Study Desk

Then David went to his palace in Jerusalem. The king took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace and placed them under confinement. Though he provided for their needs, he did not have sexual relations with them. They remained in confinement until the day they died, living out the rest of their lives as widows.

When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out.

Joab said to Amasa, "How are you, my brother?" With his right hand Joab took hold of Amasa's beard as if to greet him with a kiss.

Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab's other hand, and Joab stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa's intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.

Amasa was squirming in his own blood in the middle of the path, and this man had noticed that all the soldiers stopped. Having noticed that everyone who came across Amasa stopped, the man pulled him away from the path and into the field and threw a garment over him.

That's not the way things are. There is a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Sheba son of Bicri. He has rebelled against King David. Give me just this one man, and I will leave the city." The woman said to Joab, "This very minute his head will be thrown over the wall to you!"

Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it out to Joab. Joab blew the trumpet, and his men dispersed from the city, each going to his own home. Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

During David's reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord . The Lord said, "It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, because he murdered the Gibeonites."

So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke with them. (Now the Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel; they were a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had made a promise to them, but Saul tried to kill them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)

The Gibeonites said to him, "We have no claim to silver or gold from Saul or from his family, nor would we be justified in putting to death anyone in Israel." David asked, "What then are you asking me to do for you?"

let seven of his male descendants be turned over to us, and we will execute them before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, who was the Lord 's chosen one." The king replied, "I will turn them over."

he went and took the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan from the leaders of Jabesh Gilead. (They had secretly taken them from the plaza at Beth Shan. It was there that Philistines publicly exposed their corpses after they had killed Saul at Gilboa.)

David brought the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son from there; they also gathered up the bones of those who had been executed.

They buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin at Zela in the grave of his father Kish. After they had done everything that the king had commanded, God responded to their prayers for the land.

Another battle was fought between the Philistines and Israel. So David went down with his soldiers and fought the Philistines. David became exhausted.

These four were the descendants of Rapha who lived in Gath; they were killed by David and his soldiers.

David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord rescued him from the power of all his enemies, including Saul.

In my distress I called to the Lord ; I called to my God. From his heavenly temple he heard my voice; he listened to my cry for help.

Smoke ascended from his nose; fire devoured as it came from his mouth; he hurled down fiery coals.

He made the sky sink as he descended; a thick cloud was under his feet.