Yahuwah Biblia

¹ It happened after the death of Sha’ul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Tziklag;
² it happened on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Sha’ul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and showed respect.
³ David said to him, “Where do you come from?” He said to him, “I have escaped out of the camp of Yisra’el.”
⁴ David said to him, “How did it go? Please tell me.” He answered, “The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead; and Sha’ul and Yonatan his son are dead also.”
⁵ David said to the young man who told him, “How do you know that Sha’ul and Yonatan his son are dead?”
⁶ The young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Sha’ul was leaning on his spear; and behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him.
⁷ When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, ‘Here I am.’
⁸ He said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’
⁹ He said to me, ‘Please stand beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.’
¹⁰ So I stood beside him, and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord.”
¹¹ Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men who were with him.
¹² They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Sha’ul, and for Yonatan his son, and for the people of Yahuwah, and for the house of Yisra’el; because they were fallen by the sword.
¹³ David said to the young man who told him, “Where are you from?” He answered, “I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite.”
¹⁴ David said to him, “How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy Yahuwah‘s anointed?”
¹⁵ David called one of the young men, and said, “Go near, and fall on him.” He struck him, so that he died.
¹⁶ David said to him, “Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, ‘I have slain Yahuwah‘s anointed.’”
¹⁷ David lamented with this lamentation over Sha’ul and over Yonatan his son
¹⁸ (and he commanded them to teach the children of Yehudah the song of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Yashar):
¹⁹ “Your glory, Yisra’el, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
²⁰ Don’t tell it in Gat. Don’t publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.
²¹ You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain on you, neither fields of offerings; For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, The shield of Sha’ul was not anointed with oil.
²² From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, Yonatan‘s bow didn’t turn back. Sha’ul‘s sword didn’t return empty.
²³ Sha’ul and Yonatan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions.
²⁴ You daughters of Yisra’el, weep over Sha’ul, who clothed you in scarlet delicately, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing.
²⁵ How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Yonatan is slain on your high places.
²⁶ I am distressed for you, my brother Yonatan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
²⁷ How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!”

¹ It happened after this, that David inquired of Yahuwah, saying, “Shall I go up into any of the cities of Yehudah?” Yahuwah said to him, “Go up.” David said, “Where shall I go up?” He said, “To Hebron.”
² So David went up there, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Yezreelitess, and Avigayil the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
³ David brought up his men who were with him, every man with his household. They lived in the cities of Hebron.
⁴ The men of Yehudah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Yehudah. They told David, saying, “The men of Yabesh Gilead were those who buried Sha’ul.”
⁵ David sent messengers to the men of Yabesh Gilead, and said to them, “Blessed are you by Yahuwah, that you have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Sha’ul, and have buried him.
⁶ Now may Yahuwah show loving kindness and truth to you. I also will reward you for this kindness, because you have done this thing.
⁷ Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant; for Sha’ul your lord is dead, and also the house of Yehudah have anointed me king over them.”
⁸ Now Avner the son of Ner, captain of Sha’ul‘s army, had taken Ishboshet the son of Sha’ul, and brought him over to Mahanaim;
⁹ and he made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Yezreel, and over Efrayim, and over Binyamin, and over all Yisra’el.
¹⁰ Ishboshet, Sha’ul‘s son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Yisra’el, and he reigned two years. But the house of Yehudah followed David.
¹¹ The time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Yehudah was seven years and six months.
¹² Avner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishboshet the son of Sha’ul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon.
¹³ Yo’av the son of Azariyah. and the servants of David, went out, and met them by the pool of Gibeon; and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool.
¹⁴ Avner said to Yo’av, “Please let the young men arise and play before us!” Yo’av said, “Let them arise!”
¹⁵ Then they arose and went over by number: twelve for Binyamin, and for Ishboshet the son of Sha’ul, and twelve of the servants of David.
¹⁶ They each caught his opponent by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow’s side; so they fell down together: therefore that place was called Helkat Hazurim, which is in Gibeon.
¹⁷ The battle was very severe that day: and Avner was beaten, and the men of Yisra’el, before the servants of David.
¹⁸ The three sons of Azariyah were there, Yo’av, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild gazelle.
¹⁹ Asahel pursued after Avner; and in going he didn’t turn to the right hand nor to the left from following Avner.
²⁰ Then Avner looked behind him, and said, “Is it you, Asahel?” He answered, “It is I.”
²¹ Avner said to him, “Turn aside to your right hand or to your left, and grab one of the young men, and take his armor.” But Asahel would not turn aside from following him.
²² Avner said again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then should I hold up my face to Yo’av your brother?”
²³ However he refused to turn aside. Therefore Avner with the back end of the spear struck him in the body, so that the spear came out behind him; and he fell down there, and died in the same place. It happened, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.
²⁴ But Yo’av and Abishai pursued after Avner: and the sun went down when they had come to the hill of Amah, that lies before Giyah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon.
²⁵ The children of Binyamin gathered themselves together after Avner, and became one band, and stood on the top of a hill.
²⁶ Then Avner called to Yo’av, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long shall it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”
²⁷ Yo’av said, “As Elohim lives, if you had not spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone away, and not each followed his brother.”
²⁸ So Yo’av blew the trumpet; and all the people stood still, and pursued after Yisra’el no more, neither fought they any more.
²⁹ Avner and his men went all that night through the Arabah; and they passed over the Yarden, and went through all Bithron, and came to Mahanaim.
³⁰ Yo’av returned from following Avner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David‘s servants nineteen men and Asahel.
³¹ But the servants of David had struck of Binyamin, and of Avner’s men, so that three hundred sixty men died.
³² They took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Beit-Lechem . Yo’av and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.

