Study Desk

You are my brothers, my flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?'

And tell Amasa, ‘Aren't you my flesh and blood? May God punish me and do so severely if you don't become commander of the army from now on instead of Joab!'"

So he won over all the men of Judah, and they sent word to the king: "Come back, you and all your servants."

So the king said to Shimei, "You will not die." Then the king gave him his oath.

"My lord the king," he replied, "my servant Ziba betrayed me. Actually your servant said: ‘I'll saddle the donkey for myself so that I may ride it and go with the king'—for your servant is lame.

Ziba slandered your servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is like the Angel of God, so do whatever you think best.

For my grandfather's entire family deserves death from my lord the king, but you set your servant among those who eat at your table. So what further right do I have to keep on making appeals to the king?"

Please let your servant return so that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham: let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him what seems good to you."

So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned to his home.

The men of Israel answered the men of Judah: "We have 10 shares in the king, so we have a greater claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Weren't we the first to speak of restoring our king?" But the words of the men of Judah were harsher than those of the men of Israel.

So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bichri, but the men of Judah from the Jordan all the way to Jerusalem remained loyal to their king.

So David said to Abishai, "Sheba son of Bichri will do more harm to us than Absalom. Take your lord's soldiers and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us."

So Joab's men, the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors marched out under Abishai's command; they left Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

Now Amasa was writhing in his blood in the middle of the highway, and the man had seen that all the people stopped. So he moved Amasa from the highway to the field and threw a garment over him because he realized that all those who encountered Amasa were stopping.

The woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram's horn, and they dispersed from the city, each to his own tent. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

During David's reign there was a famine for three successive years, so David inquired of the Lord . The Lord answered, "It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family when he killed the Gibeonites."

The Gibeonites were not Israelites but rather a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but Saul had tried to kill them in his zeal for the Israelites and Judah. So David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them.

He asked the Gibeonites, "What should I do for you? How can I make atonement so that you will bring a blessing on the Lord 's inheritance?"

They replied to the king, "As for the man who annihilated us and plotted to destroy us so we would not exist within the whole territory of Israel,

let seven of his male descendants be handed over to us so we may hang them in the presence of the Lord at Gibeah of Saul, the Lord 's chosen." The king answered, "I will hand them over."