2 Samuel 19

• 1. Word soon reached Joab that the king was weeping and mourning for Absalom.
• 2. As the troops heard of the king's deep grief for his son, the joy of that day's victory was turned into deep sadness.
• 3. They crept back into the city as though they were ashamed and had been beaten in battle.
• 4. The king covered his face with his hands and kept on weeping, "O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!"
• 5. Then Joab went to the king's room and said to him, "We saved your life today and the lives of your sons, your daughters, and your wives and concubines. Yet you act like this, making us feel ashamed, as though we had done something wrong.
• 6. You seem to love those who hate you and hate those who love you. You have made it clear today that we mean nothing to you. If Absalom had lived and all of us had died, you would be pleased.
• 7. Now go out there and congratulate the troops, for I swear by the LORD that if you don't, not a single one of them will remain here tonight. Then you will be worse off than you have ever been."
• 8. So the king went out and sat at the city gate, and as the news spread throughout the city that he was there, everyone went to him. Meanwhile, the Israelites who supported Absalom had fled to their homes.
• 9. And throughout the tribes of Israel there was much discussion and argument going on. The people were saying, "The king saved us from our enemies, the Philistines, but Absalom chased him out of the country.
• 10. Now Absalom, whom we anointed to rule over us, is dead. Let's ask David to come back and be our king again."
• 11. Then King David sent Zadok and Abiathar, the priests, to say to the leaders of Judah, "Why are you the last ones to reinstate the king? For I have heard that all Israel is ready, and only you are holding out.
• 12. Yet you are my relatives, my own tribe, my own flesh and blood! Why are you the last ones to welcome me back?"
• 13. And David told them to tell Amasa, "Since you are my nephew, may God strike me dead if I do not appoint you as commander of my army in place of Joab."
• 14. Then Amasa convinced all the leaders of Judah, and they responded unanimously. They sent word to the king, "Return to us, and bring back all those who are with you."
• 15. So the king started back to Jerusalem. And when he arrived at the Jordan River, the people of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river.
• 16. Then Shimei son of Gera, the man from Bahurim in Benjamin, hurried across with the men of Judah to welcome King David.
• 17. A thousand men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the servant of Saul, and Ziba's fifteen sons and twenty servants. They rushed down to the Jordan to arrive ahead of the king.
• 18. They all crossed the ford and worked hard ferrying the king's household across the river, helping them in every way they could. As the king was about to cross the river, Shimei fell down before him.
• 19. "My lord the king, please forgive me," he pleaded. "Forget the terrible thing I did when you left Jerusalem.
• 20. I know how much I sinned. That is why I have come here today, the very first person in all Israel to greet you."
• 21. Then Abishai son of Zeruiah said, "Shimei should die, for he cursed the LORD's anointed king!"
• 22. "What am I going to do with you sons of Zeruiah!" David exclaimed. "This is not a day for execution but for celebration! I am once again the king of Israel!"
• 23. Then, turning to Shimei, David vowed, "Your life will be spared."
• 24. Now Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson, arrived from Jerusalem to meet the king. He had not washed his feet or clothes nor trimmed his beard since the day the king left Jerusalem.
• 25. "Why didn't you come with me, Mephibosheth?" the king asked him.
• 26. Mephibosheth replied, "My lord the king, my servant Ziba deceived me. I told him, `Saddle my donkey so that I can go with the king.' For as you know I am crippled.
• 27. Ziba has slandered me by saying that I refused to come. But I know that you are like an angel of God, so do what you think is best.
• 28. All my relatives and I could expect only death from you, my lord, but instead you have honored me among those who eat at your own table! So how can I complain?"
• 29. "All right," David replied. "My decision is that you and Ziba will divide your land equally between you."
• 30. "Give him all of it," Mephibosheth said. "I am content just to have you back again, my lord!"
• 31. Barzillai of Gilead now arrived from Rogelim to conduct the king across the Jordan.
• 32. He was very old, about eighty, and very wealthy. He was the one who had provided food for the king during his stay in Mahanaim.
• 33. "Come across with me and live in Jerusalem," the king said to Barzillai. "I will take care of you there."
• 34. "No," he replied, "I am far too old for that.
• 35. I am eighty years old today, and I can no longer enjoy anything. Food and wine are no longer tasty, and I cannot hear the musicians as they play. I would only be a burden to my lord the king.
• 36. Just to go across the river with you is all the honor I need!
• 37. Then let me return again to die in my own town, where my father and mother are buried. But here is my son Kimham. Let him go with you and receive whatever good things you want to give him."
• 38. "Good," the king agreed. "Kimham will go with me, and I will do for him whatever I would have done for you."
• 39. So all the people crossed the Jordan with the king. After David had blessed and embraced him, Barzillai returned to his own home.
• 40. The king then went on to Gilgal, taking Kimham with him. All the army of Judah and half the army of Israel escorted him across the river.
• 41. But the men of Israel complained to the king that the men of Judah had gotten to do most of the work in helping him cross the Jordan.
• 42. "Why not?" the men of Judah replied. "The king is one of our own tribe. Why should this make you angry? We have charged him nothing. And he hasn't fed us or even given us gifts!"
• 43. "But there are ten tribes in Israel," the others replied. "So we have ten times as much right to the king as you do. Why did you treat us with such contempt? Remember, we were the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again." The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah were very harsh in their replies.