¹ Now there was long war between the house of Sha’ul and the house of David: and David grew stronger and stronger, but the house of Sha’ul grew weaker and weaker.
² To David were sons born in Hebron: and his firstborn was Amnon, of Ahinoam the Yezreelitess;
³ and his second, Chileab, of Avigayil the wife of Nabal the Carmelite; and the third, Abshalom the son of Maacah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
⁴ and the fourth, Adoniyah the son of Hagit; and the fifth, Shefatiyah the son of Abital;
⁵ and the sixth, Ithream, of Eglah, David‘s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
⁶ It happened, while there was war between the house of Sha’ul and the house of David, that Avner made himself strong in the house of Sha’ul.
⁷ Now Sha’ul had a concubine, whose name was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiyah: and Ishboshet said to Avner, “Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?”
⁸ Then was Avner very angry for the words of Ishboshet, and said, “Am I a dog’s head that belongs to Yehudah? Today I show kindness to the house of Sha’ul your father, to his brothers, and to his friends, and have not delivered you into the hand of David; and yet you charge me this day with a fault concerning this woman!
⁹ Elohim do so to Avner, and more also, if, as Yahuwah has sworn to David, I don’t do even so to him;
¹⁰ to transfer the kingdom from the house of Sha’ul, and to set up the throne of David over Yisra’el and over Yehudah, from Dan even to Beersheba.”
¹¹ He could not answer Avner another word, because he feared him.
¹² Avner sent messengers to David on his behalf, saying, “Whose is the land?” and saying, “Make your alliance with me, and behold, my hand shall be with you, to bring all Yisra’el around to you.”
¹³ He said, “Good; I will make a treaty with you; but one thing I require of you. That is, you shall not see my face, unless you first bring Michal, Sha’ul‘s daughter, when you come to see my face.”
¹⁴ David sent messengers to Ishboshet, Sha’ul‘s son, saying, “Deliver me my wife Michal, whom I pledged to be married to me for one hundred foreskins of the Philistines.”
¹⁵ Ishboshet sent, and took her from her husband, even from Paltiel the son of Laish.
¹⁶ Her husband went with her, weeping as he went, and followed her to Bahurim. Then Avner said to him, “Go! Return!” and he returned.
¹⁷ Avner had communication with the elders of Yisra’el, saying, “In times past, you sought for David to be king over you.
¹⁸ Now then do it; for Yahuwah has spoken of David, saying, ‘By the hand of my servant David, I will save my people Yisra’el out of the hand of the Philistines, and out of the hand of all their enemies.’”
¹⁹ Avner also spoke in the ears of Binyamin: and Avner went also to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Yisra’el, and to the whole house of Binyamin.
²⁰ So Avner came to David to Hebron, and twenty men with him. David made Avner and the men who were with him a feast.
²¹ Avner said to David, “I will arise and go, and will gather all Yisra’el to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may reign over all that your soul desires.” David sent Avner away; and he went in peace.
²² Behold, the servants of David and Yo’av came from a foray, and brought in a great spoil with them: but Avner was not with David in Hebron; for he had sent him away, and he was gone in peace.
²³ When Yo’av and all the army who was with him had come, they told Yo’av, saying, Avner the son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
²⁴ Then Yo’av came to the king, and said, “What have you done? Behold, Avner came to you. Why is it that you have sent him away, and he is quite gone?
²⁵ You know Avner the son of Ner, that he came to deceive you, and to know your going out and your coming in, and to know all that you do.”
²⁶ When Yo’av had come out from David, he sent messengers after Avner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David didn’t know it.
²⁷ When Avner was returned to Hebron, Yo’av took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly, and struck him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.
²⁸ Afterward, when David heard it, he said, “I and my kingdom are guiltless before Yahuwah forever of the blood of Avner the son of Ner.
²⁹ Let it fall on the head of Yo’av, and on all his father’s house. Let there not fail from the house of Yo’av one who has an issue, or who is a leper, or who leans on a staff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.”
³⁰ So Yo’av and Abishai his brother killed Avner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
³¹ David said to Yo’av, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Avner. King David followed the bier.
³² They buried Avner in Hebron: and the king lifted up his voice, and wept at the grave of Avner; and all the people wept.
³³ The king lamented for Avner, and said, “Should Avner die as a fool dies?
³⁴ Your hands were not bound, nor your feet put into fetters. As a man falls before the children of iniquity, so you fell.” All the people wept again over him.
³⁵ All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, “Elohim do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun goes down.”
³⁶ All the people took notice of it, and it pleased them; as whatever the king did pleased all the people.
³⁷ So all the people and all Yisra’el understood that day that it was not of the king to kill Avner the son of Ner.
³⁸ The king said to his servants, “Don’t you know that there a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Yisra’el?
³⁹ I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiyah are too hard for me. May Yahuwah reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.”

¹ When Sha’ul‘s son heard that Avner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Yisra’elites were troubled.
² Sha’ul‘s son had two men who were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimon the Beerotite, of the children of Binyamin (for Beerot also is reckoned to Binyamin:
³ and the Beerotites fled to GItaim, and have lived as foreigners there until this day).
⁴ Now Yonatan, Sha’ul‘s son, had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Sha’ul and Yonatan out of Yezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mefiboshet.
⁵ The sons of Rimon the Beerotite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishboshet, as he took his rest at noon.
⁶ They came there into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they struck him in the body: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
⁷ Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night.
⁸ They brought the head of Ishboshet to David to Hebron, and said to the king, “Behold, the head of Ishboshet, the son of Sha’ul, your enemy, who sought your life! Yahuwah has avenged my lord the king this day of Sha’ul, and of his seed.”
⁹ David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimon the Beerotite, and said to them, “As Yahuwah lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity,
¹⁰ when someone told me, ‘Behold, Sha’ul is dead,’ thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Tziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.
¹¹ How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?”
¹² 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 Ishboshet, and buried it in the grave of Avner in Hebron.

¹ Then came all the tribes of Yisra’el to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, “Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.
² In times past, when Sha’ul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Yisra’el. Yahuwah said to you, ‘You shall be shepherd of my people Yisra’el, and you shall be prince over Yisra’el.’”
³ So all the elders of Yisra’el came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahuwah; and they anointed David king over Yisra’el.
⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.
⁵ In Hebron he reigned over Yehudah seven years and six months; and in Yerushalayim he reigned thirty-three years over all Yisra’el and Yehudah.
⁶ The king and his men went to Yerushalayim against the Yebusites, 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.”
⁷ Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Tzion; the same is the city of David.
⁸ David said on that day, “Whoever strikes the Yebusites, 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.”
⁹ David lived in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. David built around from Milo and inward.
¹⁰ David grew greater and greater; for Yahuwah, the Elohei Tzebaot (of Armies), was with him.
¹¹ Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
¹² David perceived that Yahuwah had established him king over Yisra’el, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Yisra’el‘s sake.
¹³ David took him more concubines and wives out of Yerushalayim, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David.
¹⁴ These are the names of those who were born to him in Yerushalayim: ShAmua, and Shobab, and Natan, and Shlomo,
¹⁵ and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nefeg, and Yafia,
¹⁶ and Elishama, and Eliada, and Elifelet.
¹⁷ When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Yisra’el, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.
¹⁸ Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Refaim.
¹⁹ David inquired of Yahuwah, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?” Yahuwah said to David, “Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand.”
²⁰ David came to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, “Yahuwah has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.
²¹ They left their images there; and David and his men took them away.
²² The Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Refaim.
²³ When David inquired of Yahuwah, he said, “You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them over against the mulberry trees.
²⁴ It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then you shall stir yourself up; for then Yahuwah has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.”
²⁵ David did so, as Yahuwah commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gezer.

¹ David again gathered together all the chosen men of Yisra’el, thirty thousand.
² David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale Yehudah, to bring up from there the ark of Elohim, which is called by the Name, even the name of Yahuwah Tzebaot (of Armies) who sits above the cherubim.
³ They set the ark of Elohim on a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in the hill: and Uzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.
⁴ They brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was in the hill, with the ark of Elohim: and Ahio went before the ark.
⁵ David and all the house of Yisra’el played before Yahuwah 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.
⁶ When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzah reached for the ark of Elohim, and took hold of it; for the cattle stumbled.
⁷ The anger of Yahuwah was kindled against Uzah; and Elohim struck him there for his error; and there he died by the ark of Elohim.
⁸ David was displeased, because Yahuwah had broken forth on Uzah; and he called that place Perez Uzah, to this day.
⁹ David was afraid of Yahuwah that day; and he said, “How shall the ark of Yahuwah come to me?”
¹⁰ So David would not move the ark of Yahuwah to be with him in the city of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-Edom the Gitite.
¹¹ The ark of Yahuwah remained in the house of Obed-Edom the Gitite three months: and Yahuwah blessed Obed-Edom, and all his house.
¹² It was told king David, saying, “Yahuwah has blessed the house of Obed-Edom, and all that pertains to him, because of the ark of Elohim.” David went and brought up the ark of Elohim from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David with joy.
¹³ It was so, that, when those who bore the ark of Yahuwah had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf.
¹⁴ David danced before Yahuwah with all his might; and David was clothed in a linen efod.
¹⁵ So David and all the house of Yisra’el brought up the ark of Yahuwah with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
¹⁶ It was so, as the ark of Yahuwah came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Sha’ul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before Yahuwah; and she despised him in her heart.
¹⁷ They brought in the ark of Yahuwah, and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it; and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Yahuwah.
¹⁸ When David had made an end of offering the burnt offering and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of Yahuwah Tzebaot.
¹⁹ He gave to all the people, even among the whole multitude of Yisra’el, both to men and women, to everyone a portion of bread, dates, and raisins. So all the people departed everyone to his house.
²⁰ Then David returned to bless his household. Michal the daughter of Sha’ul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious the king of Yisra’el was today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!”
²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before Yahuwah, who chose me above your father, and above all his house, to appoint me prince over the people of Yahuwah, over Yisra’el. Therefore will I celebrate before Yahuwah.
²² I will be yet more vile than this, and will be base in my own sight. But of the handmaids of whom you have spoken, they shall honor me.”
²³ Michal the daughter of Sha’ul had no child to the day of her death.

