Study Desk

The king said, "Is it peace for the young man Absalom?" Ahimaaz said, "I saw the great commotion when Joab the servant of the king sent your servant, but I do not know what it was all about."

Then it happened that all the people were disputing among all the tribes of Israel, saying, "The king delivered us from the hand of our enemies, and he saved us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled from the land because of Absalom.

But he slandered against your servant to my lord the king. My lord the king is like the angel of God; do as you see fit.."

For there was no one in all the house of my father who were not doomed to death before my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. Do I have any righteousness any longer except to cry out to the king?"

Your servant shall go over the Jordan with the king a little way, but why should the king recompense me with this reward?

Then the people of Israel answered the men of Judah and said, "I have ten times as much in the king, moreover in David I have more than you. Why did you treat me with contempt by not giving me first chance to bring back my king?" But the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the word of the men of Israel.

Then all the men of Israel went up from following after David, following instead after Sheba the son of Bicri, but the men of Judah stuck to their king from the Jordan up to Jerusalem.

David went up to his house in Jerusalem, then the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to look after the house, and he put them under confinement. However, he provided for them, but he did not sleep with them. So they were confined until the day of their death, like a lifetime of widowhood.

So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he tarried more than the appointed time which he had set for him.

That is not the matter. But a man from the mountains of Ephraim, whose name is Sheba the son Bicri, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Give only him to us, and I will depart from the city." The woman said to Joab, "Look, his head is being thrown down to you over the wall."

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not from the Israelites; they were from the remainder of the Amorites. Now the Israelites had sworn to them, but Saul tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah.

But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the sworn oath of Yahweh which was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took the sackcloth, and she spread it for herself on the rock at the beginning of the harvest until water gushed forth on them from heaven, but she did not allow the birds of heaven to rest on them by day nor the animals of the field by night.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and he attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall not go out with us any longer to the battle, so that you do not quench the lamp of Israel."

He taunted Israel but Jonathan the son of Shimei, the brother of David, killed him.

They approached me on the day of my disaster, but Yahweh was my support.

With the pure, you show yourself pure, but with the crooked, you appear as a fool.

Humble people you will deliver, but your eyes are on the haughty, whom you bring down.

They looked out, but there was no deliverer, even to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.

But evil persons are like thorns cast aside; all of them, because they cannot be picked up in the hand.