The Reign of David

I am of the peaceable--faithful ones of Israel; thou art seeking to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel; why dost thou swallow up the inheritance of Jehovah?

And Joab answereth and saith, `Far be it--far be it from me; I do not swallow up nor destroy.

The matter is not so; for a man of the hill-country of Ephraim--Sheba son of Bichri his name--hath lifted up his hand against the king, against David; give ye up him by himself, and I go away from the city.' And the woman saith unto Joab, `Lo, his head is cast unto thee over the wall.'

And the woman cometh unto all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri, and cast it unto Joab, and he bloweth with a trumpet, and they are scattered from the city, each to his tents, and Joab hath turned back to Jerusalem unto the king.

And Joab is over all the host of Israel, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada is over the Cherethite, and over the Pelethite,

and Adoram is over the tribute, and Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud is the remembrancer,

and Sheva is scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar are priests,

and also, Ira the Jairite hath been minister to David.

And there is a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and David seeketh the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah saith, `For Saul and for the bloody house, because that he put to death the Gibeonites.'

And the king calleth for the Gibeonites, and saith unto them--as to the Gibeonites, they are not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorite, and the sons of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul seeketh to smite them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah--

yea, David saith unto the Gibeonites, `What do I do for you? and with what do I make atonement? and bless ye the inheritance of Jehovah.'

And the Gibeonites say to him, `We have no silver and gold by Saul and by his house, and we have no man to put to death in Israel;' and he saith, `What ye are saying I do to you.'

And they say unto the king, `The man who consumed us, and who devised against us--we have been destroyed from stationing ourselves in all the border of Israel--

let there be given to us seven men of his sons, and we have hanged them before Jehovah, in the height of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah.' And the king saith, `I do give;'

and the king hath pity on Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the oath of Jehovah that is between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul;

and the king taketh the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal daughter of Saul whom she bare to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite,

and giveth them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hang them in the hill before Jehovah; and the seven fall together, and they have been put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days , the commencement of barley-harvest.

And Rizpah daughter of Aiah taketh the sackcloth, and stretcheth it out for herself on the rock, from the commencement of harvest till water hath been poured out upon them from the heavens, and hath not suffered a fowl of the heavens to rest upon them by day, or the beast of the field by night.

And it is declared to David that which Rizpah daughter of Aiah, concubine of Saul, hath done,

and David goeth and taketh the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the possessors of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the broad place of Beth-Shan, where the Philistines hanged them, in the day of the Philistines smiting Saul in Gilboa;

and he bringeth up thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gather the bones of those hanged,

and bury the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the burying-place of Kish his father, and do all that the king commanded, and God is entreated for the land afterwards.

And again have the Philistines war with Israel, and David goeth down, and his servants with him, and they fight with the Philistines; and David is weary,

and Ishbi-Benob, who is among the children of the giant--the weight of his spear is three hundred shekels weight of brass, and he is girded with a new one--speaketh of smiting David,

and Abishai son of Zeruiah giveth help to him, and smiteth the Philistine, and putteth him to death; then swear the men of David to him, saying, `Thou dost not go out again with us to battle, nor quench the lamp of Israel.'