¹ After this it happened that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took the bridle of the mother city out of the hand of the Philistines.
² He struck Moab, and measured them with the line, making them to lie down on the ground; and he measured two lines to put to death, and one full line to keep alive. The Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.
³ David struck also Hadadezer the son of Rehob, king of Tzobah, as he went to recover his dominion at the River.
⁴ David took from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.
⁵ When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Tzobah, David struck of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.
⁶ Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. Yahuwah gave victory to David wherever he went.
⁷ David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Yerushalayim.
⁸ From Betah and from Berotai, cities of Hadadezer, king David took exceeding much brass.
⁹ When Toi king of Hamat heard that David had struck all the army of Hadadezer,
¹⁰ then Toi sent Yoram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him: for Hadadezer had wars with Toi. Yoram brought with him vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and vessels of brass:
¹¹ King David also dedicated these to Yahuwah, with the silver and gold that he dedicated of all the nations which he subdued;
¹² of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Amon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Tzobah.
¹³ David earned a reputation when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men.
¹⁴ He put garrisons in Edom; throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahuwah gave victory to David wherever he went.
¹⁵ David reigned over all Yisra’el; and David executed justice and righteousness to all his people.
¹⁶ Yo’av the son of Azariyah was over the army; and Yahushafat the son of Ahilud was recorder;
¹⁷ and Tzadok the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Seraiyah was scribe;
¹⁸ and Benaiyah the son of Yahuiada was over the Cherethites and the Peletites; and David‘s sons were chief ministers.

¹ David said, “Is there yet any who is left of the house of Sha’ul, that I may show him kindness for Yonatan‘s sake?”
² There was of the house of Sha’ul a servant whose name was Tziba, and they called him to David; and the king said to him, “Are you Tziba?” He said, “Your servant is he.”
³ The king said, “Is there not yet any of the house of Sha’ul, that I may show the kindness of Elohim to him?” Tziba said to the king, “Yonatan has yet a son, who is lame of his feet.”
⁴ The king said to him, “Where is he?” Tziba said to the king, “Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Amiel, in Lo Debar.”
⁵ Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir the son of Amiel, from Lo Debar.
⁶ Mefiboshet, the son of Yonatan, the son of Sha’ul, came to David, and fell on his face, and showed respect. David said, “Mefiboshet.” He answered, “Behold, your servant!”
⁷ David said to him, “Don’t be afraid of him; for I will surely show you kindness for Yonatan your father’s sake, and will restore to you all the land of Sha’ul your father. You shall eat bread at my table continually.”
⁸ He bowed down, and said, “What is your servant, that you should look on such a dead dog as I am?”
⁹ Then the king called to Tziba, Sha’ul‘s servant, and said to him, “All that pertained to Sha’ul and to all his house have I given to your master’s son.
¹⁰ You shall till the land for him, you, and your sons, and your servants; and you shall bring in the harvest, that your master’s son may have bread to eat: but Mefiboshet your master’s son shall eat bread always at my table.” Now Tziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
¹¹ Then Tziba said to the king, “According to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so your shall servant do.” So Mefiboshet ate at the king’s table, like one of the king’s sons.
¹² Mefiboshet had a young son, whose name was Mica. All that lived in the house of Tziba were servants to Mefiboshet.
¹³ So Mefiboshet lived in Yerushalayim; for he ate continually at the king’s table. He was lame in both his feet.

¹ It happened after this, that the king of the children of Amon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place.
² David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent by his servants to comfort him concerning his father. David‘s servants came into the land of the children of Amon.
³ But the princes of the children of Amon said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Hasn’t David sent his servants to you to search the city, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?”
⁴ So Hanun took David‘s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.
⁵ When they told it to David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, “Wait at Yericho until your beards have grown, and then return.”
⁶ When the children of Amon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Amon sent and hired the Syrians of Beit Rehob, and the Syrians of Tzobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with one thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men.
⁷ When David heard of it, he sent Yo’av, and all the army of the mighty men.
⁸ The children of Amon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate: and the Syrians of Tzobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.
⁹ Now when Yo’av saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Yisra’el, and put them in array against the Syrians:
¹⁰ The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and he put them in array against the children of Amon.
¹¹ He said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the children of Amon are too strong for you, then I will come and help you.
¹² Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our Elohim; and Yahuwah do that which seems good to him.”
¹³ So Yo’av and the people who were with him drew near to the battle against the Syrians: and they fled before him.
¹⁴ When the children of Amon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, and entered into the city. Then Yo’av returned from the children of Amon, and came to Yerushalayim.
¹⁵ When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Yisra’el, they gathered themselves together.
¹⁶ Hadadezer sent, and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach the captain of the army of Hadadezer at their head.
¹⁷ It was told David; and he gathered all Yisra’el together, and passed over the Yarden, and came to Helam. The Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him.
¹⁸ The Syrians fled before Yisra’el; and David killed of the Syrians seven hundred charioteers, and forty thousand horsemen, and struck Shobach the captain of their army, so that he died there.
¹⁹ When all the kings who were servants to Hadadezer saw that they were defeated before Yisra’el, they made peace with Yisra’el, and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the children of Amon any more.

¹ It happened, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that David sent Yo’av, and his servants with him, and all Yisra’el; and they destroyed the children of Amon, and besieged Rabah. But David stayed at Yerushalayim.
² It happened at evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked on the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful to look on.
³ David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bat-Sheva, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriyah the Hitite?”
⁴ David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.
⁵ The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
⁶ David sent to Yo’av, “Send me Uriyah the Hitite.” Yo’av sent Uriyah to David.
⁷ When Uriyah had come to him, David asked of him how Yo’av did, and how the people fared, and how the war prospered.
⁸ David said to Uriyah. “Go down to your house, and wash your feet.” Uriyah departed out of the king’s house, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
⁹ But Uriyah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and didn’t go down to his house.
¹⁰ When they had told David, saying, “Uriyah didn’t go down to his house,” David said to Uriyah. “Haven’t you come from a journey? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”
¹¹ Uriyah said to David, “The ark, Yisra’el, and Yehudah, are staying in tents; and my lord Yo’av, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in the open field. Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing!”
¹² David said to Uriyah. “Stay here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.” So Uriyah stayed in Yerushalayim that day, and the next day.
¹³ When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house.
¹⁴ It happened in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Yo’av, and sent it by the hand of Uriyah.
¹⁵ He wrote in the letter, saying, “Send Uriyah to the forefront of the hottest battle, and retreat from him, that he may be struck, and die.”
¹⁶ It happened, when Yo’av kept watch on the city, that he assigned Uriyah to the place where he knew that valiant men were.
¹⁷ The men of the city went out, and fought with Yo’av. Some of the people fell, even of the servants of David; and Uriyah the Hitite died also.
¹⁸ Then Yo’av sent and told David all the things concerning the war;
¹⁹ and he commanded the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling all the things concerning the war to the king,
²⁰ it shall be that, if the king’s wrath arise, and he asks you, ‘Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would shoot from the wall?
²¹ who struck Abimelech the son of Yerubeshet? Didn’t a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriyah the Hitite is dead also.’”
²² So the messenger went, and came and showed David all that Yo’av had sent him for.
²³ The messenger said to David, “The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were on them even to the entrance of the gate.
²⁴ The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriyah the Hitite is dead also.”
²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall tell Yo’av, ‘Don’t let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Make your battle stronger against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage him.”
²⁶ When the wife of Uriyah heard that Uriyah her husband was dead, she made lamentation for her husband.
²⁷ When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahuwah.

