Study Desk

"May it turn upon the head of Joab and on all his father's house; and may there not be eliminated from the house of Joab someone who suffers a discharge, or has leprosy, or holds the spindle, or falls by the sword, or lacks bread."

So Joab and his brother Abishai killed Abner because he had put their brother Asahel to death in the battle at Gibeon.

And they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king raised his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.

Then all the people came to provide food for David in his distress while it was still day; but David vowed, saying, "May God do so to me, and more so, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down."

Then the king said to his servants, "Do you not know that a leader and a great man has fallen in Israel this day?

"And I am weak today, though anointed king; and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. May the LORD repay the evildoer in proportion to his evil."

Now when Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his courage failed, and all Israel was horrified.

Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was disabled in both feet. He was five years old when the news of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse picked him up and fled. But it happened that in her hurry to flee, he fell and could no longer walk. And his name was Mephibosheth.

So the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, departed and came to the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, while he was taking his midday rest.

And they came to the interior of the house as if to get wheat, and they struck him in the belly; and Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped.

Now when they had come into the house, as he was lying on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him and killed him, and they beheaded him. And they took his head and traveled by way of the Arabah all night.

Then they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron, and said to the king, "Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; so the LORD has given my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and his descendants."

But David replied to Rechab and his brother Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

when the one who informed me, saying, 'Behold, Saul is dead,' also viewed himself as the bearer of good news, I seized him and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.

"How much more, when wicked men have killed a righteous man in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood from your hands and eliminate you both from the earth?"

Now the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land; and they said to David, "You shall not come in here, but even those who are blind and those who limp will turn you away," thinking, "David cannot enter here."

And David realized that the LORD had appointed him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.

And the Philistines abandoned their idols there, so David and his men carried them away.

And the anger of the LORD burned against Uzzah, and God struck him down there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.

The ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite for three months, and the LORD blessed Obed-edom and all his household.