsemen, and Shoʹbach the chief of their army he struck down so that he died there.+ 19 When all the kings,+ the servants of Had·ad·eʹzer, saw that they had been defeated before Israel,+ they promptly made peace with Israel and began to serve them;+ and the Syrians were afraid to try saving the sons of Amʹmon anymore.+
11 And it came about at the return of the year,*+ at the time that kings sally forth,+ that David proceeded to send Joʹab and his servants with him and all Israel, that they might bring the sons of Amʹmon to ruin+ and lay siege to Rabʹbah,+ while David was dwelling in Jerusalem.
2 And it came about at the time of evening that David proceeded to rise from his bed and walk about on the rooftop+ of the king’s house; and from the rooftop he caught sight+ of a woman bathing herself,* and the woman was very good in appearance.+ 3 Then David sent and inquired about the woman+ and someone said: “Is this not Bath-sheʹba+ the daughter of E·liʹam*+ the wife of U·riʹah+ the Hitʹtite?”+ 4 After that David sent messengers that he might take her.+ So she came in to him+ and he lay down with her,+ while she was sanctifying herself from her uncleanness.+ Later she returned to her house.
5 And the woman became pregnant. Consequently she sent and told David and said: “I am pregnant.” 6 At this David sent to Joʹab, saying: “Send to me U·riʹah the Hitʹtite.” So Joʹab sent U·riʹah to David. 7 When U·riʹah came to him, David began to ask how Joʹab was getting along and how the people were getting along and how the war was getting along. 8 Finally David said to U·riʹah: “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.”+ Accordingly U·riʹah went out from the king’s house, and the king’s courtesy gift* went out following him. 9 However, U·riʹah lay down at the entrance of the king’s house with all the other servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his own house. 10 So they told David, saying: “U·riʹah did not go down to his own house.” Upon that David said to U·riʹah: “It is from a journey that you have come in, is it not? Why have you not gone down to your own house?” 11 At this U·riʹah said to David: “The Ark+ and Israel and Judah are dwelling in booths, and my lord Joʹab and the servants of my lord+ are camping on the face of the field, and I—shall I go into my own house to eat and drink and to lie down with my wife?+ As you are living and as your soul is living,+ I shall not do this thing!”
12 Then David said to U·riʹah: “Dwell here also today, and tomorrow I shall send you away.” Therefore U·riʹah kept dwelling in Jerusalem on that day and the day following. 13 Further, David called him that he might eat before him and drink. So he got him drunk.+ Nevertheless, he went out in the evening to lie down on his bed with the servants of his lord, and to his own house he did not go down. 14 And it came about in the morning that David proceeded to write a letter+ to Joʹab and send it by the hand of U·riʹah. 15 So he wrote in the letter, saying:+ “PUT U·riʹah in front of the heaviest battle charges,+ and YOU men must retreat from behind him, and he must be struck down and die.”+
16 And it came about that while Joʹab was keeping guard over the city he kept U·riʹah put in the place where he knew that there were valiant men.+ 17 When the men of the city came on out and went fighting against Joʹab, then some of the people, the servants of David, fell and U·riʹah the Hitʹtite also died.+ 18 Joʹab now sent that he might report to David all the matters of the war. 19 And he went on to command the messenger, saying: “As soon as you finish speaking to the king about all the matters of the war, 20 then it must occur that if the rage of the king comes up and he does say to you, ‘Why did YOU have to go so near to the city to fight? Did YOU men not know that they would shoot from on top of the wall? 21 Who was it that struck down A·bimʹe·lech+ the son of Je·rubʹbe·sheth?*+ Was it not a woman that pitched an upper millstone upon him+ from on top of the wall so that he died at Theʹbez?+ Why did YOU men have to go so close to the wall?’ you must also say, ‘Your servant U·riʹah the Hitʹtite died too.’”+
22 So the messenger went and came and told David all about which Joʹab had sent him. 23 And the messenger went on to say to David: “The men proved superior to us, so that they came out against us into the field; but we kept pressing them right up to the entrance of the gate. 24 And the shooters kept shooting at your servants from on top of the wall,+ so that some of the servants of the king died; and your servant U·riʹah the Hitʹtite also died.”+ 25 At that David said to the messenger: “This is what you will say to Joʹab, ‘Do not let this matter appear bad in your eyes, for the sword eats+ up one as well as another. Intensify your battle against the city and throw it down.’+ And encourage him.”
26 And the wife of U·riʹah got to hear that U·riʹah her husband had died, and she began to wail+ over her owner.*+ 27 When the mourning period+ was past, David immediately sent and took her home to his house, and she came to be his wife.+ In time she bore to him a son, but the thing that David had done appeared bad+ in the eyes+ of Jehovah.
12 And Jehovah proceeded to send Nathan+ to David. So he came in to him+ and said to him: “There were two men that happened to be in one city, the one rich and the other of little means. 2 The rich man happened to have very many sheep and cattle;+ 3 but the man of little means had nothing but one female lamb, a small one, that he had bought.+ And he was preserving it alive, and it was growing up with him and with his sons, all together. From his morsel it would eat, and from his cup it would drink, and in his bosom it would lie, and it came to be as a daughter to him. 4 After a while a visitor came to the rich man, but he spared taking some from his own sheep and his own cattle to get such ready for the traveler that had come in to him. So he took the female lamb of the man of little means and got it ready for the man that had come in to him.”+
5 At this David’s anger grew very hot against the man,+ so that he said to Nathan: “As Jehovah is living,+ the man doing this deserves to die!*+ 6 And for the female lamb he should make compensation+ with four,+ as a consequence of the fact that he has done this thing and because he did not have compassion.”+
7 Then Nathan said to David: “You yourself are the man! This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said, ‘I myself anointed+ you as king over Israel, and I myself delivered+ you out of the hand of Saul. 8 And I was willing to give you the house of your lord+ and the wives of your lord+ into your bosom, and to give you the house* of Israel and of Judah.+ And if it were not enough, I was willing to add to you things like these as well as other things.+ 9 Why did you despise the word of Jehovah by doing what is bad+ in his eyes? U·riʹah the Hitʹtite you struck down with the sword,+ and his wife you took as your wife,+ and him you killed by the sword of the sons of Amʹmon. 10 And now a sword+ will not depart from your own house to time indefinite,+ as a consequence of the fact that you despised me so that you took the wife of U·riʹah the Hitʹtite to become your wife.’ 11 This is what Jehovah has said, ‘Here I am raising up against you calamity out of your own house;+ and I will take your wives under your own eyes and give them to your fellowman,+ and he will certainly lie down with your wives under the eyes of this sun.+ 12 Whereas you yourself acted in secret,+ I, for my part, shall do this thing in front of all Israel+ and in front of the sun.’”+
13 David now said+ to Nathan: “I have sinned against Jehovah.”+ At this Nathan said to David: “Jehovah, in turn, does let your sin pass by.+ You will not die.+ 14 Notwithstanding this, because you have unquestionably treated Jehovah with disrespect*+ by this thing, also the son himself, just born to you, will positively die.”+
15 Then Nathan went to his own house.
And Jehovah proceeded to deal a blow+ to the child that the wife of U·riʹah had borne to David so that it took sick. 16 And David began to seek the [true] God in behalf of the boy, and David went on a strict fast+ and came in and spent the night and lay down on the earth.+ 17 So the older men of his house stood up over him to raise him up from the earth, but he did not consent and did not take bread+ in company with them. 18 And it came about on the seventh day that the child gradually died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child had died; for they said: “Look! While the child continued alive we did speak to him, and he did not listen to our voice; so how can we say to him, ‘The child has died’? Then he will certainly do something bad.”
19 When David got to see that his servants were whispering together, David began to discern that the child had died. So David said to his servants: “Has the child died?” To this they said: “He has died.” 20 Then David got up from the earth and washed and rubbed+ himself with oil and changed his mantles and came to the house+ of Jehovah and prostrated+ himself; after which he came into his own house and asked, and they promptly set bread before him and he began to eat. 21 Consequently his servants said to him: “What does this thing mean that you have done? For the sake of the child while alive you fasted and kept weeping; and just as soon as the child had died you got up and began to eat bread.” 22 To this he said: “While the child was yet alive I did fast+ and I kept weeping,+ because I said to myself, ‘Who is there knowing whether Jehovah may show me favor, and the child will certainly live?’+ 23 Now that he has died, why is it I am fasting? Am I able to bring him back again?+ I am going to him,+ but, as for him, he will not return to me.”+
24 And David began to comfort Bath-sheʹba his wife.+ Further, he came in to her and lay down with her. In time she bore a son,+ and his name came to be called Solʹo·mon.*+ And Jehovah himself did love him.+ 25 So he sent by means of Nathan+ the prophet and called his name Jed·i·diʹah,* for the sake of Jehovah.
26 And Joʹab+ continued to fight against Rabʹbah+ of the sons of Amʹmon and got to capture the city of the kingdom.* 27 So Joʹab sent messengers to David and said: “I have fought against Rabʹbah.+ I have also captured the city of waters. 28 And now gather the rest of the people and encamp against the city, and capture it; that I myself may not be the one to capture the city, and my name should not have to be called upon it.”
29 Accordingly David gathered all the people and went to Rabʹbah and fought against it and captured it. 30 And he got to take the crown of Malʹcam* off its head,+ the weight of which was a talent* of gold, along with precious stones; and it came to be upon David’s head. And the spoil+ of the city that he brought out was very much. 31 And the people that were in it, he brought out that he might put them at sawing stones and at sharp instruments of iron+ and at axes of iron, and he made them serve* at brickmaking. And that was the way he proceeded to do to all the cities of the sons of Amʹmon. Finally David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
13 And it came about after such things that Abʹsa·lom+ the son of David had a beautiful sister whose name was Taʹmar,+ and Amʹnon+ the son of David fell in love+ with her. 2 And it was so distressing to Amʹnon that he felt sick+ on account of Taʹmar his sister, because she was a virgin, and it was difficult in the eyes+ of Amʹnon to do anything at all to her.+ 3 Now Amʹnon had a companion whose name was Je·honʹa·dab,*+ the son of Shimʹe·ah,+ David’s brother; and Je·honʹa·dab was a very wise man. 4 So he said to him: “Why are you, the son of the king, so downcast as this, morning by morning? Will you not tell me?”+ At this Amʹnon said to him: “With Taʹmar the sister+ of Abʹsa·lom my brother I am in love.”+ 5 Upon that Je·honʹa·dab said to him: “Lie down on your bed and play sick.+ And your father will certainly come to see you, and you must say to him, ‘Please, let Taʹmar my sister come in and give me bread as a patient, and she will have to make the bread of consolation under my eyes in order that I may see it, and I shall have to eat from her hand.’”+
6 Accordingly Amʹnon lay down and played sick,+ and so the king came in to see him. Then Amʹnon said to the king: “Please, let Taʹmar my sister come in and bake two heart-shaped cakes under my eyes, that I may take bread as a patient from her hand.” 7 At that David sent to Taʹmar at the house, saying: “Go, please, to the house of Amʹnon your brother and make the bread of consolation for him.” 8 So Taʹmar went to the house of Amʹnon+ her brother while he was lying down. Then she took the flour dough and kneaded it and made the cakes under his eyes and cooked the heart-shaped cakes.* 9 Finally she took the deep pan and poured it out before him, but Amʹnon refused to eat and said: “HAVE everybody go out from me!”+ Then everybody went out from him.