¹ Yahuwah sent Natan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
² The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
³ but the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and raised. It grew up together with him, and with his children. It ate of his own food, drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was to him like a daughter.
⁴ A traveler came to the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but took the poor man’s lamb, and dressed it for the man who had come to him.”
⁵ David‘s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Natan, “As Yahuwah lives, the man who has done this is worthy to die!
⁶ He shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity!”
⁷ Natan said to David, “You are the man. This is what Yahuwah, the Elohim of Yisra’el, says: ‘I anointed you king over Yisra’el, and I delivered you out of the hand of Sha’ul.
⁸ I gave you your master’s house, and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Yisra’el and of Yehudah; and if that would have been too little, I would have added to you many more such things.
⁹ Why have you despised the word of Yahuwah, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriyah the Hitite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Amon.
¹⁰ Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriyah the Hitite to be your wife.’
¹¹ “This is what Yahuwah says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.
¹² For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Yisra’el, and before the sun.’”
¹³ David said to Natan, “I have sinned against Yahuwah.” Natan said to David, “Yahuwah also has put away your sin. You will not die.
¹⁴ However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to Yahuwah‘s enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
¹⁵ Natan departed to his house. Yahuwah struck the child that Uriyah’s wife bore to David, and it was very sick.
¹⁶ David therefore begged Elohim for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth.
¹⁷ The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them.
¹⁸ It happened on the seventh day, that the child died. The servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he didn’t listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?”
¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”
²⁰ Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his clothing; and he came into the house of Yahuwah, and worshiped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he ate.
²¹ Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child was dead, you rose up and ate bread.”
²² He said, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows whether Yahuwah will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?’
²³ But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.”
²⁴ David comforted Bat-Sheva his wife, and went in to her, and lay with her. She bore a son, and he called his name Shlomo. Yahuwah loved him;
²⁵ and he sent by the hand of Natan the prophet; and he named him Yedidiyah. for Yahuwah‘s sake.
²⁶ Now Yo’av fought against Rabah of the children of Amon, and took the royal city.
²⁷ Yo’av sent messengers to David, and said, “I have fought against Rabah. Yes, I have taken the city of waters.
²⁸ Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it; lest I take the city, and it be called after my name.”
²⁹ David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabah, and fought against it, and took it.
³⁰ He took the crown of their king from off his head; and its weight was a talent of gold, and in it were precious stones; and it was set on David‘s head. He brought out the spoil of the city, exceeding much.
³¹ He brought out the people who were therein, and put them under saws, and under iron picks, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and he did so to all the cities of the children of Amon. David and all the people returned to Yerushalayim.

¹ It happened after this, that Abshalom the son of David had a beautiful sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
² Amnon was so troubled that he fell sick because of his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her.
³ But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Yonadab, the son of Shimeah, David‘s brother; and Yonadab was a very subtle man.
⁴ He said to him, “Why, son of the king, are you so sad from day to day? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon said to him, “I love Tamar, my brother Abshalom’s sister.”
⁵ Yahunadab said to him, “Lay down on your bed, and pretend to be sick. When your father comes to see you, tell him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me bread to eat, and dress the food in my sight, that I may see it, and eat it from her hand.’”
⁶ So Amnon lay down and faked being sick. When the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, “Please let my sister Tamar come, and make me a couple of cakes in my sight, that I may eat from her hand.”
⁷ Then David sent home to Tamar, saying, “Go now to your brother Amnon’s house, and prepare food for him.”
⁸ So Tamar went to her brother Amnon’s house; and he was laid down. She took dough, and kneaded it, and made cakes in his sight, and baked the cakes.
⁹ She took the pan, and poured them out before him; but he refused to eat. Amnon said, “Have all men leave me.” Every man went out from him.
¹⁰ Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the room, that I may eat from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes which she had made, and brought them into the room to Amnon her brother.
¹¹ When she had brought them near to him to eat, he took hold of her, and said to her, “Come, lie with me, my sister!”
¹² She answered him, “No, my brother, do not force me! For no such thing ought to be done in Yisra’el. Don’t you do this folly.
¹³ I, where would I carry my shame? And as for you, you will be as one of the fools in Yisra’el. Now therefore, please speak to the king; for he will not withhold me from you.”
¹⁴ However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.
¹⁵ Then Amnon hated her with exceeding great hatred; for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her. Amnon said to her, “Arise, be gone!”
¹⁶ She said to him, “Not so, because this great wrong in sending me away is worse than the other that you did to me!” But he would not listen to her.
¹⁷ Then he called his servant who ministered to him, and said, “Put now this woman out from me, and bolt the door after her.”
¹⁸ She had a garment of various colors on her; for with such robes were the king’s daughters who were virgins dressed. Then his servant brought her out, and bolted the door after her.
¹⁹ Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.
²⁰ Abshalom her brother said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? But now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Abshalom’s house.
²¹ But when king David heard of all these things, he was very angry.
²² Abshalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad; for Abshalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.
²³ It happened after two full years, that Abshalom had sheepshearers in Baal Hazor, which is beside Efrayim: and Abshalom invited all the king’s sons.
²⁴ Abshalom came to the king, and said, “See now, your servant has sheepshearers. Please let the king and his servants go with your servant.”
²⁵ The king said to Abshalom, “No, my son, let us not all go, lest we be burdensome to you.” He pressed him; however he would not go, but blessed him.
²⁶ Then Abshalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.” The king said to him, “Why should he go with you?”
²⁷ But Abshalom pressed him, and he let Amnon and all the king’s sons go with him.
²⁸ Abshalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
²⁹ The servants of Abshalom did to Amnon as Abshalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and every man got up on his mule, and fled.
³⁰ It happened, while they were in the way, that the news came to David, saying, “Abshalom has slain all the king’s sons, and there is not one of them left!”
³¹ Then the king arose, and tore his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.
³² Yahunadab, the son of Shimeah, David‘s brother, answered, “Don’t let my lord suppose that they have killed all the young men the king’s sons; for Amnon only is dead; for by the appointment of Abshalom this has been determined from the day that he forced his sister Tamar.
³³ Now therefore don’t let my lord the king take the thing to his heart, to think that all the king’s sons are dead; for Amnon only is dead.”
³⁴ But Abshalom fled. The young man who kept the watch lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, many people were coming by way of the hillside behind him.
³⁵ Yahunadab said to the king, “Behold, the king’s sons are coming! It is as your servant said.”
³⁶ It happened, as soon as he had finished speaking, that behold, the king’s sons came, and lifted up their voice, and wept. The king also and all his servants wept bitterly.
³⁷ But Abshalom fled, and went to Talmai the son of Amihur, king of Geshur. David mourned for his son every day.
³⁸ So Abshalom fled, and went to Geshur, and was there three years.
³⁹ King David longed to go forth to Abshalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, since he was dead.

