Study Desk

"Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in His sight.

"As for God, His way is blameless and perfect; The word of the LORD is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge and trust in Him.

"God is my strong fortress; He sets the blameless in His way.

"He is a tower of salvation and great deliverance to His king, And shows lovingkindness to His anointed, To David and his offspring forever."

"The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue.

Eleazar stood up and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary and clung to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day; the people returned after him only to take the spoil [of the slain].

But he took his stand in the center of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines; and the LORD brought about a great victory.

Now Abishai the brother of Joab the son of Zeruiah was chief of the thirty. He wielded his spear against three hundred men and killed them, and gained a reputation beside the three.

And he killed an Egyptian, an impressive and handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a club, snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed the man with his own spear.

He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to the [greatness of the] three. David appointed him over his guard.

Then David said to Gad, "I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hands of the LORD, for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hands of man."

When the [avenging] angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented from the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough! Now relax your hand." And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; and he went out and bowed before the king with his face toward the ground.

Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" And David said, "To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague may be held back from the people."

So his servants said to him, "Let a young virgin be found for my lord the king and let her attend him and become his nurse; let her lie against your chest, so that my lord the king may feel warm."

His father [David] had never rebuked him at any time by asking, "Why have you done this?" Adonijah was also a very handsome man, and he was born after Absalom.

But Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, Nathan the prophet, Shimei, Rei, and David's most formidable warriors did not side with Adonijah [in his desire to become king].

Adonijah sacrificed sheep and oxen and fattened steers by the Stone of Zoheleth, which is beside [the well] En-rogel; and he invited all his brothers, the king's sons, and all the men of Judah, the king's servants [to this feast].

But he did not invite Nathan the prophet, Benaiah, the most formidable warriors, or his brother Solomon.

So Bathsheba went to the king in his bedroom. Now the king was very old and weak, and Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king.