10 Amʹnon now said to Taʹmar: “Bring the bread of consolation to the interior room, that I may take it as a patient from your hand.” So Taʹmar took the heart-shaped cakes that she had made and brought them in to Amʹnon her brother in the interior room. 11 When she came near to him for him to eat, he at once grabbed+ hold of her and said to her: “Come, lie down+ with me, my sister.”+ 12 However, she said to him: “No, my brother! Do not humiliate+ me; for it is not usual to do that way in Israel.+ Do not do this disgraceful folly.+ 13 And I—where shall I cause my reproach to go? And you—you will become like one of the senseless men in Israel. And now speak, please, to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.” 14 And he did not consent to listen to her voice, but used strength superior to hers and humiliated+ her and lay down with her.+ 15 And Amʹnon began hating her with a very great hatred, because the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her, so that Amʹnon said to her: “Get up, go away!” 16 At this she said to him: “No, my brother; for* this badness in sending me away is greater than the other that you have done with me!” And he did not consent to listen to her.
17 With that he called his attendant who waited upon him and said: “Send this person away from me, please, to the outside, and lock the door behind her.” 18 (Now upon her there was a striped+ robe; for that was the way the daughters of the king, the virgins, used to dress with sleeveless coats.) So his waiter proceeded to lead her clear outside, and he locked the door behind her. 19 Then Taʹmar placed ashes+ upon her head, and the striped robe that was upon her she ripped apart; and she kept her hands* put upon her head+ and went walking away, crying out as she walked.
20 At this Abʹsa·lom+ her brother said to her: “Was it Amʹnon+ your brother that happened to be with you? And now, my sister, keep silent. He is your brother.+ Do not set your heart on this matter.” And Taʹmar began to dwell, while being kept from association [with others], at the house of Abʹsa·lom her brother. 21 And King David himself heard about all these things,+ and he became very angry.+ 22 And Abʹsa·lom did not speak with Amʹnon either bad or good; for Abʹsa·lom hated+ Amʹnon over the fact that he had humiliated Taʹmar his sister.
23 And it turned out after two full years that Abʹsa·lom came to have sheepshearers+ at Baʹal-haʹzor, which is close by Eʹphra·im;+ and Abʹsa·lom proceeded to invite all the sons of the king.+ 24 So Abʹsa·lom came in to the king and said: “Here, now, your servant has sheepshearers! Let the king go, please, and also his servants, with your servant.” 25 But the king said to Abʹsa·lom: “No, my son! Do not let all of us go, please, that we may not be a burden upon you.” Although he kept urging+ him, he did not consent to go but blessed+ him. 26 Finally Abʹsa·lom said: “If not [you], let Amʹnon my brother go with us, please.”+ At this the king said to him: “Why should he go with you?” 27 And Abʹsa·lom began to urge+ him, so that he sent Amʹnon and all the sons of the king* with him.
28 Then Abʹsa·lom commanded his attendants, saying: “See, please, that just as soon as Amʹnon’s heart is in a merry mood with wine,+ and I shall certainly say to YOU, ‘Strike down Amʹnon!’ YOU must then put him to death. Do not be afraid.+ Have not I myself commanded YOU? Be strong and prove yourselves to be valiant men.” 29 And Abʹsa·lom’s attendants proceeded to do to Amʹnon just as Abʹsa·lom had commanded;+ and all the other sons of the king began to rise up and mount each one his mule* and take to flight. 30 And it came about that, while they were on the way, the report itself came to David, saying: “Abʹsa·lom has struck down all the sons of the king, and not one of them has been left over.” 31 At this the king got up and ripped his clothes apart+ and lay upon the earth,+ and all his servants were standing by with their garments ripped+ apart.*
32 However, Je·honʹa·dab+ the son of Shimʹe·ah,+ David’s brother, answered and said: “Do not let my lord think that it is all the young men the sons of the king that they have put to death, for it is Amʹnon alone that has died,+ because at the order of Abʹsa·lom it has occurred as something appointed+ from the day that he humiliated+ Taʹmar his sister.+ 33 And now do not let my lord the king take to his heart the word, saying, ‘All the king’s sons themselves have died’; but it is Amʹnon alone that has died.”
34 Meantime, Abʹsa·lom went running away.+ Later the young man, the watchman,+ raised his eyes and saw, and, look! there were many people coming from the road behind him by the mountainside.* 35 At this Je·honʹa·dab+ said to the king: “Look! The king’s sons themselves have come in. In accord with the word of your servant so it has taken place.”+ 36 And it came about that, as soon as he finished speaking, here the king’s sons themselves came in, and they began to raise their voice and weep; and even the king and all his servants wept with a very great weeping. 37 As for Abʹsa·lom, he ran off that he might go to Talʹmai+ the son of Am·miʹhud the king of Geshʹur.+ And [David]* continued to mourn+ over his son all the days. 38 As for Abʹsa·lom, he ran off and made his way to Geshʹur;+ and he came to be there three years.
39 Finally [the soul of]* David the king longed to go out* to Abʹsa·lom; for he had comforted himself concerning Amʹnon, because he was dead.
14 Now Joʹab+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah+ came to know that the king’s heart was toward Abʹsa·lom.+ 2 Accordingly Joʹab sent to Te·koʹa+ and took from there a wise+ woman and said to her: “Go in mourning, please, and dress yourself, please, with garments of mourning, and do not rub yourself with oil;+ and you must become like a woman here who has been mourning many days over someone dead.+ 3 And you must come in to the king and speak to him a word like this.” With that Joʹab put the words in her mouth.+
4 And the Te·koʹite woman proceeded to come in* to the king and fall upon her face to the earth+ and prostrate herself and say: “Do save,+ O king!” 5 At this the king said to her: “What is the matter with you?” To this she said: “For a fact I am a widowed+ woman, now that my husband is dead. 6 And your maidservant had two sons, and the two of them began to struggle with each other in the field+ while there was no deliverer+ to part them.* Finally the one struck the other down and put him to death. 7 And here all the family have risen up against your maidservant and keep saying, ‘Give over the striker of his brother, that we may put him to death for the soul of his brother+ whom he killed,+ and let us even annihilate the heir!’ And they will certainly extinguish the glow of my charcoals that has remained, so as to assign to my husband neither a name nor a remnant* on the surface of the ground.”+
8 Then the king said to the woman: “Go to your house, and I myself shall give command regarding you.”+ 9 At this the Te·koʹite woman said to the king: “Upon me, O my lord the king, be the error, and also upon the house of my father,+ while the king and his throne are innocent.” 10 And the king went on to say: “If there is anyone speaking to you, you must also bring him to me, and he will never hurt you again.” 11 But she said: “Let the king, please, remember Jehovah your God,+ that the avenger of blood+ may not be continually causing ruin and that they may not annihilate my son.” To this he said: “As Jehovah is living,+ not a single hair+ of your son will fall to the earth.” 12 The woman now said: “Let your maidservant,+ please, speak a word+ to my lord the king.” So he said: “Speak!”+
13 And the woman went on to say: “Why, then, have you reasoned like this+ against the people of God?+ As the king is speaking this word he is like one that is guilty,+ in that the king does not bring back his own banished one.+ 14 For we shall die without fail+ and be like waters that are being poured down to the earth, which cannot be gathered. But God will not take away a soul,+ and he has thought out reasons why the one banished should not be banished from him. 15 And now that I have come in to speak this word to the king my lord, it is because the people made me afraid. So your maidservant said, ‘Let me speak, please, to the king. Perhaps the king will act on the word of his slave girl. 16 Because the king proceeded to listen so as to deliver his slave girl out of the palm of the man [seeking] to annihilate me* and my lone son from the inheritance given by God,’*+ 17 then your maidservant said, ‘Let the word of my lord the king serve, please, to give rest.’ For just like an angel+ of the [true] God is the way my lord the king is, to distinguish what is good and what is bad,+ and may Jehovah your God himself prove to be with you.”
18 The king now answered and said to the woman: “Do not, please, hide from me a thing about which I am asking you.”+ To this the woman said: “Let my lord the king speak, please.” 19 And the king went on to say: “Is the hand of Joʹab+ with you in all this?”+ Then the woman answered and said: “As your soul is living,+ O my lord the king, no man can go to the right or go to the left from all that my lord the king has spoken; for it was your servant Joʹab that commanded me, and he it was that put in the mouth of your maidservant all these words.+ 20 For the sake of altering the face of the matter your servant Joʹab has done this thing, but my lord is wise as with the wisdom of the angel+ of the [true] God so as to know all that is in the earth.”
21 Subsequently the king said to Joʹab: “Here, now, I shall certainly do* this thing.+ So go, bring the young man Abʹsa·lom back.”+ 22 At this Joʹab fell upon his face to the earth and prostrated himself and blessed the king;+ and Joʹab went on to say: “Today your servant does know that I have found favor in your eyes,+ O my lord the king, because the king has acted on the word of his servant.” 23 With that Joʹab rose up and went to Geshʹur+ and brought Abʹsa·lom to Jerusalem.+ 24 However, the king said: “Let him turn toward his own house, but my face he may not see.”+ So Abʹsa·lom turned toward his own house, and the face of the king he did not see.
25 Now compared with Abʹsa·lom there proved to be no man so beautiful+ in all Israel as to be praised so much. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there proved to be no defect in him. 26 And when he shaved his head—and it occurred at the end of every year that he would shave it; because it was so heavy+ upon him, he shaved it—he weighed the hair of his head, two hundred shekels* by the royal stone weight.* 27 And there came to be born to Abʹsa·lom three sons+ and one daughter whose name was Taʹmar. She proved to be a woman most beautiful in appearance.+
28 And Abʹsa·lom continued dwelling in Jerusalem for two full years, and the face of the king he did not see.+ 29 So Abʹsa·lom sent for Joʹab to send him to the king, and he did not consent to come to him. Then he sent again, a second time, and he did not consent to come. 30 Finally he said to his servants: “See Joʹab’s tract of land beside mine, and there he has barley. Go and set it ablaze with fire.”+ Accordingly the servants of Abʹsa·lom set the tract of land ablaze with fire.+ 31 At this Joʹab rose up and came to Abʹsa·lom at the house and said to him: “Why did your servants set the tract of land that is mine ablaze with fire?” 32 So Abʹsa·lom said to Joʹab: “Look! I sent to you, saying, ‘Come here and let me send you to the king, saying: “Why have I come from Geshʹur?+ It would be better for me that I should still be there. And now let me see the face of the king and, if there is any error in me,+ he must then put me to death.”’”
33 Subsequently Joʹab came in to the king and told him. Then he called Abʹsa·lom, who now came in to the king and prostrated himself to him, [falling]* upon his face to the earth before the king; after which the king kissed Abʹsa·lom.+
15 And it came about following such things that Abʹsa·lom proceeded to have a chariot made for himself, with horses and with fifty men running before him.+ 2 And Abʹsa·lom rose up early+ and stood at the side of the road to the gate.+ And it came about, when any man happened to have a legal case to come to the king for judgment,+ then Abʹsa·lom would call him and say: “From what city are you?” and he would say: “From one of the tribes of Israel your servant is.” 3 And Abʹsa·lom would say to him: “See, your matters are good and straight; but there is no one from the king giving you a hearing.”+ 4 And Abʹsa·lom would go on to say: “O that I were appointed judge in the land,+ that to me every man might come that happens to have a legal case or judgment! Then I should certainly do justice to him.”+
5 It also occurred that, when a man drew near to bow down to him, he thrust his hand out and grabbed hold of him+ and kissed him. 6 And Abʹsa·lom kept doing a thing like this to all Israelites that would come in for judgment to the king; and Abʹsa·lom kept stealing the hearts of the men of Israel.+
7 And it came about at the end of forty years* that Abʹsa·lom proceeded to say to the king: “Let me go, please, and pay in Heʹbron+ my vow that I solemnly made to Jehovah.+ 8 For your servant made a solemn vow+ when I was dwelling in Geshʹur+ in Syria, saying, ‘If Jehovah will without fail bring me back to Jerusalem, I must also render service to Jehovah.’”+ 9 So the king said to him: “Go in peace.”+ With that he rose up and went to Heʹbron.