¹ Now Yo’av the son of Azariyah perceived that the king’s heart was toward Abshalom.
² Yo’av sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
³ Go in to the king, and speak like this to him.” So Yo’av put the words in her mouth.
⁴ When the woman of Tekoa spoke to the king, she fell on her face to the ground, showed respect, and said, “Help, O king!”
⁵ The king said to her, “What ails you?” She answered, “Truly I am a widow, and my husband is dead.
⁶ Your handmaid had two sons, and they both fought together in the field, and there was no one to part them, but the one struck the other, and killed him.
⁷ Behold, the whole family has risen against your handmaid, and they say, ‘Deliver him who struck his brother, that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he killed, and so destroy the heir also.’ Thus they would quench my coal which is left, and would leave to my husband neither name nor remainder on the surface of the earth.”
⁸ The king said to the woman, “Go to your house, and I will give a command concerning you.”
⁹ The woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord, O king, the iniquity be on me, and on my father’s house; and the king and his throne be guiltless.”
¹⁰ The king said, “Whoever says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall not touch you any more.”
¹¹ Then she said, “Please let the king remember Yahuwah your Elohim, that the avenger of blood destroy not any more, lest they destroy my son.” He said, “As Yahuwah lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the earth.”
¹² Then the woman said, “Please let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king.” He said, “Say on.”
¹³ The woman said, “Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of Elohim? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one.
¹⁴ For we must die, and are as water split on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does Elohim take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him.
¹⁵ Now therefore seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid: and your handmaid said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.’
¹⁶ For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of Elohim.
¹⁷ Then your handmaid said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an Melech of Elohim (angel-messenger-king), so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May Yahuwah, your Elohim, be with you.’”
¹⁸ Then the king answered the woman, “Please don’t hide anything from me that I ask you.” The woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”
¹⁹ The king said, “Is the hand of Yo’av with you in all this?” The woman answered, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Yo’av, he urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid;
²⁰ to change the face of the matter has your servant Yo’av done this thing. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an Melech of Elohim (angel-messenger-king), to know all things that are in the earth.”
²¹ The king said to Yo’av, “Behold now, I have done this thing. Go therefore, bring the young man Abshalom back.”
²² Yo’av fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Yo’av said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.”
²³ So Yo’av arose and went to Geshur, and brought Abshalom to Yerushalayim.
²⁴ The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Abshalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.
²⁵ Now in all Yisra’el there was none to be so much praised as Abshalom for his beauty: from the sole of his foot even to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.
²⁶ When he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year’s end that he cut it; because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it); he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king’s weight.
²⁷ To Abshalom there were born three sons, and one daughter, whose name was Tamar: she was a woman of a beautiful face.
²⁸ Abshalom lived two full years in Yerushalayim; and he didn’t see the king’s face.
²⁹ Then Abshalom sent for Yo’av, to send him to the king; but he would not come to him: and he sent again a second time, but he would not come.
³⁰ Therefore he said to his servants, “Behold, Yo’av‘s field is near mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire.” Abshalom’s servants set the field on fire.
³¹ Then Yo’av arose, and came to Abshalom to his house, and said to him, “Why have your servants set my field on fire?”
³² Abshalom answered Yo’av, “Behold, I sent to you, saying, ‘Come here, that I may send you to the king, to say, “Why have I come from Geshur? It would be better for me to be there still. Now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.”’”
³³ So Yo’av came to the king, and told him; and when he had called for Abshalom, he came to the king, and bowed himself on his face to the ground before the king: and the king kissed Abshalom.

¹ It happened after this, that Abshalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.
² Abshalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. It was so, that when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Abshalom called to him, and said, “What city are you from?” He said, “Your servant is of one of the tribes of Yisra’el.”
³ Abshalom said to him, “Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you.”
⁴ Abshalom said moreover, “Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!”
⁵ It was so, that when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.
⁶ Abshalom did this sort of thing to all Yisra’el who came to the king for judgment. So Abshalom stole the hearts of the men of Yisra’el.
⁷ It happened at the end of forty years, that Abshalom said to the king, “Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to Yahuwah, in Hebron.
⁸ For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, ‘If Yahuwah shall indeed bring me again to Yerushalayim, then I will serve Yahuwah.’”
⁹ The king said to him, “Go in peace.” So he arose, and went to Hebron.
¹⁰ But Abshalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Yisra’el, saying, “As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, ‘Abshalom is king in Hebron!’”
¹¹ Two hundred men went with Abshalom out of Yerushalayim, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they didn’t know anything.
¹² Abshalom sent for Ahitofel the Gilonite, David‘s counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Abshalom.
¹³ A messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Yisra’el are after Abshalom.”
¹⁴ David said to all his servants who were with him at Yerushalayim, “Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Abshalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword.”
¹⁵ The king’s servants said to the king, “Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses.”
¹⁶ The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.
¹⁷ The king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beit Merhak.
¹⁸ All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cheretites, and all the Peletites, and all the Gitites, six hundred men who came after him from Gat, passed on before the king.
¹⁹ Then the king said to Itai the Gitite, “Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place.
²⁰ Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you.”
²¹ Itai answered the king, and said, “As Yahuwah lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall is, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be.”
²² David said to Itai, “Go and pass over.” Itai the Gitite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.
²³ All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.
²⁴ Behold, Tzadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of Elohim; and they set down the ark of Elohim; and Abiatar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city.
²⁵ The king said to Tzadok, “Carry back the ark of Elohim into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of Yahuwah, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation;
²⁶ but if he say thus, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him.”
²⁷ The king said also to Tzadok the priest, “Aren’t you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Yonatan the son of Abiatar.
²⁸ Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me.”
²⁹ Tzadok therefore and Abiatar carried the ark of Elohim again to Yerushalayim; and they stayed there.
³⁰ David went up by the ascent of Har HaZeitim (Mount of Olives), and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
³¹ Someone told David, saying, “Ahitofel is among the conspirators with Abshalom.” David said, “Yahuwah, please turn the counsel of Ahitofel into foolishness.”
³² It happened that when David had come to the top, where Elohim was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.
³³ David said to him, “If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me;
³⁴ but if you return to the city, and tell Abshalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father’s servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahitofel.’
³⁵ Don’t you have Tzadok and Abiatar the priests there with you? Therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king’s house, you shall tell it to Tzadok and Abiatar the priests.
³⁶ Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Tzadok‘s son, and Yonatan, Abiatar’s son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear.”
³⁷ So Hushai, David‘s friend, came into the city; and Abshalom came into Yerushalayim.

