Study Desk

So David sent for him and brought him from Makir's home.

David said, "I am going to show loyalty to Hanun just as his father, Nahash, was always loyal to me." So David sent ambassadors to express sympathy to Hanun about his father's death. But when David's ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon,

the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, their master, "Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No! David has sent them to spy out the city so they can come in and conquer it!"

So Hanun seized David's ambassadors and shaved off half of each man's beard, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame.

The Arameans now realized that they were no match for Israel. So when they regrouped,

Then David sent word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent him to David.

When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, "What's the matter? Why didn't you go home last night after being away for so long?"

"Well, stay here today," David told him, "and tomorrow you may return to the army." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.

So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.

The letter instructed Joab, "Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed."

So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy's strongest men were fighting.

But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn't they know there would be shooting from the walls?

Wasn't Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?' Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.'"

So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David.

So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: "There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor.

So David gathered the rest of the army and went to Rabbah, and he fought against it and captured it.

Amnon became so obsessed with Tamar that he became ill. She was a virgin, and Amnon thought he could never have her.

One day Jonadab said to Amnon, "What's the trouble? Why should the son of a king look so dejected morning after morning?" So Amnon told him, "I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom's sister."

So Amnon lay down and pretended to be sick. And when the king came to see him, Amnon asked him, "Please let my sister Tamar come and cook my favorite dish as I watch. Then I can eat it from her own hands."

So David agreed and sent Tamar to Amnon's house to prepare some food for him.