10 Abʹsa·lom now sent spies+ through all the tribes of Israel, saying: “As soon as YOU hear the sound of the horn, YOU must also say, ‘Abʹsa·lom has become king+ in Heʹbron!’”+ 11 Now there had gone with Abʹsa·lom two hundred men from Jerusalem, being called and going unsuspectingly,*+ and they did not know a single thing. 12 Further, when he offered the sacrifices, Abʹsa·lom sent for* A·hithʹo·phel+ the Giʹlon·ite,+ David’s counselor,+ from his city Giʹloh.+ And the conspiracy+ kept getting stronger, and the people were continually growing in number+ with Abʹsa·lom.
13 In time an informer came to David, saying: “The heart+ of the men of Israel has come to be behind Abʹsa·lom.” 14 At once David said to all his servants that were with him in Jerusalem: “Get up, and let us run away;+ for there will prove to be no escaping for us because of Abʹsa·lom! Go hurriedly, for fear he may hurry up and actually catch up with us and bring down upon us what is bad and strike the city with the edge of the sword!”+ 15 At this the king’s servants said to the king: “According to all that my lord the king may choose, here are your servants.”+ 16 So the king went out with all his household at his feet,+ and the king left ten women, concubines,+ to take care of the house. 17 And the king continued on his way out with all the people at his feet; and they came to a stop at Beth-merʹhak.*
18 And all his servants were crossing at his side; and all the Cherʹe·thites and all the Pelʹe·thites+ and all the Gitʹtites,+ six hundred men that had followed him* from Gath,+ were crossing before the king’s face. 19 Then the king said to Itʹtai+ the Gitʹtite: “Why should you yourself also go with us? Go back+ and dwell with the king; for you are a foreigner and, besides, you are an exile from your place. 20 Yesterday was when you came and today shall I make you wander+ with us, to go when I am going wherever I am going? Go back and take your brothers back with you, [and may Jehovah exercise toward you]* loving-kindness+ and trustworthiness!”+ 21 But Itʹtai answered the king and said: “As Jehovah is living and as my lord the king is living,+ in the place where my lord the king may come to be, whether for death or for life, there is where your servant will come to be!”+ 22 At that David said to Itʹtai:+ “Go and cross over.” So Itʹtai the Gitʹtite crossed over, and also all his men and all the little ones that were with him.
23 And all the people of the land* were weeping with a loud voice,+ and all the people were crossing over, and the king was standing by the torrent valley of Kidʹron,+ and all the people were crossing over upon the open road to the wilderness.* 24 And here also there were Zaʹdok+ and with him all the Levites+ carrying+ the ark+ of the covenant of the [true] God; and they proceeded to set the ark of the [true] God down by A·biʹa·thar*+ until all the people completed crossing over from the city. 25 But the king said to Zaʹdok: “Take the ark+ of the [true] God back to the city.+ If I shall find favor in the eyes of Jehovah, he will also certainly bring me back and let me see it and its abiding place.+ 26 But if this is what he should say, ‘I have found no delight in you,’ here I am, let him do to me just as it is good in his eyes.”+ 27 And the king went on to say to Zaʹdok the priest: “You are a seer,+ are you? Do return to the city in peace, and also A·himʹa·az your son and Jonʹa·than+ the son of A·biʹa·thar, the two sons of YOU men, with YOU. 28 See, I am lingering by the fords* of the wilderness until word comes from YOU men to inform me.”+ 29 Accordingly Zaʹdok and A·biʹa·thar took the ark of the [true] God back to Jerusalem, and they continued* to dwell there.
30 And David was going up by the ascent of the Olives,+ weeping as he went up, with his head covered;+ and he was walking barefoot, and all the people that were with him covered each one his head, and they went up weeping as they went up.+ 31 And to David the report was made, saying: “A·hithʹo·phel himself is among those conspiring+ with Abʹsa·lom.”+ At this David said:+ “Turn, please, the counsel of A·hithʹo·phel into foolishness,+ O Jehovah!”+
32 And it came about that when David himself came to the summit where people* used to bow down to God, here to meet him was Huʹshai+ the Arʹchite,+ with his robe ripped apart and dirt upon his head.+ 33 However, David said to him: “If you actually went across with me, you would then certainly become a load upon me.+ 34 But if you return to the city and you actually say to Abʹsa·lom, ‘I am your servant, O King. I used to prove myself the servant of your father, even I at that time, but now even I am your servant,’+ you must then frustrate+ the counsel of A·hithʹo·phel for me. 35 Are not Zaʹdok and A·biʹa·thar the priests there with you?+ And it must occur that everything that you may hear from the house of the king you should tell to Zaʹdok and A·biʹa·thar the priests.+ 36 Look! There with them are their two sons, A·himʹa·az+ belonging to Zaʹdok and Jonʹa·than+ belonging to A·biʹa·thar; and by means of them YOU men must send to me everything that YOU may hear.” 37 So Huʹshai, David’s companion,+ came into the city. As for Abʹsa·lom,+ he proceeded to come into Jerusalem.
16 When David himself had crossed over a little beyond the summit,+ there was Ziʹba+ the attendant of Me·phibʹo·sheth+ to meet him with a couple of asses+ saddled and upon them two hundred loaves of bread+ and a hundred cakes of raisins+ and a hundred loads of summer fruit+ and a large jar of wine.+ 2 Then the king said to Ziʹba: “What do these things mean on your part?”+ To this Ziʹba said: “The asses are for the household of the king to ride, and the bread and the load of summer fruit are for the young men+ to eat, and the wine is for the one tired out+ in the wilderness+ to drink.” 3 The king now said: “And where is the son of your master?”*+ At this Ziʹba said to the king: “There he is dwelling in Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give back to me the royal rule of my father.’”+ 4 The king then said to Ziʹba: “Look! Yours is everything that belongs to Me·phibʹo·sheth.”+ Upon that Ziʹba said: “I do bow+ down. Let me find favor in your eyes, my lord the king.”
5 And King David came as far as Ba·huʹrim,+ and, look! coming out from there was a man of the family of Saul’s house, and his name was Shimʹe·i,+ the son of Geʹra, coming out and calling down evil as he came out.+ 6 And he began throwing stones at David and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right and at his left. 7 And this is what Shimʹe·i said as he called down evil: “Get out, get out, you bloodguilty+ man* and good-for-nothing man!*+ 8 Jehovah has brought back upon you all the bloodguilt for the house of Saul in place of whom you have ruled as king; and Jehovah gives the kingship into the hand of Abʹsa·lom your son. And here you are in your calamity, because you are a bloodguilty man!”+
9 Finally A·bishʹai the son of Ze·ruʹiah+ said to the king: “Why should this dead dog+ call down evil upon my lord the king?+ Let me go over, please, and take off his head.”+ 10 But the king said: “What do I have to do with YOU men,*+ YOU sons of Ze·ruʹiah?+ Thus let him call down evil,+ because Jehovah himself has said to him,+ ‘Call down evil upon David!’ So who* should say, ‘Why did you do that way?’”+ 11 And David went on to say to A·bishʹai and all his servants: “Here my own son, who has come forth out of my own inward parts, is looking for my soul;+ and how much more now a Benʹja·min·ite!+ Let him alone that he may call down evil, for Jehovah has said so to him! 12 Perhaps Jehovah will see+ with his eye,* and Jehovah will actually restore to me goodness instead of his malediction this day.”+ 13 With that David and his men kept going on in the road, while Shimʹe·i was walking on the side of the mountain, walking abreast of him that he might call down evil;+ and he kept throwing stones while abreast of him, and he threw a lot of dust.+
14 At length the king and all the people that were with him arrived tired. So they refreshed themselves there.+
15 As for Abʹsa·lom and all the people, the men of Israel, they entered Jerusalem;+ and A·hithʹo·phel+ was with him. 16 And it came about that, as soon as Huʹshai+ the Arʹchite,+ David’s companion,+ came in to Abʹsa·lom, Huʹshai proceeded to say to Abʹsa·lom: “Let the king live!+ Let the king live!” 17 At this Abʹsa·lom said to Huʹshai: “This is the loving-kindness of yours toward your companion, is it? Why did you not go with your companion?”+ 18 So Huʹshai said to Abʹsa·lom: “No; but the one whom Jehovah has chosen and also this people and all the men of Israel, his I shall become,* and with him I shall dwell. 19 And for the second time [I must say], Whom shall I myself serve? Is it not before his son? Just as I served before your father, so I shall prove to be* before you.”+
20 Later Abʹsa·lom said to A·hithʹo·phel: “YOU men, give counsel on YOUR part.+ What shall we do?” 21 Then A·hithʹo·phel said to Abʹsa·lom: “Have relations with the concubines of your father,+ whom he left behind to take care of the house.+ And all Israel will certainly hear that you have made yourself foul-smelling+ to your father,+ and the hands+ of all those who are with you will certainly become strong.” 22 Accordingly they pitched a tent for Abʹsa·lom upon the roof,+ and Abʹsa·lom began to have relations with the concubines of his father+ under the eyes of all Israel.+
23 And the counsel of A·hithʹo·phel, with which he counseled in those days, was just as when a man* would inquire of the word of the [true] God.* That was the way all the counsel+ of A·hithʹo·phel+ was both to David and to Abʹsa·lom.
17 And A·hithʹo·phel proceeded to say to Abʹsa·lom: “Let me choose, please, twelve thousand men and rise up and chase after David tonight.+ 2 And I shall come upon him when he is weary and feeble in both hands,+ and I shall certainly drive him into trembling; and all the people that are with him will have to flee, and I shall certainly strike down the king by himself.+ 3 And let me bring all the people back to you. Equivalent to the returning of all is the man whom you are seeking; [and] all the people will themselves come to be at peace.”* 4 And the word was just right in the eyes of Abʹsa·lom+ and in the eyes of all the older men of Israel.
5 However, Abʹsa·lom said: “Call, please, Huʹshai+ the Arʹchite also, and let us hear what is in his mouth, even his.” 6 So Huʹshai came in to Abʹsa·lom. Then Abʹsa·lom said to him: “According to this word is the way A·hithʹo·phel spoke. Shall we act upon his word? If not, you yourself speak.” 7 At this Huʹshai said to Abʹsa·lom: “The counsel with which A·hithʹo·phel has counseled is not good in this instance!”+
8 And Huʹshai went on to say: “You yourself well know your father and the men of his, that they are mighty,+ and they are bitter of soul,+ like a female bear that has lost her cubs in the field;+ and your father is a warrior,+ and he will not spend the night with the people. 9 Look! Now he is in hiding+ in one of the hollows or in one of the other places; and it will certainly occur that, just as soon as he falls upon them at the start, the one hearing of it will then be bound to hear and say, ‘A defeat has taken place among the people that are following Abʹsa·lom!’ 10 And even the valiant man whose heart is as the heart of the lion*+ will himself surely soften in weakness;+ for all Israel is aware that your father is a mighty man+ and so, too, are the valiant men that are with him.+ 11 I myself do say in counsel: Let all Israel without fail be gathered to you, from Dan to Beʹer-sheʹba,+ as the sand particles that are by the sea for multitude,+ with your own person* going into the fight.*+ 12 And we must come against him in one of the places where he is certain to be found,+ and we ourselves will be upon him just as the dew+ falls upon the ground; and there will certainly not be left even a single one among him and all the men that are with him. 13 And if it is into some city that he will withdraw, all Israel must also carry ropes to that city, and we shall certainly drag it down to the torrent valley, until there shall not be found there even a pebble.”+
14 Then Abʹsa·lom and all the men of Israel said: “The counsel of Huʹshai the Arʹchite is better+ than the counsel of A·hithʹo·phel!” And Jehovah himself had given command+ to frustrate the counsel+ of A·hithʹo·phel although good,+ in order that Jehovah might bring calamity+ upon Abʹsa·lom.