¹ When David was a little past the top, behold, Tziba the servant of Mefiboshet met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.
² The king said to Tziba, What do you mean by these? Tziba said, The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink.
³ The king said, “Where is your master’s son?” Tziba said to the king, “Behold, he is staying in Yerushalayim; for he said, ‘Today the house of Yisra’el will restore me the kingdom of my father.’”
⁴ Then the king said to Tziba, “Behold, all that pertains to Mefiboshet is yours.” Tziba said, “I do obeisance. Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king.”
⁵ When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of the house of Sha’ul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, and cursed still as he came.
⁶ He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.
⁷ Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow!
⁸ Yahuwah has returned on you all the blood of the house of Sha’ul, in whose place you have reigned! Yahuwah has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Abshalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!”
⁹ Then Abishai the son of Azariyah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.”
¹⁰ The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Azariyah? Because he curses, and because Yahuwah has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”
¹¹ David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Binyaminite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahuwah has invited him.
¹² It may be that Yahuwah will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahuwah will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
¹³ So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust.
¹⁴ The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there.
¹⁵ Abshalom, and all the people, the men of Yisra’el, came to Yerushalayim, and Ahitofel with him.
¹⁶ It happened, when Hushai the Archite, David‘s friend, had come to Abshalom, that Hushai said to Abshalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”
¹⁷ Abshalom said to Hushai, “Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”
¹⁸ Hushai said to Abshalom, “No; but whomever Yahuwah, and this people, and all the men of Yisra’el have chosen, his will I be, and with him I will stay.
¹⁹ Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so will I be in your presence.”
²⁰ Then Abshalom said to Ahitofel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.”
²¹ Ahitofel said to Abshalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines, that he has left to keep the house. Then all Yisra’el will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”
²² So they spread Abshalom a tent on the top of the house; and Abshalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Yisra’el.
²³ The counsel of Ahitofel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of Elohim: so was all the counsel of Ahitofel both with David and with Abshalom.

¹ Moreover Ahitofel said to Abshalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
² I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him shall flee. I will strike the king only;
³ and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”
⁴ The saying pleased Abshalom well, and all the elders of Yisra’el.
⁵ Then Abshalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.”
⁶ When Hushai had come to Abshalom, Abshalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahitofel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”
⁷ Hushai said to Abshalom, “The counsel that Ahitofel has given this time is not good.”
⁸ Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
⁹ Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Abshalom!’
¹⁰ Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Yisra’el knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.
¹¹ But I counsel that all Yisra’el be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.
¹² So shall we come on him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not leave so much as one.
¹³ Moreover, if he be gone into a city, then shall all Yisra’el bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.”
¹⁴ Abshalom and all the men of Yisra’el said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahitofel.” For Yahuwah had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahitofel, to the intent that Yahuwah might bring evil on Abshalom.
¹⁵ Then Hushai said to Tzadok and to Abiatar the priests, “Ahitofel counseled Abshalom and the elders of Yisra’el that way; and I have counseled this way.
¹⁶ Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”
¹⁷ Now Yonatan and Ahimaaz were staying by Ein Rogel; and a female servant used to go and tell them; and they went and told king David. For they might not be seen to come into the city.
¹⁸ But a boy saw them, and told Abshalom. Then they both went away quickly, and came to the house of a man in Bahurim, who had a well in his court; and they went down there.
¹⁹ The woman took and spread the covering over the well’s mouth, and spread out bruised grain on it; and nothing was known.
²⁰ Abshalom’s servants came to the woman to the house; and they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Yonatan?” The woman said to them, “They have gone over the brook of water.” When they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Yerushalayim.
²¹ It happened, after they had departed, that they came up out of the well, and went and told king David; and they said to David, “Arise and pass quickly over the water; for thus has Ahitofel counseled against you.”
²² Then David arose, and all the people who were with him, and they passed over the Yarden. By the morning light there lacked not one of them who had not gone over the Yarden.
²³ When Ahitofel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and went home, to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself; and he died, and was buried in the tomb of his father.
²⁴ Then David came to Mahanaim. Abshalom passed over the Yarden, he and all the men of Yisra’el with him.
²⁵ Abshalom set Amasa over the army instead of Yo’av. Now Amasa was the son of a man, whose name was Ithra the Yisra’elite, who went in to Avigayil the daughter of Nahash, sister to Azariyah. Yo’av‘s mother.
²⁶ Yisra’el and Abshalom encamped in the land of Gilead.
²⁷ It happened, when David had come to Mahanaim, that Shobi the son of Nahash of Rabah of the children of Amon, and Machir the son of Amiel of Lodebar, and Barzillai the Gileadite of Rogelim,
²⁸ brought beds, basins, earthen vessels, wheat, barley, meal, parched grain, beans, lentils, roasted grain,
²⁹ honey, butter, sheep, and cheese of the herd, for David, and for the people who were with him, to eat: for they said, “The people are hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness.”

¹ David numbered the people who were with him, and set captains of thousands and captains of hundreds over them.
² David sent forth the people, a third part under the hand of Yo’av, and a third part under the hand of Abishai the son of Azariyah. Yo’av‘s brother, and a third part under the hand of Itai the Gitite. The king said to the people, “I will surely go forth with you myself also.”
³ But the people said, “You shall not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; neither if half of us die, will they care for us. But you are worth ten thousand of us. Therefore now it is better that you are ready to help us out of the city.”
⁴ The king said to them, “I will do what seems best to you.” The king stood beside the gate, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.
⁵ The king commanded Yo’av and Abishai and Itai, saying, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Abshalom.” All the people heard when the king commanded all the captains concerning Abshalom.
⁶ So the people went out into the field against Yisra’el: and the battle was in the forest of Efrayim.
⁷ The people of Yisra’el were struck there before the servants of David, and there was a great slaughter there that day of twenty thousand men.
⁸ For the battle was there spread over the surface of all the country; and the forest devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
⁹ Abshalom happened to meet the servants of David. Abshalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the sky and earth; and the mule that was under him went on.
¹⁰ A certain man saw it, and told Yo’av, and said, “Behold, I saw Abshalom hanging in an oak.”
¹¹ Yo’av said to the man who told him, “Behold, you saw it, and why didn’t you strike him there to the ground? I would have given you ten pieces of silver, and a sash.”
¹² The man said to Yo’av, “Though I should receive a thousand pieces of silver in my hand, I still wouldn’t put forth my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Itai, saying, ‘Beware that none touch the young man Abshalom.’
¹³ Otherwise if I had dealt falsely against his life (and there is no matter hidden from the king), then you yourself would have set yourself against me.”
¹⁴ Then Yo’av said, “I’m not going to wait like this with you.” He took three darts in his hand, and thrust them through the heart of Abshalom, while he was yet alive in the midst of the oak.
¹⁵ Ten young men who bore Yo’av‘s armor surrounded and struck Abshalom, and killed him.
¹⁶ Yo’av blew the trumpet, and the people returned from pursuing after Yisra’el; for Yo’av held back the people.
¹⁷ They took Abshalom, and cast him into the great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Then all Yisra’el fled everyone to his tent.
¹⁸ Now Abshalom in his lifetime had taken and reared up for himself the pillar, which is in the king’s dale; for he said, “I have no son to keep my name in memory.” He called the pillar after his own name; and it is called Abshalom’s monument, to this day.
¹⁹ Then Ahimaaz the son of Tzadok said, “Let me now run, and bear the king news, how that Yahuwah has avenged him of his enemies.”
²⁰ Yo’av said to him, “You shall not be the bearer of news this day, but you shall bear news another day. But today you shall bear no news, because the king’s son is dead.”
²¹ Then Yo’av said to the Cushite, “Go, tell the king what you have seen!” The Cushite bowed himself to Yo’av, and ran.
²² Then Ahimaaz the son of Tzadok said yet again to Yo’av, “But come what may, please let me also run after the Cushite.” Yo’av said, “Why do you want to run, my son, since that you will have no reward for the news?”
²³ “But come what may,” he said, “I will run.” He said to him, “Run!” Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and outran the Cushite.
²⁴ Now David was sitting between the two gates: and the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.
²⁵ The watchman cried, and told the king. The king said, “If he is alone, there is news in his mouth.” He came closer and closer.
²⁶ The watchman saw another man running; and the watchman called to the porter, and said, “Behold, a man running alone!” The king said, “He also brings news.”
²⁷ The watchman said, “I think the running of the first one is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Tzadok.” The king said, “He is a good man, and comes with good news.”
²⁸ Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, “All is well.” He bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, “Blessed is Yahuwah your Elohim, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the king!”
²⁹ The king said, “Is it well with the young man Abshalom?” Ahimaaz answered, “When Yo’av sent the king’s servant, even me your servant, I saw a great tumult, but I don’t know what it was.”
³⁰ The king said, “Turn aside, and stand here.” He turned aside, and stood still.
³¹ Behold, the Cushite came. The Cushite said, “News for my lord the king; for Yahuwah has avenged you this day of all those who rose up against you.”
³² The king said to the Cushite, “Is it well with the young man Abshalom?” The Cushite answered, “May the enemies of my lord the king, and all who rise up against you to do you harm, be as that young man is.”
³³ The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Abshalom! My son, my son Abshalom! I wish I had died for you, Abshalom, my son, my son!”

