Study Desk

And they buried Abner at Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.

Then the king said to his servants, "Did you not realize that a prince and a great man has fallen today in Israel?

When the son of Saul heard that Abner had died in Hebron, his courage failed and all of Israel was horrified.

(Now Jonathan the son of Saul had a son who was crippled in the feet. He was five years old when the message of Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse had picked him up and fled. It happened that as she was hurrying away to flee, he fell and became crippled. His name was Mephibosheth.)

They came as far as the middle of the house as if takers of wheat, and they struck him in the stomach. Then Recab and Baanah his brother escaped.

When they had come into the house, he was lying on his couch in his bedchamber, and they attacked him and killed him. Then they beheaded him, and they took his head and went on the way of the Arabah all night.

They brought the head of Ish-Bosheth to David at Hebron, and they said to the king, "Here is the head of Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul your enemy, who sought your life. Yahweh has given to my lord the king vengeance this day on Saul and on his offspring."

Then David answered Recab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and he said to them, "As Yahweh lives, who redeemed my soul from all trouble,

How much more when wicked men kill a righteous man in his house, on his bed! So then, shall I not seek his lifeblood from your hand, so that I may destroy you from the earth?"

The king and his men went to Jerusalem, to the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land. They said to David, "You will not come here, for even the blind and the lame can turn you back, saying, ‘David cannot come here.'"

David realized that Yahweh had established him as king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom because of his people Israel.

They had left their idols there, so David and his men carried them away.

So the ark of Yahweh remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite for three months, and Yahweh blessed Obed-Edom and all his household.

It was told to King David, "Yahweh has blessed the household of Obed-Edom and all that is his because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the city of David with jubilation.

Now David was dancing with all his might before Yahweh, and David was wearing a linen ephod.

Then he distributed to all the people, to all the multitude of Israel, from man to woman, to each: one ring-shaped piece of bread, one cake of dates, and one cake of raisins; and all the people went each to his house.

When David returned to bless his household, Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David. She said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today by uncovering himself before the eyes of the maids of his servants, as the total exposure of a worthless one."

So David said to Michal, "In the presence of Yahweh who chose me over your father and over his household, to appoint me as leader over the people of Yahweh, over Israel, I have celebrated before Yahweh.

It happened that the king settled in his house. (Now Yahweh had given rest to him from all his enemies all around.)

When your days are full and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you who will go out from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.