15 Later Huʹshai said to Zaʹdok+ and A·biʹa·thar the priests: “This and that was the way that A·hithʹo·phel counseled Abʹsa·lom and the older men of Israel; and this and that was the way that I myself counseled. 16 And now send speedily and tell David,+ saying, ‘Do not lodge in the desert plains of the wilderness tonight, but you also ought to cross over without fail,+ for fear that the king and all the people that are with him may be swallowed+ up.’”*
17 As Jonʹa·than+ and A·himʹa·az+ were standing at En-roʹgel,+ a maidservant went off and told them. So they themselves went off, as they had to tell King David; for they were not able to appear entering the city. 18 However, a young man got to see them and told Abʹsa·lom. So the two of them went off speedily and came to the house of a man in Ba·huʹrim,+ who had a well in his courtyard; and they went down into it. 19 After that the woman took and spread out a screen over the face of the well and heaped up cracked grain upon it;+ and not a thing became known of it. 20 The servants of Abʹsa·lom now came to the woman at her house and said: “Where are A·himʹa·az and Jonʹa·than?” At this the woman said to them: “They passed on from here to the waters.”+ Then they kept on searching, and they did not find them+ and so returned to Jerusalem.
21 And it came about after their going away that then they came up out of the well and went on and told King David and said to David: “YOU people, rise up and speedily pass over the waters; for this is the way that A·hithʹo·phel counseled+ against YOU.” 22 Immediately David rose up and also all the people that were with him, and they kept crossing the Jordan until the morning became light,+ until not a one was lacking that had not passed over the Jordan.
23 As for A·hithʹo·phel, he saw that his counsel had not been acted upon,+ and he proceeded to saddle an ass and rise up and go off to his house at his own city.+ Then he gave commands to his household+ and strangled+ himself* and thus died.+ So he was buried+ in the burial place of his forefathers.
24 As for David, he came to Ma·ha·naʹim,+ and Abʹsa·lom himself crossed the Jordan, he and all the men of Israel with him. 25 And A·maʹsa+ was the one whom Abʹsa·lom put in the place of Joʹab+ over the army; and A·maʹsa was the son of a man whose name was Ithʹra+ the Israelite,* who had relations with Abʹi·gail+ the daughter of Naʹhash,* the sister of Ze·ruʹiah, Joʹab’s mother. 26 And Israel and Abʹsa·lom took up camping in the land of Gilʹe·ad.+
27 And it came about that, as soon as David came to Ma·ha·naʹim, Shoʹbi the son of Naʹhash from Rabʹbah+ of the sons of Amʹmon,+ and Maʹchir+ the son of Amʹmi·el+ from Lo-deʹbar, and Bar·zilʹlai+ the Gilʹe·ad·ite from Ro·geʹlim+ 28 [brought]* beds and basins and potter’s vessels, and wheat and barley and flour+ and roasted grain+ and broad beans+ and lentils+ and parched grain; 29 and honey+ and butter+ and sheep and curds of cattle they brought forward for David and the people that were with him to eat,+ for they said: “The people are hungry and tired and thirsty in the wilderness.”+
18 And David proceeded to number the people that were with him and to place over them chiefs of thousands and chiefs of hundreds.+ 2 Further, David sent one third+ of the people under the hand of Joʹab+ and one third under the hand of A·bishʹai+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah, Joʹab’s brother,+ and one third under the hand of Itʹtai+ the Gitʹtite. Then the king said to the people: “I myself also shall without fail go out with YOU.” 3 But the people said: “You must not go out,+ for if we should at all flee, they would not set heart upon us;+ and if half of us would die, they would not set heart upon us, because you are worth ten thousand of us;+ and now it would be better if you would be of service to us to give help+ from the city.” 4 So the king said to them: “Whatever seems good in YOUR eyes I shall do.”+ And the king kept standing at the side of the gate,+ and all the people themselves went out by hundreds and by thousands.+ 5 And the king went on to command Joʹab and A·bishʹai and Itʹtai, saying: “Deal gently+ for my sake with the young man Abʹsa·lom.” And all the people themselves heard when the king commanded all the chiefs over the matter of Abʹsa·lom.
6 And the people continued on their way out to the field to meet Israel; and the battle came to be in the forest of Eʹphra·im.*+ 7 Finally the people of Israel+ were defeated+ there before the servants of David, and the slaughter there turned out to be great on that day, of twenty thousand men. 8 And the battle there got to be spread out over all the land that was in sight. Furthermore, the forest did more in eating up the people than the sword did in eating them up on that day.
9 Eventually Abʹsa·lom found himself before the servants of David. And Abʹsa·lom was riding upon a mule, and the mule got to come under the network of boughs of a massive big tree, so that his head got caught fast in the big tree, and he was taken up between the heavens and the earth,+ as the mule itself that was under him passed along. 10 Then a certain man saw it and told Joʹab+ and said: “Look! I have seen Abʹsa·lom hung in a big tree.” 11 At this Joʹab said to the man who was telling him: “And here you saw it, and why did you not strike him down to the earth there? Then it would have been my obligation to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.”+ 12 But the man said to Joʹab: “And although I were weighing upon my palms a thousand pieces of silver, I should not thrust my hand out against the king’s son; for in our hearing* it was that the king commanded you and A·bishʹai and Itʹtai, saying, ‘WATCH, whoever [you are], over the young man, over Abʹsa·lom.’+ 13 Otherwise I should have dealt treacherously against his soul and the whole matter itself would not be hidden from the king,+ and you yourself would take a position off on the side.” 14 To this Joʹab said: “Let me not hold myself up this way before you!” With that he took three shafts* in his palm and proceeded to drive+ them through the heart of Abʹsa·lom while he was yet alive in the heart+ of the big tree. 15 Then ten attendants carrying Joʹab’s weapons came around and struck Abʹsa·lom, that they might put him to death.+ 16 Joʹab now blew the horn,+ that the people might return from chasing after Israel; for Joʹab had held back the people. 17 Finally they took Abʹsa·lom and pitched him in the forest into a big hollow and raised up over him a very big pile of stones.+ As for all Israel, they fled each man to his home.*
18 Now Abʹsa·lom himself, while he was alive, had taken and proceeded to raise up for himself a pillar,+ which is in the Low Plain of the King,+ for he said: “I have no son in order to keep my name in remembrance.”+ So he called the pillar by his own name,+ and it continues to be called Abʹsa·lom’s Monument down to this day.
19 Now as regards A·himʹa·az+ the son of Zaʹdok, he said: “Let me run, please, and break the news to the king, because Jehovah has judged him [to free him] from the hand of his enemies.”+ 20 But Joʹab said to him: “You are not a man of news this day, and you must break the news on another day; but this day you must not break the news, for the very reason that* the king’s own son has died.”+ 21 Then Joʹab said to the Cushʹite:+ “Go, tell the king what you have seen.” At that the Cushʹite bowed to Joʹab and began to run. 22 A·himʹa·az the son of Zaʹdok now said once again to Joʹab: “Let, now, happen whatever will, let me also myself, please, run behind the Cushʹite.” However, Joʹab said: “Why is it that you yourself have to run, my son, when there is no news being found for you?” 23 [Still he said:]* “Let, now, happen whatever will, let me run.” So he said to him: “Run!” And A·himʹa·az began to run by the way of the District,*+ and he eventually passed by the Cushʹite.
24 Now David was sitting between the two gates.+ Meantime, the watchman+ went to the roof of the gate by the wall. At length he raised his eyes and saw and, look! there was a man running by himself. 25 So the watchman called and told the king, at which the king said: “If he is by himself, there is news in his mouth.” And he kept coming, steadily getting nearer. 26 The watchman now saw another man running. The watchman therefore called to the gatekeeper and said: “Look! Another man running by himself!” at which the king said: “This one also is a news bearer.” 27 And the watchman went on to say: “I am seeing that the running style of the first is like the running style+ of A·himʹa·az+ the son of Zaʹdok,” at which the king said: “This is a good man,+ and with good news+ he should come.” 28 Eventually A·himʹa·az called and said to the king: “It is well!”* With that he bowed to the king with his face to the earth. And he went on to say: “Blessed+ be Jehovah your God, who has surrendered+ the men that lifted up their hand against my lord the king!”
29 However, the king said: “Is it well with the young man Abʹsa·lom?” To this A·himʹa·az said: “I saw the great commotion at the time Joʹab sent the king’s servant and your servant, and I did not know what it was.”+ 30 So the king said: “Step aside, take your position here.” At that he stepped aside and kept standing still.
31 And here was the Cushʹite+ coming in, and the Cushʹite began to say: “Let my lord the king accept news, for Jehovah has judged you today [to free you] from the hand of all those rising up against you.”+ 32 But the king said to the Cushʹite: “Is it well with the young man Abʹsa·lom?” To this the Cushʹite said: “May the enemies of my lord the king and all those who rose up against you for evil become as the young man.”*+
33 Then the king became disturbed and went up to the roof chamber+ over the gateway and gave way to weeping; and this is what he said as he walked: “My son Abʹsa·lom, my son, my son+ Abʹsa·lom! O that I might have died, I myself, instead of you, Abʹsa·lom my son, my son!”+
19 Later it was reported to Joʹab: “Look! The king is weeping, and he carries on mourning over Abʹsa·lom.”+ 2 So the salvation on that day came to be an occasion of mourning on the part of all the people, because the people heard say on that day: “The king has felt hurt over his son.” 3 And the people began to steal away on that day to come into the city,+ just as the people would steal away when they felt disgraced because they fled in the battle. 4 And the king himself covered up his face, and the king continued crying out with a loud voice: “My son Abʹsa·lom! Abʹsa·lom my son, my son!”+
5 Finally Joʹab came in to the king at the house and said: “You have today put to shame the face of all your servants, the ones providing escape for your soul today+ and for the soul of your sons+ and your daughters+ and the soul of your wives+ and the soul of your concubines,+ 6 by loving those hating you and by hating those loving you; for you have reported today that chiefs and servants are nothing to you, because I well know today that if only Abʹsa·lom were alive and all of us others were today dead, why, in that case it would be right in your eyes. 7 And now rise up, go out and speak straight to the heart+ of your servants, because, by Jehovah, I do swear that, in case you are not going out, not a man will lodge with you tonight;+ and this will certainly be worse for you than all the injury that has come upon you from your youth until now.” 8 Accordingly the king rose up and seated himself in the gate,+ and to all the people they made the report, saying: “There is the king sitting in the gate.” And all the people began to come before the king.
As for Israel, they had fled each one to his home.*+ 9 And all the people came to be involved in dispute in all the tribes of Israel, saying: “It was the king that delivered us out of the palm of our enemies,+ and he it was that provided escape for us out of the palm of the Phi·lisʹtines; and now he has run away out of the land from Abʹsa·lom.+ 10 As for Abʹsa·lom, whom we anointed over us,+ he has died in the battle.+ So now why are YOU doing nothing to bring the king back?”+
11 As for King David, he sent to Zaʹdok+ and A·biʹa·thar+ the priests, saying: “SPEAK to the older men of Judah,+ saying, ‘Why should YOU become the last ones to bring the king back to his house, when the word of all Israel itself has come to the king at his house? 12 My brothers YOU are; my bone and my flesh YOU are.+ So why should YOU become the last ones to bring the king back?’ 13 And to A·maʹsa YOU should say,+ ‘Are you not my bone and my flesh? So may God do to me and so may he add to it+ if you will not become the army chief before me always instead of Joʹab.’”+
14 And he proceeded to bend the heart of all the men of Judah as one man,+ so that they sent word to the king: “Come back, you and all your servants.”