¹ It was told Yo’av, “Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Abshalom.”
² The victory that day was turned into mourning to all the people; for the people heard it said that day, “The king grieves for his son.”
³ The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle.
⁴ The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Abshalom, Abshalom, my son, my son!”
⁵ Yo’av came into the house to the king, and said, “You have shamed this day the faces of all your servants, who this day have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines;
⁶ in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared this day, that princes and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Abshalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it would have pleased you well.
⁷ Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by Yahuwah, if you don’t go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now.”
⁸ Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” All the people came before the king. Now Yisra’el had fled every man to his tent.
⁹ All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Yisra’el, saying, “The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land from Abshalom.
¹⁰ Abshalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why don’t you speak a word of bringing the king back?”
¹¹ King David sent to Tzadok and to Abiatar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Yehudah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the speech of all Yisra’el has come to the king, to return him to his house.
¹² You are my brothers, you are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?’
¹³ Say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my bone and my flesh? Elohim do so to me, and more also, if you aren’t captain of the army before me continually in the room of Yo’av.’”
¹⁴ He bowed the heart of all the men of Yehudah, even as one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants.”
¹⁵ So the king returned, and came to the Yarden. Yehudah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Yarden.
¹⁶ Shimei the son of Gera, the Binyaminite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Yehudah to meet king David.
¹⁷ There were a thousand men of Binyamin with him, and Tziba the servant of the house of Sha’ul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Yarden in the presence of the king.
¹⁸ A ferry boat went to bring over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Yarden.
¹⁹ He said to the king, “Don’t let my lord impute iniquity to me, nor remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Yerushalayim, that the king should take it to his heart.
²⁰ For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore, behold, I have come this day the first of all the house of Yosef to go down to meet my lord the king.”
²¹ But Abishai the son of Azariyah answered, “Shall Shimei not be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahuwah‘s anointed?”
²² David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Azariyah. that you should this day be adversaries to me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Yisra’el? For don’t I know that I am this day king over Yisra’el?”
²³ The king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” The king swore to him.
²⁴ Mefiboshet the son of Sha’ul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.
²⁵ It happened, when he had come to Yerushalayim to meet the king, that the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mefiboshet?”
²⁶ He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride thereon, and go with the king; because your servant is lame.
²⁷ He has slandered your servant to my lord the king; but my lord the king is as a Melech of Elohim (angel-messenger-king). Do therefore what is good in your eyes.
²⁸ For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?”
²⁹ The king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Tziba divide the land.”
³⁰ Mefiboshet said to the king, “Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house.”
³¹ Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Yarden with the king, to conduct him over the Yarden.
³² Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old: and he had provided the king with sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.
³³ The king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Yerushalayim.”
³⁴ Barzillai said to the king, “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Yerushalayim?
³⁵ I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?
³⁶ Your servant would but just go over the Yarden with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward?
³⁷ Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you.”
³⁸ The king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you require of me, that I will do for you.”
³⁹ All the people went over the Yarden, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place.
⁴⁰ So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him. All the people of Yehudah brought the king over, and also half the people of Yisra’el.
⁴¹ Behold, all the men of Yisra’el came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Yehudah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Yarden, and all David‘s men with him?”
⁴² All the men of Yehudah answered the men of Yisra’el, “Because the king is a close relative to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s cost? Or has he given us any gift?”
⁴³ The men of Yisra’el answered the men of Yehudah, and said, “We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?” The words of the men of Yehudah were fiercer than the words of the men of Yisra’el.

¹ There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Binyaminite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Yese. Every man to his tents, Yisra’el!”
² So all the men of Yisra’el went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Yehudah joined with their king, from the Yarden even to Yerushalayim.
³ David came to his house at Yerushalayim; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.
⁴ Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Yehudah together within three days, and be here present.”
⁵ So Amasa went to call the men of Yehudah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him.
⁶ David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Abshalom did. Take your lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.”
⁷ There went out after him Yo’av‘s men, and the Cheretites and the Peletites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Yerushalayim, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
⁸ When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Yo’av was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out.
⁹ Yo’av said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Yo’av took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.
¹⁰ But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Yo’av‘s hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Yo’av and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.
¹¹ There stood by him one of Yo’av‘s young men, and said, “He who favors Yo’av, and he who is for David, let him follow Yo’av!”
¹² Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.
¹³ When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Yo’av, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.
¹⁴ He went through all the tribes of Yisra’el to Abel, and to Beit Maacah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.
¹⁵ They came and besieged him in Abel of Beit Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Yo’av battered the wall, to throw it down.
¹⁶ Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Yo’av, ‘Come near here, that I may speak with you.’”
¹⁷ He came near to her; and the woman said, “Are you Yo’av?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your handmaid.” He answered, “I do hear.”
¹⁸ Then she spoke, saying, “They were used to say in old times, ‘They shall surely ask counsel at Abel;’ and so they settled it.
¹⁹ I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Yisra’el. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Yisra’el. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of Yahuwah?”
²⁰ Yo’av answered, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.
²¹ The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of Efrayim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.” The woman said to Yo’av, “Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.”
²² Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Yo’av. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Yo’av returned to Yerushalayim to the king.
²³ Now Yo’av was over all the army of Yisra’el; and Benaiyah the son of Yahuiada was over the Cheretites and over the Peletites;
²⁴ and Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor; and Yahushafat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;
²⁵ and Sheva was scribe; and Tzadok and Abiatar were priests;
²⁶ and also Ira the Yairite was chief minister to David.

