David

David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. King David followed the bier.

All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, “God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun goes down.”

They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed.”

David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, “As the LORD lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,

David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.

So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.

David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, “Unless you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here”; thinking, “David can’t come in here.”

Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David.

David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, and strike the lame and the blind, who are hated by David’s soul.” Therefore they say, “The blind and the lame can’t come into the house.”

David lived in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. David built around from Millo and inward.

David grew greater and greater; for the LORD, the God of Hosts, was with him.

Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.

David perceived that the LORD had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.

When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.

David inquired of the LORD, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?” The LORD said to David, “Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

David came to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, “The LORD has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.

When David inquired of the LORD, he said, “You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them over against the mulberry trees.

David did so, as the LORD commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gezer.

David again gathered together all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of the LORD of Hosts who sits above the cherubim.

David and all the house of Israel played before the LORD with all kinds of instruments made of fir wood, and with harps, and with stringed instruments, and with tambourines, and with castanets, and with cymbals.