15 And the king began to go back and got to come as far as the Jordan. As for Judah, they came to Gilʹgal+ to go and meet the king, to conduct the king across the Jordan. 16 Then Shimʹe·i+ the son of Geʹra+ the Benʹja·min·ite, who was from Ba·huʹrim,+ hurried and went down with the men of Judah to meet King David. 17 And there were with him a thousand men from Benjamin. (And also Ziʹba+ the attendant of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons+ and twenty servants of his were with him, and they made it successfully* to the Jordan before the king. 18 And he* crossed the ford+ to conduct the household of the king across and to do what was good in his eyes.) As for Shimʹe·i the son of Geʹra, he fell down before the king when he was about to cross the Jordan.+ 19 He now said to the king: “Do not let my lord attribute error to me, and do not remember the wrong that your servant did+ on the day that my lord the king went out* of Jerusalem, so that the king should lay it to his heart.+ 20 For your servant well knows that I am the one that sinned; and so here I have today come the first of all the house of Joseph+ to go down to meet my lord the king.”
21 At once A·bishʹai+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah+ answered and said: “In return for this should not Shimʹe·i be put to death, in that he called evil down upon the anointed* of Jehovah?”+ 22 But David said: “What do I have to do with YOU men,*+ you sons of Ze·ruʹiah, that YOU should become today a resister*+ of me? Will anyone today be put to death in Israel?+ For do I not well know that today I am king over Israel?” 23 Then the king said to Shimʹe·i: “You will not die.” And the king went on to swear to him.+
24 As for Me·phibʹo·sheth+ the grandson of Saul,* he came down to meet the king; and he had not attended to his feet+ nor had he attended to his mustache+ nor had he washed his garments from the day that the king went away until the day that he came in peace. 25 And it came about that, when he came to Jerusalem to meet the king, then the king said to him: “Why did you not go with me, Me·phibʹo·sheth?” 26 To this he said: “My lord the king, it was my servant+ that tricked me. For your servant had said, ‘Let me saddle the female ass for me that I may ride upon it and go with* the king,’ for your servant is lame.+ 27 So he slandered+ your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an angel+ of the [true] God, and so do what is good in your eyes. 28 For all the household of my father would have become nothing but doomed to death* to my lord the king, and yet you placed your servant among those eating at your table.+ So what do I still have as a just claim even for crying+ out further to the king?”
29 However, the king said to him: “Why do you yet keep speaking your words? I do say, You and Ziʹba should share in the field.”+ 30 At this Me·phibʹo·sheth said to the king: “Let him even take the whole,+ now that my lord the king has come in peace to his house.”
31 And Bar·zilʹlai+ the Gilʹe·ad·ite himself came down from Ro·geʹlim that he might pass on to the Jordan with the king so as to escort him to the Jordan. 32 And Bar·zilʹlai was very old, being eighty years of age;+ and he himself supplied the king with food while he was dwelling in Ma·ha·naʹim,+ for he was a very great+ man. 33 So the king said to Bar·zilʹlai: “You yourself cross over with me, and I shall certainly supply you with food with me in Jerusalem.”+ 34 But Bar·zilʹlai said to the king: “What are the days of the years of my life like, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35 I am eighty years old today.+ Could I discern between good and bad, or could your servant taste what I ate and what I drank,+ or could I listen+ anymore to the voice of male and female singers?+ So why should your servant become a burden+ anymore to my lord the king? 36 For it is just a little way that your servant could bring the king along to the Jordan, and why should the king repay me with this reward?+ 37 Let your servant return, please, and let me die+ in my city close by the burial place of my father and my mother.+ But here is your servant Chimʹham.+ Let him cross over with my lord the king; and you do to him what is good in your eyes.”
38 Accordingly the king said: “With me Chimʹham will go across, and I myself shall do to him what is good in your eyes; and all that you may choose [to lay] upon me I shall do for you.” 39 All the people now began to cross the Jordan, and the king himself crossed; but the king kissed+ Bar·zilʹlai and blessed+ him, after which he returned to his place. 40 When the king went across to Gilʹgal,+ Chimʹham himself crossed with him, and also all the people of Judah, and also half the people of Israel, that they might bring the king across.
41 And, look! all the men of Israel were coming to the king, and they proceeded to say to the king: “Why did+ our brothers the men of Judah steal you that they might bring the king and his household and all the men of David with him over the Jordan?”+ 42 At this all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel: “Because the king is closely related to us;*+ and why is it that you have become angry over this thing? Have we eaten at all at the king’s expense, or has a gift been carried to us?”
43 However, the men of Israel answered the men of Judah and said: “We* have ten parts in the king,+ so that even in David we are more than you.* Why, then, have you treated us* with contempt, and why did not our* matter become first+ for us to bring our king back?” But the word of the men of Judah was more severe than the word of the men of Israel.
20 Now there happened to be there a good-for-nothing man,*+ whose name was Sheʹba,+ the son of Bichʹri a Benʹja·min·ite; and he proceeded to blow the horn+ and say: “We have no share in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesʹse.+ Every one to his gods,*+ O Israel!” 2 At that all the men of Israel began to go up from following David to follow Sheʹba the son of Bichʹri;+ but as for the men of Judah, they stuck to their king from the Jordan to Jerusalem.+
3 Eventually David came to his house at Jerusalem.+ Then the king took the ten women,+ the concubines whom he had left behind to take care of the house, and he put them in a house of confinement, but he kept on supplying food to them. And with them he did not have any relations,+ but they continued shut up closely until the day of their dying, in a widowhood with a living [husband].*
4 The king now said to A·maʹsa:+ “Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and you yourself stand here.” 5 So A·maʹsa went to call Judah together; but he came later than the fixed time that he had appointed for him. 6 Then David said to A·bishʹai:+ “Now Sheʹba+ the son of Bichʹri will be worse for us than Abʹsa·lom.+ You yourself take the servants+ of your lord and chase after him, that he may not actually find for himself fortified cities and escape before our eyes.”* 7 Accordingly the men of Joʹab+ and the Cherʹe·thites+ and the Pelʹe·thites+ and all the mighty men went out after him; and they went on out of Jerusalem to chase after Sheʹba the son of Bichʹri. 8 They were close by the great stone that is in Gibʹe·on,+ and A·maʹsa+ himself came to meet them. Now Joʹab was girded, clothed with a garment; and upon him there was girded a sword attached to his hip, in its sheath. And he himself came forth, and so it* fell out.
9 And Joʹab proceeded to say to A·maʹsa: “Is it all right with you, my brother?”+ Then Joʹab’s right hand took hold of A·maʹsa’s beard so as to kiss him.+ 10 As for A·maʹsa, he was not on guard against the sword that was in Joʹab’s hand; so that he struck him+ with it in the abdomen, and his intestines spilled out to the earth, and he did not have to do it to him again. So he died. And Joʹab and A·bishʹai his brother, for their part, chased after Sheʹba the son of Bichʹri.
11 And a certain one of Joʹab’s young men stood over him and kept saying: “Whoever has found delight in Joʹab and whoever belongs to David,+ let him follow Joʹab!” 12 All the while A·maʹsa was wallowing in the blood+ in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, then he moved A·maʹsa from the highway to the field. Finally he cast a garment over him, as he saw that everyone coming up to him stood still.+ 13 As soon as he had removed him from the highway, each man passed by following Joʹab to chase after Sheʹba+ the son of Bichʹri.
14 And [Sheʹba] went passing through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maʹa·cah.+ As for all the Bichʹrites,* they then congregated together and also went in after him.
15 And they proceeded to come and lay siege against him in Abel of Beth-maʹa·cah and cast up a siege rampart against the city,+ as it was standing within a rampart. And all the people that were with Joʹab were undermining the wall, to throw it down. 16 And a wise woman+ began to call from the city: “Listen, men, listen! Say, please, to Joʹab, ‘Come near as far as here, and let me speak to you.’” 17 So he went near to her, and the woman then said: “Are you Joʹab?” to which he said: “I am.” At this she said to him: “Listen to the words of your slave girl.”+ In turn he said: “I am listening.” 18 And she went on to say: “Without exception they used to speak in former times, saying, ‘Let them but inquire in Abel, and thus they will certainly end the matter.’ 19 I represent the peaceable+ and faithful+ ones of Israel. You are seeking to put to death a city+ and a mother in Israel. Why should you swallow+ up the inheritance+ of Jehovah?” 20 To this Joʹab answered and said: “It is altogether unthinkable on my part that I should swallow up and that I should bring to ruin. 21 The matter is not that way, but a man from the mountainous region of Eʹphra·im,+ whose name is Sheʹba+ the son of Bichʹri, has lifted up his hand against King David.+ YOU people, give him over by himself,+ and I will withdraw from the city.”+ Then the woman said to Joʹab: “Look! His head+ [will be] pitched to you over the wall!”
22 At once the woman went in her wisdom+ to all the people, and they proceeded to cut off the head of Sheʹba the son of Bichʹri and pitch it to Joʹab. Upon that he blew the horn,+ and so they were scattered from the city, each one to his home;* and Joʹab himself returned to Jerusalem to the king.
23 And Joʹab was over all the army+ of Israel; and Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da+ was over the Cherʹe·thites+ and over the Pelʹe·thites.+ 24 And A·doʹram+ was over those conscripted for forced labor; and Je·hoshʹa·phat+ the son of A·hiʹlud was the recorder.* 25 And Sheʹva+ was secretary,+ and Zaʹdok+ and A·biʹa·thar+ were priests. 26 And Iʹra the Jaʹir·ite also became a priest*+ of David.
21 Now there came to be a famine+ in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David proceeded to consult the face of Jehovah. Then Jehovah said: “Upon Saul and upon his house there is bloodguilt,* because he put the Gibʹe·on·ites to death.”+ 2 So the king called the Gibʹe·on·ites+ and talked to them. (Incidentally, the Gibʹe·on·ites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remainder of the Amʹor·ites;+ and the sons of Israel themselves had sworn to them,+ but Saul sought to strike+ them down in his feeling jealous+ for the sons of Israel and Judah.) 3 And David went on to say to the Gibʹe·on·ites: “What shall I do to YOU, and with what shall I make atonement,*+ that YOU may certainly bless the inheritance+ of Jehovah?” 4 So the Gibʹe·on·ites said to him: “It is not a matter of silver or gold+ for us* in connection with Saul and his household, neither is it ours to put a man to death in Israel.” At that he said: “Whatever YOU are saying I shall do for YOU.” 5 At this they said to the king: “The man that exterminated+ us and that schemed+ to annihilate us from subsisting in any of the territory of Israel, 6 let there be given to us seven men of his sons;+ and we must expose*+ them to Jehovah in Gibʹe·ah+ of Saul, the chosen one* of Jehovah.”+ Accordingly the king said: “I myself shall give them.”
