Study Desk

So the king said to Shimei, "You shall not die." The king also swore to him.

So he said, "My lord the king, my servant betrayed me; for your servant said, 'I will saddle the donkey for myself so that I may ride on it and go with the king,' since your servant cannot walk.

"For all my father's household was only people worthy of death to my lord the king; yet you placed your servant among those who ate at your own table. So what right do I still have, that I should complain anymore to the king?"

So the king said to him, "Why do you still speak of your affairs? I have decided, 'You and Ziba shall divide the land.'"

So the king said to Barzillai, "You cross over with me, and I will provide you food in Jerusalem with me."

"Your servant would merely cross over the Jordan with the king. So why should the king compensate me with this reward?

"Please let your servant return, so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. However, here is your servant Chimham; let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight."

So all the men of Israel withdrew from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah remained loyal to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

Then David came to his house in Jerusalem, and the king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left behind to take care of the house, and put them in custody and provided them with food, but did not have relations with them. So they were locked up until the day of their death, living as widows.

So Amasa went to summon the men of Judah, but he was delayed longer than the set time which he had designated for him.

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

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

But Amasa was not on guard against the sword which was in Joab's hand, so he struck him in the belly with it and spilled out his intestines on the ground, and did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

So he approached her, and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" And he answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your slave." And he said, "I am listening."

Then the woman wisely came to all the people. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel had made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

David said to the Gibeonites, "What should I do for you? And how can I make amends, so that you will bless the inheritance of the LORD?"

So they said to the king, "The man who destroyed us and who planned to eliminate us so that we would not exist within any border of Israel—

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

Then he handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the LORD, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.