Study Desk

God forbid that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men with their lives? for with the peril of their lives they brought it. So he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

And David went out to meet them, and said to them, If ye are come peaceably to me, let my heart be at peace with you: but if ye are come to betray me to my enemies unfaithfully, the God of your fathers look upon it, and reprove it.

And the Spirit came upon Amasai, a captain of the thirty, and he said, Go, David, son of Jesse, thou and thy people, peace, peace be to thee, and peace to thy helpers, for thy God has helped thee. And David received them, and made them captains of the forces.

For daily men came to David, till they amounted to a great force, as the force of God.

And David said to the whole congregation of Israel, If it seem good to you, and it should be prospered by the Lord our God, let us send to our brethren that are left in all the land of Israel, and let the priests the Levites who are with them in the cities of their possession come, and let them be gathered to us.

And let us bring over to us the ark of our God; for men have not enquired at it since the days of Saul.

So David assembled all Israel, from the borders of Egypt even to the entering in of Hemath, to bring in the ark of God from the city of Jarim.

And David brought it up: and all Israel went up to the city of David, which belonged to Juda, to bring up thence the ark of the Lord God who sits between the cherubim, whose name is called on it.

And they set the ark of God on a new waggon brought out of the house of Aminadab: and Oza and his brethren drove the waggon.

And the Lord was very angry with Oza, and smote him there, because of his stretching forth his hand upon the ark: and he died there before God.

And David feared God that day, saying, How shall I bring the ark of God in to myself?

And the ark of God abode in the house of Abeddara three months: and God blessed Abeddara and all that he had.

And David enquired of God, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? and wilt thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to him, Go up, and I will deliver them into thy hands.

And he went up to Baal Pharasin, and David smote them there; and David said, God has broken through enemies by my hand like a breach of water: therefore he called the name of that place, the Breach of Pharasin.

And David enquired of God again; and God said to him, Thou shalt not go after them; turn away from them, and thou shalt come upon them near the pear trees.

And it shall be, when thou shalt hear the sound of their tumult in the tops of the pear trees, then thou shalt go into the battle: for God has gone out before thee to smite the army of the Philistines.

And he did as God commanded him: and he smote the army of the Philistines from Gabaon to Gazera.

And David made for himself houses in the city of David, and he prepared a place for the ark of God, and made a tent for it.

Then said David, It is not lawful for any to bear the ark of God, but the Levites; for the Lord has chosen them to bear the ark of the Lord, and to minister to him for ever.

and said to them, Ye are the heads of the families of the Levites: sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, and ye shall carry up the ark of the God of Israel, to the place which I have prepared for it.