7 However, the king felt compassion upon Me·phibʹo·sheth+ the son of Jonʹa·than the son of Saul on account of the oath+ of Jehovah that was between them, between David and Jonʹa·than the son of Saul. 8 Consequently the king took the two sons of Rizʹpah+ the daughter of Aʹiah whom she bore to Saul, Ar·moʹni and Me·phibʹo·sheth, and the five sons of Miʹchal*+ the daughter of Saul whom she bore to Aʹdri·el+ the son of Bar·zilʹlai the Me·holʹath·ite. 9 Then he gave them into the hand of the Gibʹe·on·ites and they proceeded to expose them on the mountain before Jehovah,+ so that the seven of them fell together; and they themselves were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the start of the barley harvest.+ 10 However, Rizʹpah the daughter of Aʹiah+ took sackcloth+ and spread it for herself upon the rock from the start of harvest until water poured down upon them from the heavens;+ and she did not allow the fowls+ of the heavens to rest upon them by day nor the wild beasts+ of the field by night.
11 At length it was reported+ to David what Rizʹpah the daughter of Aʹiah, Saul’s concubine, had done. 12 So David went and took the bones of Saul+ and the bones of Jonʹa·than his son from the landowners of Jaʹbesh-gilʹe·ad,+ who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan,+ where the Phi·lisʹtines had hanged+ them on the day that the Phi·lisʹtines struck down Saul on Gil·boʹa.+ 13 And he proceeded to bring up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonʹa·than his son; furthermore, they gathered the bones of the men being exposed.+ 14 Then they buried the bones of Saul and of Jonʹa·than his son* in the land of Benjamin in Zeʹla*+ in the burial place of Kish+ his father, that they might do everything that the king had commanded. So God let himself be entreated for the land after this.+
15 And the Phi·lisʹtines+ came to have war again with Israel. Accordingly David and his servants with him went down and fought the Phi·lisʹtines; and David grew tired. 16 And Ishʹbi-beʹnob, who was among those born of the Rephʹa·im,*+ the weight of whose spear+ was three hundred shekels* of copper and who was girded with a new sword,* got to think of striking David down. 17 At once A·bishʹai+ the son of Ze·ruʹiah came to his help+ and struck the Phi·lisʹtine down and put him to death. At that time the men of David swore to him, saying: “You must not go out with us to the battle anymore,+ that you may not extinguish+ the lamp+ of Israel!”
18 And it came about after this that war arose once more with the Phi·lisʹtines at Gob.* Then it was that Sibʹbe·cai+ the Huʹshath·ite+ struck down Saph, who was among those born of the Rephʹa·im.+
19 And war arose once again with the Phi·lisʹtines at Gob, and El·haʹnan+ the son of Jaʹa·re-orʹe·gim the Bethʹle·hem·ite got to strike down Go·liʹath* the Gitʹtite,* the shaft of whose spear was like the beam of loom workers.+
20 And war arose yet again at Gath,+ when there happened to be a man of extraordinary size, with six fingers on each of his hands and six toes on each of his feet, twenty-four in number; and he too had been born to the Rephʹa·im.+ 21 And he kept taunting+ Israel. Finally Jonʹa·than+ the son of Shimʹe·i,*+ David’s brother, struck him down.
22 These four had been born to the Rephʹa·im in Gath;+ and they came to fall by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.+
22 And David proceeded to speak to Jehovah the words of this song+ in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the palm of all his enemies+ and out of Saul’s palm;+ 2 and he went on to say:
“Jehovah is my crag+ and my stronghold+ and the Provider of escape for me.+
3 My God is my rock.+ I shall take refuge in him,
My shield+ and my horn+ of salvation, my secure height,+
And my place for flight,+ my Savior;+ from violence you save me.+
5 For deadly breaking waves encircled me;+
There were flash floods of good-for-nothing [men] that kept terrifying me.+
7 In my distress I kept calling upon Jehovah,+
And to my God I kept calling.+
Then out of his temple he heard my voice,+
With my cry for help in his ears.+
8 And back and forth the earth began to shake and to rock;+
The foundations of the heavens themselves became agitated,+
And they kept shaking back and forth because he had been angered.+
9 Smoke went up at his nostrils, and fire itself from his mouth kept devouring;+
Coals themselves blazed up from him.+
13 From the brightness in front of him burning coals of fire blazed up.+
15 And he kept sending out arrows, that he might scatter them;+
Lightning, that he might throw them into confusion.+
16 And the streambeds of the sea became visible,+
The foundations of the productive land*+ became uncovered,
At the rebuke of Jehovah, from the blast of the breath* of his nostrils.+
18 He was delivering me from my strong enemy,+
From those hating me; because they were stronger than I was.+
20 And he proceeded to bring me out into a roomy place;+
He was rescuing me, because he had found delight in me.+
21 Jehovah rewards me according to my righteousness;+
According to the cleanness of my hands he repays me.+
23 For all his judicial decisions+ are in front of me;
And as for his statutes, I shall not turn aside from them.*+
25 And let Jehovah repay me according to my righteousness,+
According to my cleanness in front of his eyes.+
26 With someone loyal you will act in loyalty;+
With the faultless, mighty one you will deal faultlessly;+
27 With the one keeping clean you will show yourself clean,+
And with the crooked one you will act as silly.+
28 And the humble people you will save;+
But your eyes are against the haughty ones, [that] you may bring [them] low.*+
31 As for the [true] God, perfect is his way;+
The saying of Jehovah is a refined one.+
A shield he is to all those taking refuge in him.+
33 The [true] God is my strong fortress,*+
And he will cause my way to be perfect,+
34 Making* my feet like those of the hinds;+
And upon places high for me he keeps me standing.+
38 I will pursue my enemies, that I may annihilate them,
And I shall not return until they are exterminated.+
39 And I shall exterminate them and break them in pieces,+ that they may not rise up;+
And they will fall under my feet.+
40 And you will gird me with vital energy for the battle;+
You will make those rising against me collapse under me.+
41 And as for my enemies, you will certainly give me the back of their neck;+
Those hating me intensely—I shall also silence them.+
43 And I shall pound them fine like the dust of the earth;
Like the mire of the streets I shall pulverize them;+
I shall beat them flat.
44 And you will provide me escape from the faultfinding of my people.+
You will safeguard me to be the head of nations;+
A people that I have not known—they will serve me.+
47 Jehovah is living;+ and blessed be my Rock;+
And let the God of the rock of my salvation be exalted.+
48 The [true] God is the Giver of acts of vengeance to me+
And the One bringing the peoples down under me,+
49 And the One bringing me out from my enemies.+
And above those who rise up against me you will lift me up;+
From the man of violent deeds you will deliver me.+
50 That is why I shall thank you, O Jehovah, among the nations;+
And to your name I shall make melody:+
51 The One doing great acts of salvation for his king+
23 And these are the last words of David:+
“The utterance of David the son of Jesʹse,+
And the utterance of the able-bodied man* that was raised up on high,+
The anointed+ of the God of Jacob,
3 The God of Israel said,
To me the Rock of Israel spoke,+
‘When one ruling over mankind is righteous,+
Ruling in the fear of God,+
4 Then it is as the light of morning, when the sun shines forth,+
A morning without clouds.
From brightness, from rain, there is grass out of the earth.’+
5 For is not my household like that with God?*+
Because it is an indefinitely lasting covenant*+ that he has assigned to me,
Nicely put in order in everything and secured.+
Because it is all my salvation+ and all my delight,
Is that not why he will make it grow?+
6 But good-for-nothing persons+ are chased away,+ like thornbushes,+ all of them;
For it is not by the hand that they should be taken.
7 When a man touches them
He should be fully armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
8 These are the names of the mighty+ men that belonged to David: Joʹsheb-bas·sheʹbeth+ a Tah·cheʹmo·nite, the head of the three.* He was brandishing his spear* over eight hundred slain at one time. 9 Next to him El·e·aʹzar+ the son of Doʹdo+ the son of A·hoʹhi was among the three mighty men with David when they taunted the Phi·lisʹtines. They* had gathered themselves there for the battle, and so the men of Israel retreated.+ 10 He it was that rose up and kept striking down the Phi·lisʹtines until his hand wearied and his hand kept cleaving to the sword,+ so that Jehovah performed a great salvation on that day;+ and as for the people, they returned behind him only to strip [those struck down].+
11 And next to him was Shamʹmah the son of Aʹgee the Harʹa·rite.+ And the Phi·lisʹtines proceeded to gather themselves to Leʹhi, where there then happened to be a tract of the field full of lentils;+ and the people themselves fled because of the Phi·lisʹtines. 12 But he took his stand in the middle of the tract and delivered it and kept striking down the Phi·lisʹtines, so that Jehovah performed a great salvation.+
13 And three of the thirty head ones+ proceeded to go down and come at [the] harvest,* to David at the cave of A·dulʹlam;+ and a tent village of the Phi·lisʹtines was encamped in the low plain of the Rephʹa·im.*+ 14 And David was then in the place hard to approach;+ and an outpost+ of the Phi·lisʹtines was then in Bethʹle·hem. 15 After a while David expressed his craving and said: “O that I might have a drink of the water from the cistern of Bethʹle·hem that is at the gate!”+ 16 At that the three mighty men forced their way into the camp of the Phi·lisʹtines and drew water from the cistern of Bethʹle·hem that is at the gate and came carrying and bringing it to David;+ and he did not consent to drink it, but poured+ it out to Jehovah. 17 And he went on to say: “It is unthinkable on my part,+ O Jehovah, that I should do this! [Shall I drink]* the blood+ of the men going at the risk of their souls?” And he did not consent to drink it.
These are the things the three mighty men did.
18 As for A·bishʹai+ the brother of Joʹab the son of Ze·ruʹiah,+ he was the head of the thirty,* and he was brandishing his spear over three hundred slain ones, and he had a reputation like the three.+ 19 Although he was distinguished even more than the rest of the thirty,* and he came to be their chief, to the rank of the [first] three he did not come.+
20 As for Be·naiʹah*+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da+ the son of a valiant man, who did many deeds in Kabʹze·el,+ he himself struck down the two sons of Arʹi·el of Moʹab; and he himself descended and struck down a lion*+ inside a waterpit on a day of snowfall.+ 21 And he it was that struck down the Egyptian man that was of extraordinary size.*+ Though there was a spear in the hand of the Egyptian, yet he went on down to him with a rod and snatched the spear away from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.+ 22 These things Be·naiʹah+ the son of Je·hoiʹa·da did; and he had a reputation like the three mighty men.+ 23 Although he was distinguished even more than the thirty, to the rank of the three he did not come; but David appointed him to his own bodyguard.+
24 Asʹa·hel+ the brother of Joʹab was among the thirty; El·haʹnan+ the son of Doʹdo of Bethʹle·hem, 25 Shamʹmah+ the Haʹrod·ite, E·liʹka the Haʹrod·ite, 26 Heʹlez+ the Palʹtite, Iʹra+ the son of Ikʹkesh+ the Te·koʹite, 27 Abi-eʹzer+ the Anʹa·thoth·ite,+ Me·bunʹnai the Huʹshath·ite,+ 28 Zalʹmon the A·hoʹhite,+ Maʹha·rai+ the Ne·tophʹa·thite, 29 Heʹleb+ the son of Baʹa·nah the Ne·tophʹa·thite, Itʹtai+ the son of Riʹbai of Gibʹe·ah of the sons of Benjamin, 30 Be·naiʹah+ a Pirʹa·thon·ite, Hidʹdai of the torrent valleys of Gaʹash,+ 31 Aʹbi-alʹbon the Arʹbath·ite, Azʹma·veth+ the Bar-huʹmite, 32 E·liʹah·ba the Sha·alʹbo·nite, the sons of Jaʹshen, Jonʹa·than,+ 33 Shamʹmah the Harʹa·rite, A·hiʹam+ the son of Shaʹrar the Harʹa·rite, 34 E·liphʹe·let the son of A·hasʹbai the son of the Ma·acʹa·thite, E·liʹam the son of A·hithʹo·phel+ the Giʹlon·ite, 35 Hezʹro+ the Carʹmel·ite, Paʹa·rai the Arʹbite, 36 Iʹgal the son of Nathan+ of Zoʹbah, Baʹni the Gadʹite, 37 Zeʹlek+ the Amʹmon·ite, Naʹha·rai the Be·erʹoth·ite, armor-bearers of Joʹab the son of Ze·ruʹiah, 38 Iʹra the Ithʹrite,+ Gaʹreb+ the Ithʹrite, 39 U·riʹah+ the Hitʹtite—thirty-seven in all.