¹ There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahuwah. Yahuwah said, “It is for Sha’ul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites.”
² The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Yisra’el, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Yisra’el had sworn to them: and Sha’ul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Yisra’el and Yehudah);
³ and David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahuwah?”
⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, “It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Sha’ul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Yisra’el.” He said, “Whatever you say, that will I do for you.”
⁵ They said to the king, “The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Yisra’el,
⁶ let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahuwah in Gibeah of Sha’ul, the chosen of Yahuwah.” The king said, “I will give them.”
⁷ But the king spared Mefiboshet, the son of Yonatan the son of Sha’ul, because of Yahuwah‘s oath that was between them, between David and Yonatan the son of Sha’ul.
⁸ But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiyah. whom she bore to Sha’ul, Armoni and Mefiboshet; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Sha’ul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholatite.
⁹ He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahuwah, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.
¹⁰ Rizpah the daughter of Aiyah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
¹¹ It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiyah. the concubine of Sha’ul, had done.
¹² David went and took the bones of Sha’ul and the bones of Yonatan his son from the men of Yabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beit Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Sha’ul in Gilboa;
¹³ and he brought up from there the bones of Sha’ul and the bones of Yonatan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.
¹⁴ They buried the bones of Sha’ul and Yonatan his son in the country of Binyamin in Tzela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that Elohim was entreated for the land.
¹⁵ The Philistines had war again with Yisra’el; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;
¹⁶ and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought to have slain David.
¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Azariyah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you don’t quench the lamp of Yisra’el.”
¹⁸ It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saf, who was of the sons of the giant.
¹⁹ There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Yaareoregim the Beit-Lechem ite killed Goliat the Gitite’s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.
²⁰ There was again war at Gat, where there was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.
²¹ When he defied Yisra’el, Yonatan the son of Shimei, David‘s brother, killed him.
²² These four were born to the giant in Gat; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

¹ David spoke to Yahuwah the words of this song in the day that Yahuwah delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Sha’ul:
² and he said, “Yahuwah is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
³ Elohim, my rock, in him I will take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence.
⁴ I will call on Yahuwah, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies.
⁵ For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of unrighteousness made me afraid.
⁶ The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.
⁷ In my distress I called on Yahuwah. Yes, I called to my Elohim. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came into his ears.
⁸ Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.
⁹ Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it.
¹⁰ He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.
¹¹ He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
¹² He made darkness pavilions around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
¹³ At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.
¹⁴ Yahuwah thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice.
¹⁵ He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them.
¹⁶ Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahuwah, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
¹⁷ He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters.
¹⁸ He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
¹⁹ They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahuwah was my support.
²⁰ He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
²¹ Yahuwah rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.
²² For I have kept the ways of Yahuwah, and have not wickedly departed from my Elohim.
²³ For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
²⁴ I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity.
²⁵ Therefore Yahuwah has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
²⁶ With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.
²⁷ With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
²⁸ You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.
²⁹ For you are my lamp, Yahuwah. Yahuwah will light up my darkness.
³⁰ For by you, I run against a troop. By my Elohim, I leap over a wall.
³¹ As for Elohim, his way is perfect. The word of Yahuwah is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
³² For who is Elohim, besides Yahuwah? Who is a rock, besides our Elohim?
³³ Elohim is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect.
³⁴ He makes his feet like hinds’ feet, and sets me on my high places.
³⁵ He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass.
³⁶ You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great.
³⁷ You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped.
³⁸ I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn’t turn again until they were consumed.
³⁹ I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can’t arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet.
⁴⁰ For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
⁴¹ You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me.
⁴² They looked, but there was none to save; even to Yahuwah, but he didn’t answer them.
⁴³ Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.
⁴⁴ You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.
⁴⁵ The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
⁴⁶ The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places.
⁴⁷ Yahuwah lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be Elohim, the rock of my salvation,
⁴⁸ even the Elohim who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me,
⁴⁹ who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.
⁵⁰ Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahuwah, among the nations. Will sing praises to your name.
⁵¹ He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forevermore.”

¹ Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Yese says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the Elohim of Ya’akov, the sweet psalmist of Yisra’el:
² “the Spirit of Yahuwah spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.
³ The Elohim of Yisra’el said, the Rock of Yisra’el spoke to me, ‘One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of Elohim,
⁴ shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.’
⁵ Most certainly my house is not so with Elohim, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he doesn’t make it grow.
⁶ But all of the unrighteous shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can’t be taken with the hand,
⁷ But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.”
⁸ These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Yosheb Basshebet a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time.
⁹ After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Yisra’el were gone away.
¹⁰ He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahuwah worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil.
¹¹ After him was Shamah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.
¹² But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahuwah worked a great victory.
¹³ Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adulam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Refaim.
¹⁴ David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beit-Lechem .
¹⁵ David longed, and said, “Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Beit-Lechem , which is by the gate!”
¹⁶ The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beit-Lechem , that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahuwah.
¹⁷ He said, “Be it far from me, Yahuwah, that I should do this! Isn’t it the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.
¹⁸ Abishai, the brother of Yo’av, the son of Azariyah. was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.
¹⁹ Wasn’t he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain: however he didn’t attain to the three.
²⁰ Benaiyah the son of Yahuiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.
²¹ He killed an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear.
²² Benaiyah the son of Yahuiada did these things, and had a name among the three mighty men.
²³ He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn’t attain to the three. David set him over his guard.
²⁴ Asahel the brother of Yo’av was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beit-Lechem ,
²⁵ ShAmah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,
²⁶ Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikesh the Tekoite,
²⁷ Abiezer the Anatotite, Mebunai the Hushatite,
²⁸ Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netofatite,
²⁹ Heleb the son of Baanah the Netofatite, Itai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Binyamin,
³⁰ Benaiyah a Piratonite, Hidai of the brooks of Gaash.
³¹ Abialbon the Arbatite, Azmavet the Barhumite,
³² Eliyahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Yashen, Yonatan,
³³ Shamah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite,
³⁴ Elifelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacatite, Eliam the son of Ahitofel the Gilonite,
³⁵ Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,
³⁶ Igal the son of Natan of Tzobah, Bani the Gadite,
³⁷ Tzelek the Amonite, Naharai the Beerotite, armor bearers to Yo’av the son of Azariyah.
³⁸ Ira the Itrite, Gareb the Itrite,
³⁹ Uriyah the Hitite: thirty-seven in all.

¹ Again the anger of Yahuwah was kindled against Yisra’el, and he moved David against them, saying, “Go, number Yisra’el and Yehudah.”
² The king said to Yo’av the captain of the army, who was with him, “Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Yisra’el, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people.”
³ Yo’av said to the king, “Now may Yahuwah your Elohim add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”
⁴ Notwithstanding, the king’s word prevailed against Yo’av, and against the captains of the army. Yo’av and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Yisra’el.
⁵ They passed over the Yarden, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Yazer:
⁶ then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Yaan, and around to Sidon,
⁷ and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Kanaanites; and they went out to the south of Yehudah, at Beersheba.
⁸ So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days.
⁹ Yo’av gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Yisra’el eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Yehudah were five hundred thousand men.
¹⁰ David‘s heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahuwah, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahuwah, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
¹¹ When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahuwah came to the prophet Gad, David‘s seer, saying,
¹² “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus says Yahuwah, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
¹³ So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”
¹⁴ David said to Gad, “I am in distress. Let us fall now into the hand of Yahuwah; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”
¹⁵ So Yahuwah sent a pestilence on Yisra’el from the morning even to the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.
¹⁶ When the angel stretched out his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, Yahuwah relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough. Now stay your hand.” Melech Yahuwah (King Yahuwah) (transl.: the Angel of the Lord) was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Yebusite.
¹⁷ David spoke to Yahuwah when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father’s house.”
¹⁸ Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahuwah on the threshing floor of Araunah the Yebusite.”
¹⁹ David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahuwah commanded.
²⁰ Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.
²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahuwah, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
²² Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:
²³ all this, king, does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah said to the king, “May Yahuwah your Elohim accept you.”
²⁴ The king said to Araunah, “No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahuwah my Elohim which cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
²⁵ David built an altar to Yahuwah there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahuwah was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Yisra’el.