Study Desk

And I am weak today, even if I was chosen to be king. The sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May the Lord pay the sinner for his sin."

When Saul's son Ish-bosheth heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost his strength of heart. All Israel was troubled.

Now Saul's son Jonathan had a son who could not walk because of his feet. He was five years old when the news of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse had picked him up and ran. In her hurry to get away, he fell and hurt his feet so he could not walk. His name was Mephibosheth.

The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, left and came to the family of Ish-bosheth. It was during the heat of the day, while Ish-bosheth was taking his noon rest.

They came to the center of the house as if to get wheat, and they hit Ish-bosheth in the stomach. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah ran away.

They had come into the house while he was lying on his bed in his room. And they had hit him and killed him and cut off his head. They took his head and traveled by the way of Arabah all night.

Then they brought Ish-bosheth's head to David at Hebron, and said to the king, "See, the head of Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, who hated you and tried to kill you. So this day the Lord has punished Saul and his children for the king."

David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite. He said to them, "As the Lord lives, Who has saved my life from all trouble,

when one told me, ‘See, Saul is dead,' he thought he was bringing good news. But I took hold of him and killed him in Ziklag. This was the reward I gave him for his news.

How much worse it is when sinful men have killed a man who is right and good, on his bed in his own house! Should I not now punish you for his blood and destroy you from the earth?"

Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the people living in the land. They said to David, "You will not come here. Even those who cannot see or walk could stop you." They thought that David could not come here.

David understood that the Lord had made him the king of Israel, and that the Lord had given honor to David's rule because of His people Israel.

The Philistines left their false gods there, and David and his men carried them away.

He got up and went with all the people who were with him to Baale-judah to bring from there the special box of God. It is called by the name of the Lord of All Who sits on His throne above the cherubim.

But the cattle pulling the wagon almost made the special box of God fall when they came to the grain-floor of Nacon. So Uzzah put out his hand and took hold of the special box so it would not fall.

The anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah. God killed him there for his mistake. And he died there by the special box of God.

The special box of the Lord stayed in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months. And the Lord brought good to Obed-edom and all of his family.

He was dancing before the Lord with all his strength. And he was wearing a linen vest.

David returned to pray that good would come to his family. But Saul's daughter Michal came out to meet him, and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today! He took his clothes off today so that his servants' young women would see him. He acted like one of the foolish ones taking his clothes off without shame!"

So David said to Michal, "It was before the Lord. He chose me over your father and all his family, and made me ruler over the people of the Lord, over Israel. So I will act with joy before the Lord.