24 And again+ the anger of Jehovah came to be hot against Israel, when one* incited David* against them, saying: “Go, take a count+ of Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joʹab+ the chief* of the military forces who was with him:* “Move about, please, through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beʹer-sheʹba,+ and YOU men register the people,+ and I shall certainly know the number of the people.”+ 3 But Joʹab said to the king: “May Jehovah your God even add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the very eyes of my lord the king are seeing it. But as for my lord the king, why has he found delight in this thing?”+
4 Finally the king’s word prevailed+ upon Joʹab and the chiefs of the military forces. So Joʹab and the chiefs of the military forces went out from before the king to register+ the people Israel. 5 Then they crossed the Jordan and took up camping at A·roʹer+ to the right of the city* that is in the middle of the torrent valley, toward the Gadʹites,+ and to Jaʹzer.+ 6 After that they came on to Gilʹe·ad+ and the land of Tahʹtim-hodʹshi* and continued on to Dan-jaʹan and went around to Siʹdon.+ 7 Then they came to the fortress of Tyre+ and all the cities of the Hiʹvites+ and of the Caʹnaan·ites and came to the terminating point in the Negʹeb+ of Judah at Beʹer-sheʹba.+ 8 Thus they went moving about through all the land and came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Joʹab now gave the number of the registration+ of the people to the king; and Israel amounted to eight hundred thousand valiant men drawing sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.+
10 And David’s heart began to beat+ him after he had so numbered the people. Consequently David said to Jehovah: “I have sinned+ very much in what I have done. And now, Jehovah, let your servant’s error pass by,+ please; for I have acted very foolishly.”+ 11 When David proceeded to rise up in the morning, Jehovah’s word itself came to Gad+ the prophet, David’s visionary,+ saying: 12 “Go,* and you must say to David, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Three things I am laying upon you.+ Choose for yourself one of them that I may do it to you.”’”+ 13 Accordingly Gad came in to David and told him and said to him:+ “Should there come to you seven* years of famine in your land,+ or three months of your fleeing before your adversaries,+ with them pursuing you, or the occurring of three days of pestilence* in your land?+ Now know and see what I shall reply to the One sending me.” 14 So David said to Gad: “It is very distressing to me. Let us fall, please, into the hand of Jehovah,+ for many are his mercies;+ but into the hand of man* do not let me fall.”*+
15 Then Jehovah gave a pestilence+ in Israel from the morning until the time appointed, so that out of the people from Dan to Beʹer-sheʹba+ seventy thousand persons died.+ 16 And the angel+ kept his hand thrust out toward Jerusalem to bring it to ruin; and Jehovah began to feel regret+ over the calamity, and so he said to the angel that was bringing ruin among the people: “It is enough! Now let your hand drop.” And Jehovah’s angel himself happened to be close by the threshing floor of A·rauʹnah+ the Jebʹu·site.+
17 And David proceeded to say to Jehovah, when he saw the angel that was striking the people down, yes, he proceeded to say: “Here it is I that have sinned and it is I that have done wrong; but these sheep+—what have they done? Let your hand, please, come upon me+ and upon the house of my father.”
18 Later Gad came in to David on that day and said to him: “Go up, set up for Jehovah an altar on the threshing floor of A·rauʹnah the Jebʹu·site.”+ 19 And David began to go up in accord with the word of Gad, according to what Jehovah had commanded.+ 20 When A·rauʹnah looked down and saw the king and his servants passing along toward him, A·rauʹnah at once went out and bowed+ down to the king with his face to the earth.+ 21 Then A·rauʹnah said: “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” At that David said: “To buy+ from you the threshing floor for building an altar to Jehovah, that the scourge+ may be halted from upon the people.” 22 But A·rauʹnah said to David: “Let my lord the king take it+ and offer up what is good in his eyes. See the cattle for the burnt offering and the threshing sledge and the implements of the cattle for the wood.+ 23 Everything A·rauʹnah, O king,* does give to the king.” And A·rauʹnah went on to say to the king: “May Jehovah your God show pleasure in you.”+
24 However, the king said to A·rauʹnah: “No, but without fail I shall buy it from you for a price;+ and I shall not offer up to Jehovah my God burnt sacrifices without cost.”+ Accordingly David bought+ the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty silver shekels.* 25 And David proceeded to build there an altar+ to Jehovah and offer up burnt sacrifices and communion sacrifices, and Jehovah began letting himself be entreated+ for the land, so that the scourge was halted from upon Israel.
“The Amalekites,” Sy and five Heb. mss; MLXXVg, “Amalek.”
Or, “chariots.”
“Giddiness,” Sy; meaning is uncertain in M.
“Jehovah,” MSyVg; LXX, “Judah.”
“Anointed of.” Heb., meshiʹach; Gr., khri·stonʹ; Syr., lam·shi·cheh; Lat., chriʹstum.
Lit., “Your bloods.”
Or, “the Upright One.”
“Fields of firstfruits,” LXXVg.
Or, “rejected with loathing.”
“Than the lions.” Heb., me·ʼara·yohthʹ, African lions.
Or, “loyal love.”
“Your lord.” Heb., ʼadho·neh·khemʹ, pl. to denote excellence. See Ge 39:2 ftn.
Or, “truth.”
“Bring him out of the camp,” LXX.
“Geshurites,” SyVg; T, “Asherites.”
“Went out from Hebron,” LXX.
Meaning “Field of Flint Knives”; or, by an emendation, “Field of Sides.” Compare Jos 5:2 ftn.
“Following me lest I strike,” LXX.
Or, “the hinder part,” possibly striking with a backward movement of the spear.
“The [true] God.” See App 1F.
“Ish-bosheth,” LXXBagsterSyVg; M, “he.”
“Her husband,” LXXSyVg; M, “a man.”
“Palti” in 1Sa 25:44.
“You sent him off that he might go in peace? (25) Or do you not really know the badness of Abner the son of Ner?” LXX.
“Belong to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul,” LXXBagster.
Or, “elders.”
“Over Israel,” MSyVg; LXX, “over Israel as a whole.”
Lit., “the Millo (filling).” Heb., ham·mil·lohʼʹ. Possibly a citadellike structure.
“And Jehovah the God of armies.” Heb., wa·Yhwahʹ ʼElo·hehʹ tseva·ʼohthʹ; the first occurrence of this expression. See 1Ki 19:10, 14.
Meaning “Master of Breakings Through.”
“Idols,” MSyVg; LXX and 1Ch 14:12, “gods.”
“Baca bushes.” Heb., bekha·ʼimʹ, pl.; LXX, “place of weeping.”
“The marching” in 1Ch 14:15.
“From Geba.” Heb., mig·Geʹvaʽ; Gr., Ga·ba·onʹ; in 1Ch 14:16, “Gibeon.”
Or, “musical rattles.”
“Chidon” in 1Ch 13:9.
Meaning “Rupture Against Uzzah.”
“Empty-headed men,” M; LXX, “dancers.”
“It was before Jehovah, who,” M; LXX, “Before Jehovah I shall dance. Blessed be Jehovah, who.”
“My,” MSyVg; LXX, “your.”
“Tribes,” MSyVg; in 1Ch 17:6, “judges.”
Or, “of an earthling man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ; LXXSyVg, “of men.”
Or, “loyal love.”
“Mankind.” Heb., ha·ʼa·dhamʹ; LXX, “the man”; Lat., aʹdam.
“One,” MSy; LXX, “other.”
“For them,” four Heb. mss (compare TSyVg); M, “for you people.”
“To drive out,” in agreement with LXX and 1Ch 17:21; M, “for your land”; Vg, “upon the land (earth).”
“Jehovah God.” Heb., Yehwahʹ ʼElo·himʹ; the first occurrence since Ex 9:30.
Lit., “has found his heart.”
Or, “true.” Heb., ʼemethʹ.
“Making . . . lie down.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
Or, “gifts.”
“Hadadezer,” Al, Ca, Leningrad B 19A, many other Heb. mss and 1Ch 18:10; LXXSyVgc and about 55 Heb. mss, “Hadarezer.”
“Euphrates.” Only the vowel points appear in M, but the name appears in MmarginLXXSyVg and in about 45 Heb. mss. It is qere but not kethib (read but not written). Compare Jg 20:13 ftn.
Possibly, “teams.”
“Syria,” LXXVg; M, “Aram”; Sy, “Edom.”
“Toi,” M; LXX, “Thoou”; Vg, “Thou”; in 1Ch 18:9, 10, “Tou.”
Or, “bless.”
Or, “declared sacred.”
“The Edomites,” LXXSy, six Heb. mss and 1Ch 18:12; MVg, “Syria (Aram); the Syrians.”
Lit., “remembrancer.”
“And Ahimelech the son of Abiathar,” MLXXVg; Sy, “and Abiathar the son of Ahimelech.”
“And Benaiah.” Heb., u·Vena·yaʹhu.
“Was over,” TSyVg and 1Ch 18:17; MLXX, “and,” or “was with.”
“Priests,” MVg; LXX, “chiefs of the court”; Sy, “chiefs”; in 1Ch 18:17, “first in position at the side of the king.”
Or, “father.”
Or, “son.”
Lit., “bread.”
“For the household,” LXXL.
“Your master.” Heb., ʼadho·neyʹkha, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
“My table,” MVgc; LXX, “David’s table”; Sy, “table of the king.”
Lit., “a little (small) son.”
“City,” MLXXSyVg; in 1Ch 19:3, “land.”
Or, “men of Tob.”
“Gate,” MLXXSyVg; in 1Ch 19:9, “city.”
“Then they came to Helam,” MLXXSy; Vg, “he led their army there.”
Or, “it came about the next spring.”
Or, “and he caught sight of a woman bathing herself on a rooftop.”
“Ammiel” in 1Ch 3:5.
Or, “the king’s portion,” that is, the portion sent by the host to the honored guest. Compare Ge 43:34.
Lit., “is a son of death!”
“House,” MLXXVg; Sy, “daughters.”
“Treated Jehovah with disrespect” was the original reading. The text was emended (corrected) to read, “treated the enemies of Jehovah with disrespect.” See App 2B.
Lit., “and one proceeded to call his name Solomon,” M; MmarginTSy and a few Heb. mss, “and she proceeded to call his name Solomon.” “Solomon” means “Peaceable.” Compare 1Ch 22:9 ftns.
Meaning “Beloved of Jah.”
Probably, “the city of waters,” as in vs 27.
Possibly, “Milcom,” an idol god of the Ammonites. LXX, “Melchol their king”; Vg, “their king.”
About 34.2 kg (1101 oz t).
“He made them serve,” by a correction of one letter; M, “he made them pass [through].”
Lit., “Jonadab.” Other places in M he is called “Jehonadab.”
Evidently similar to doughnuts, fried in deep fat rather than baked in an oven.
“No, my brother; for,” LXXLIt.
“Hands,” LXXVg; M, “hand.”
LXX finishes the vs with: “And Absalom spread a feast like the feast of the king.”
“His mule.” Heb., pir·dohʹ; the first occurrence of this word.