2 Samuel 20

• 1. Then a troublemaker named Sheba son of Bicri, a man from the tribe of Benjamin, blew a trumpet and shouted, "We have nothing to do with David. We want no part of this son of Jesse. Come on, you men of Israel, let's all go home!"
• 2. So the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba. But the men of Judah stayed with their king and escorted him from the Jordan River to Jerusalem.
• 3. When the king arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, he instructed that the ten concubines he had left to keep house should be placed in seclusion. Their needs were to be cared for, he said, but he would no longer sleep with them. So each of them lived like a widow until she died.
• 4. Then the king instructed Amasa to mobilize the army of Judah within three days and to report back at that time.
• 5. So Amasa went out to notify the troops, but it took him longer than the three days he had been given.
• 6. Then David said to Abishai, "That troublemaker Sheba is going to hurt us more than Absalom did. Quick, take my troops and chase after him before he gets into a fortified city where we can't reach him."
• 7. So Abishai and Joab set out after Sheba with an elite guard from Joab's army and the king's own bodyguard.
• 8. As they arrived at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa met them, coming from the opposite direction. Joab was wearing his uniform with a dagger strapped to his belt. As he stepped forward to greet Amasa, he secretly slipped the dagger from its sheath.
• 9. "How are you, my cousin?" Joab said and took him by the beard with his right hand as though to kiss him.
• 10. Amasa didn't notice the dagger in his left hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it so that his insides gushed out onto the ground. Joab did not need to strike again, and Amasa soon died. Joab and his brother Abishai left him lying there and continued after Sheba.
• 11. One of Joab's young officers shouted to Amasa's troops, "If you are for Joab and David, come and follow Joab."
• 12. But Amasa lay in his blood in the middle of the road, and Joab's officer saw that a crowd was gathering around to stare at him. So he pulled him off the road into a field and threw a cloak over him.
• 13. With Amasa's body out of the way, everyone went on with Joab to capture Sheba.
• 14. Meanwhile, Sheba had traveled across Israel to mobilize his own clan of Bicri at the city of Abel-beth-maacah.
• 15. When Joab's forces arrived, they attacked Abel-beth-maacah and built a ramp against the city wall and began battering it down.
• 16. But a wise woman in the city called out to Joab, "Listen to me, Joab. Come over here so I can talk to you."
• 17. As he approached, the woman asked, "Are you Joab?I am," he replied. So she said, "Listen carefully to your servant.I'm listening," he said.
• 18. Then she continued, "There used to be a saying, `If you want to settle an argument, ask advice at the city of Abel.'
• 19. I am one who is peace loving and faithful in Israel. But you are destroying a loyal city. Why do you want to destroy what belongs to the LORD?"
• 20. And Joab replied, "Believe me, I don't want to destroy your city!
• 21. All I want is a man named Sheba son of Bicri from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you hand him over to me, we will leave the city in peace.All right," the woman replied, "we will throw his head over the wall to you."
• 22. Then the woman went to the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the trumpet and called his troops back from the attack, and they all returned to their homes. Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.
• 23. Joab once again became the commander of David's army. Benaiah son of Jehoiada was commander of the king's bodyguard.
• 24. Adoniram was in charge of the labor force. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the royal historian.
• 25. Sheva was the court secretary. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.
• 26. Ira the Jairite was David's personal priest.

2 Samuel 21

• 1. There was a famine during David's reign that lasted for three years, so David asked the LORD about it. And the LORD said, "The famine has come because Saul and his family are guilty of murdering the Gibeonites."
• 2. So King David summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were all that was left of the nation of the Amorites. Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal, had tried to wipe them out.
• 3. David asked them, "What can I do for you to make amends? Tell me so that the LORD will bless his people again."
• 4. "Well, money won't do it," the Gibeonites replied. "And we don't want to see the Israelites executed in revenge.What can I do then?" David asked. "Just tell me and I will do it for you."
• 5. Then they replied, "It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any place at all in Israel.
• 6. So let seven of Saul's sons or grandsons be handed over to us, and we will execute them before the LORD at Gibeon, on the mountain of the LORD. All right," the king said, "I will do it."
• 7. David spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, who was Saul's grandson, because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the LORD.
• 8. But he gave them Saul's two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel son of Barzillai from Meholah.
• 9. The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the LORD. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
• 10. Then Rizpah, the mother of two of the men, spread sackcloth on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season. She prevented vultures from tearing at their bodies during the day and stopped wild animals from eating them at night.
• 11. When David learned what Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had done,
• 12. he went to the people of Jabesh-gilead and asked for the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan. (When Saul and Jonathan had died in a battle with the Philistines, it was the people of Jabesh-gilead who had retrieved their bodies from the public square of the Philistine city of Beth-shan.)
• 13. So David brought the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of the men the Gibeonites had executed.
• 14. He buried them all in the tomb of Kish, Saul's father, at the town of Zela in the land of Benjamin. After that, God ended the famine in the land of Israel.
• 15. Once again the Philistines were at war with Israel. And when David and his men were in the thick of battle, David became weak and exhausted.
• 16. Ishbi-benob was a descendant of the giants; his bronze spearhead weighed more than seven pounds, and he was armed with a new sword. He had cornered David and was about to kill him.
• 17. But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. After that, David's men declared, "You are not going out to battle again! Why should we risk snuffing out the light of Israel?"
• 18. After this, there was another battle against the Philistines at Gob. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, another descendant of the giants.
• 19. In still another battle at Gob, Elhanan son of Jair from Bethlehem killed the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of his spear was as thick as a weaver's beam!
• 20. In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot--a descendant of the giants--
• 21. defied and taunted Israel. But he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea.
• 22. These four Philistines were descended from the giants of Gath, but they were killed by David and his warriors.

New Living Translation: 99 of 324 days.