Study Desk

Then all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, "Because the king is a close relative to us. So why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king's expense? Or has anything been taken for us?"

So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah stayed faithfully with their king, from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

Then David came to his house (palace) at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, his concubines whom he had left to take care of the house, and placed them under guard and provided for them, but did not go in to them. So they were confined, and lived as widows until the day of their death.

So Amasa went to summon [the fighting men of] Judah, but he delayed longer than the time which David had set for him.

And David said to Abishai [his nephew], "Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord's servants and pursue him, so that he does not find fortified cities for himself and escape from our sight."

So Joab's men went after him, along with [David's bodyguards] the Cherethites and Pelethites and all the warriors; they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

But Amasa [who had replaced Joab as David's commander] was off guard and not attentive to the sword in Joab's hand. So Joab struck Amasa in the abdomen with the sword, spilling his intestines to the ground. Without another blow Amasa died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

Then a wise woman cried out from the city, "Hear, hear! Tell Joab, 'Come here so that I may speak to you.'"

So when he approached her, the woman asked, "Are you Joab?" He answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your maidservant." He answered, "I am listening."

Then she said, "In the past people used to say, 'They will certainly ask advice at Abel,' and so they settled the dispute.

Then the woman in her wisdom went to all the people [to inform them of the agreement]. And they beheaded Sheba the son of Bichri and threw his head [down] to Joab. So he blew the trumpet [signaling the end of the attack], and they dispersed from the city, every man to his own tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to [David] the king.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons (descendants) of Israel but of the remnant (survivors) of the Amorites. The Israelites had sworn [an oath] to [spare] them, but Saul in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah had sought to strike down the Gibeonites).

So David said to the Gibeonites, "What should I do for you? How can I make it good so that you will bless the LORD'S inheritance (Israel)?"

So they said to the king, "The man who consumed us and planned to exterminate us from remaining in any territory of Israel,

So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David's aid, and struck and killed the Philistine. Then David's men swore to him, "You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel."

"He trains my hands for war, So that my arms can bend (pull back) a bow of bronze.

"I consumed them and shattered them, so that they did not rise; They fell under my feet.

"Truly is not my house so [blessed] with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, Ordered in all things, and secured. For will He not cause to grow and prosper All my salvation and my every wish? Will He not make it grow and prosper?

So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem by the gate, and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink it, but poured it out [in worship] to the LORD.