“And all his servants that were standing about him ripped their outer garments apart,” LXXVg.
LXX adds: “And the lookout came near and announced to the king and said: ‘I have seen men from the way to Horonaim by the mountainside.’ ”
Inserted to identify the subject of the verb; SyVg, “David”; LXX, “King David”; M, “he.”
“The soul of,” inserted to agree with the fem. Heb. verb for “longed,” whereas “David the king” is masc.; LXX, “the spirit of the king.”
Lit., “failed [with longing] to go out.”
“Come in,” TLXXSyVg and many Heb. mss; M, “say.”
Lit., “between them.”
Or, “survivor.”
“Seeking to annihilate me,” LXX; M omits “seeking.”
“God,” MLXXSyVg; TLXXL, “Jehovah.”
“Here, now, you have done,” many Heb. mss.
About 2.3 kg (5 lb).
“Royal stone weight.” This may have been a standard weight kept at the royal palace or a “royal” shekel different from the common shekel. Compare Ex 30:13 ftn, “Place.”
“Falling,” in agreement with LXX, “and he fell”; M omits.
“Forty years,” MLXXVgc; LXXLSyVg, “four years.” Perhaps 40 years from the anointing of David. Compare 1Sa 16:13.
Lit., “in their innocence.”
“Sent for,” M; LXX, “sent and called.”
Meaning “The Far House.”
Lit., “had come at his feet,” that is, the feet of Ittai mentioned in vs 19.
“And may Jehovah exercise toward you,” in agreement with LXX; M omits.
Lit., “And all the land (earth).”
Possibly, “the king was standing by the torrent valley of Kidron, and all the people were crossing over before him by the way of the olive tree in the wilderness,” LXXLucian.
“By Abiathar,” by an emendation; M, “and Abiathar proceeded to go up.”
“By the fords,” M; MmarginLXXSyVg, “in the desert plains.”
“And they continued,” MSyVg; LXX, “and it continued.”
Or, “one; he.”
“Your master.” Heb., ʼadho·neyʹkha, pl. of ʼa·dhohnʹ, to denote excellence.
Lit., “man of the bloods.” Heb., ʼish had·da·mimʹ, pl.
Or, “and man of worthlessness.” Lit., “and man of the belial.” Heb., weʼishʹ hab·beli·yaʹʽal.
Lit., “What [is there] to me and to you men?” A Heb. idiom; a repellent question indicating objection to the action proposed by Abishai. See App 7B.
According to Mmargin; M, “In case he calls down evil and in case Jehovah has said to him, ‘Call down evil upon David!’ who, then?”
“With his eye.” One of the Eighteen Emendations. Here the Sopherim made the text read “on my error,” that is, on the error committed against me. LXXSyVg, “on my affliction.” See App 2B.
Or, “I shall prove to be.” Compare Ex 3:14.
See vs 18 ftn.
“A man,” 30 Heb. mss; in M only the vowel point appears. This is qere but not kethib (read but not written). See Jg 20:13 ftn.
“Of the word of the [true] God.” Heb., bidh·varʹ ha·ʼElo·himʹ. The definite article ha, “the,” preceding the title ʼElo·himʹ is for emphasis. This is the first occurrence of the expression. Many translators take bidh·varʹ (from da·varʹ, “word”) to be equivalent to devirʹ, “innermost room,” as in 1Ki 6:5. See App 1F.
Possibly, “Let me bring all the people back to you just as the bride returns to her husband. It is only the soul of one man that you are seeking, and all the people will themselves come to be at peace.” LXX agrees.
“The lion.” Heb., ha·ʼar·yehʹ, the African lion.
Lit., “and with your own face.”
Or, “into battle.” LXXSyVg, “in among them.”
Or, “for fear that it may be communicated to the king and to all the people that are with him.”
“Hanged himself,” LXX, as in Mt 27:5.
“Israelite,” MLXXSyVg; LXXA and 1Ch 2:17, “Ishmaelite.”
“Nahash,” MLXXSyVg; LXXL and 1Ch 2:12, 13, “Jesse.”
“Brought,” LXX.
“Ephraim,” MLXXVg; LXXL, “Mahanaim.”
Lit., “ears.”
Or, “weapons.” Lit., “rods.”
Lit., “tent.”
“For the very reason that.” Heb., ki-ʽa·leʹ. M is vowel-pointed to indicate the reading ki-ʽal-kenʹ as in some Heb. mss. This is qere but not kethib (read but not written). Compare Jg 20:13 ftn.
“Still he said,” LXXSyVg.
Or, “Basin.” See Ge 13:10 ftn, “District.”
“It is well!” Heb., sha·lohmʹ, “Peace!” Compare vss 29, 32.
MLXX end chapter 18 here.
Lit., “tents.”
Or, “they sped down.”
Possibly, “they.”
Lit., “[he] went out of.” Heb., ya·tsaʼʹ. Three dots appear over this word to indicate that ya·tsaʼʹtha, “[you] went out of,” is to be substituted in accord with another recension of the Heb. text and in harmony with the preceding expression tiz·korʹ, “[you] remember.” See App 2A.
“Anointed of.” Heb., meshiʹach; Gr., khri·stonʹ; Syr., lam·shi·cheh; Lat., chriʹsto.
Lit., “What [is there] to me and to you men?” A Heb. idiom; a repellent question indicating objection to the action proposed by Abishai. See App 7B.
“A resister.” Heb., lesa·tanʹ; Syr., sa·ta·naʼ; Lat., saʹtan.
“The son of the son of Saul,” LXXB; Sy, “the son of Jonathan the son of Saul”; MVg, “the son of Saul.”
“With,” MLXXSyVg; about 60 Heb. mss, “to.”
Lit., “nothing but men of death.”
Lit., “me,” in a collective sense.
Lit., “I,” in a collective sense.
“I have ten parts in the king, and I am the firstborn rather than you, and so in David I am above you,” LXX.
Lit., “me.”
Lit., “my.”
Or, “a scoundrel.” Lit., “a man of belial (worthlessness).”
“To his gods.” Lit., “to his tents.” Heb., leʼo·ha·lavʹ. One of the Eighteen Emendations of the Sopherim, the original Heb. text being alleged to have read leʼ·lo·havʹ (from ʼelo·himʹ, “gods” or “God”). See App 2B.
Lit., “[in] a widowhood of livingness,” M; LXX, “living widows”; Vg, “living in widowhood.”
Lit., “and snatch away our eyes.”
“It,” in agreement with LXX, which reads, “the sword.”
Lit., “Berites.”
Lit., “tents.”
Or, “remembrancer.”
See 8:18 ftn, “Priests.”
Lit., “the bloods.” Heb., had·da·mimʹ.
Or, “amends.”
Lit., “me,” M, in a collective sense; Mmargin, “us.”
“Expose,” M, that is, with arms and legs broken; LXX, “hang in the sun”; Sy, “sacrifice”; Vg, “crucify.”
“The chosen one,” M; LXX, “the ones chosen”; Vg, “the one once chosen.” Probably to be read, “on the mountain.” Compare vs 9.
“Merab,” LXXLSy and two Heb. mss. The Targums read: “The five sons of Merab (which Michal, Saul’s daughter, brought up) which she bare.” Compare 6:23.
LXX adds, “and of those hanged in the sun.”
Or, “Zelah.”
Lit., “the Raphah.” Heb., ha·Ra·phahʹ. The father’s name here is taken to stand for the entire race of giants.
About 3.42 kg (7.5 lb).
“A new sword,” MVg; Gr., ko·ryʹnen, “a club,” frequently shod with iron for fighting.
“Gezer” in 1Ch 20:4.
“The son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite got to strike down Goliath,” M; in 1Ch 20:5, “the son of Jair got to strike down Lahmi the brother of Goliath.”
Or, “Goliath the man of Gath.”
“Sheol.” Heb., sheʼohlʹ; Syr., da·shiul; Vgc(Lat.), in·ferʹni; Gr., tha·naʹtou, “death.” See App 4B.
Possibly, “he came darting,” by correcting one Heb. letter, and as in Ps 18:10 and many Heb. mss.
Or, “wings of wind.”
Lit., “darkness of waters.”
“Productive land.” Heb., te·velʹ; Gr., oi·kou·meʹnes, “inhabited earth,” the same word as in Mt 24:14; Lat., orʹbis, “[terrestrial] circle.”
“Breath of.” Heb., ruʹach; Gr., pneuʹma·tos.
Lit., “it,” fem.
Lit., “but your eyes you will lower against the haughty ones.”
“Who is a God,” M(Heb., mi-ʼElʹ)Vg; LXX, “who is a Strong One.”
“Our God.” Heb., ʼElo·hehʹnu; Gr., The·ouʹ; Lat., Deʹum.
In agreement with Ps 18:32, this text might be corrected to read: “The [true] God is girding me with vital energy.”
Or, “setting.”
Lit., “Sons of a foreign (country).”
Or, “loyal love.”
“To his anointed one.” Heb., lim·shi·chohʹ; Gr., khri·stoiʹ; Syr., lam·shi·cheh; Lat., chriʹsto.
Or, “offspring; posterity.”
“The able-bodied man.” Heb., hag·geʹver.
“Melodies of.” Heb., zemi·rohthʹ, that is, musically accompanied songs.
Or, “and the pleasant singer of Israel.”
“And his word.” Heb., u·mil·la·thohʹ (from mil·lahʹ), a word used only in poetry, as in Ps 19:4; Ps 139:4; Pr 23:9 and 34 times in Job.
“God.” Heb., ʼEl; Lat., Deʹum; LXX, “the Strong One.”
Or, “a covenant of indefinite time.”
M adds, “in the dwelling,” but this expression seems to have been inserted inadvertently because of the similar Heb. expression bash·sheʹveth in the next line.
“Three,” LXXL.
“He was brandishing his spear,” by a correction of M in agreement with 1Ch 11:11; M, “He was Adino the Eznite.”
“With David at Pas-dammim, where the Philistines,” in 1Ch 11:13.
“At [the] harvest,” M; LXXL and 1Ch 11:15, “to the rock.”
“Rephaim.” Heb., Repha·ʼimʹ; Gr., Rha·pha·imʹ; SyVg, “the giants.”
“Shall I drink?” LXX; missing from M as an aposiopesis (sudden silence).
“Thirty,” Sy and two Heb. mss; MLXXVg, “three.”
“Thirty,” in agreement with vs 18; MLXXVg, “three.”
Lit., “Benaiahu.”
Lit., “the lion.” Heb., ha·ʼarihʹ, the African lion.
“Of extraordinary size,” in agreement with 1Ch 11:23; MLXX, “of appearance.”
Or, “he.” See 1Ch 21:1.
Or, “when David was incited.”
“Chief of.” Heb., sar; LXX, “ruler”; Vg, “prince.”
“To Joab and to the chiefs of the military forces who were with him,” LXXL. See vs 4; 1Ch 21:2.
“Took up camping at Aroer to the right of the city,” M; LXXL, “began at Aroer and at the city”; Vg, “came to Aroer at the right of the city.”
“Land of Tahtim-hodshi,” M; LXXL, “land of the Hittites toward Kadesh.”
Lit., “There will be a going.” In Heb. this is a verb in the infinitive absolute, indefinite as to time and impersonal.
“Seven,” MSyVg; LXX and 1Ch 21:12, “three.”
Or, “(bubonic) plague.” Lat., pe·sti·lenʹti·a; LXX, “death (deadly plague).”
“Man.” Heb., ʼa·dhamʹ.
LXX adds: “And David made his choice of the deadly plague. (15) And it was the days of the wheat harvest.”
Or, “Everything Araunah as a king.”
To calculate value, see App 8A.