¹And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjaminite; and he blew a trumpet, and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, Israel. ²Then all the men of Israel went up from after David, following Sheba the son of Bichri. But the men of Judah clave to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. ³And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women, concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in a house of confinement and maintained them, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.

⁴And the king said to Amasa, Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and do thou attend here. ⁵So Amasa went to call together the men of Judah; but he delayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him. ⁶And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom. Take thou thy lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities and escape our sight. ⁷And there went out after him Joab’s men, and the Cherethites, and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. ⁸When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came before them. And Joab was girded with his coat, his dress, and upon it was the girdle of the sword which was fastened on his loins in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out. ⁹And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou well, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him. ¹⁰And Amasa had taken no notice of the sword that was in Joab’s hand: so he smote him with it in the belly and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. And Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri. ¹¹And one of Joab’s young men stood by Amasa and said, He that favours Joab, and he that is for David, let him follow Joab. ¹²Now Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that came by stood still. ¹³When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri,

¹⁴who went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth-Maacah, and all the Berim; and they gathered together, and went also after him. ¹⁵And they came and besieged him in Abel-Beth-Maacah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it was raised in the trench; and all the people that were with Joab sapped the wall, to throw it down. ¹⁶And a wise woman cried out of the city, Hear, hear: say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee. ¹⁷And he came near to her; and the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he said, I am he. And she said to him, Listen to the words of thy handmaid. And he said, I am listening. ¹⁸And she spoke saying, They were wont to speak in old time saying, Just inquire in Abel; and so they ended. ¹⁹I am peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of Jehovah? ²⁰And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. ²¹The matter is not so; but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David: give up him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. ²²Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³And Joab was over all the host of Israel; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites; ²⁴and Adoram was over the levy; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder; ²⁵and Sheva was scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ²⁶and Ira also, the Jairite, was David’s chief ruler.

Chapter 21

¹And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David inquired of Jehovah. And Jehovah said, It is for Saul, and for his house of blood, because he slew the Gibeonites. ²And the king called the Gibeonites, and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remainder of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to smite them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.) ³And David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and with what shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of Jehovah? ⁴And the Gibeonites said to him, As to Saul and his house, it is with us no question of receiving silver or gold, neither is it for us to have any man put to death in Israel. And he said, What ye say will I do for you. ⁵And they said to the king, The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in all the borders of Israel, ⁶let seven men of his sons be given up to us, and we will hang them up to Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah. And the king said, I will give them. ⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Jehovah’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸And the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she had borne to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of the sister of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before Jehovah. And they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the first days of the harvest, in the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens, and suffered neither the fowl of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹And it was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. ¹²And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the open place of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, the day the Philistines had smitten Saul in Gilboa; ¹³and he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. ¹⁴And they buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father; and they did all that the king had commanded. And afterwards God was propitious to the land.

¹⁵And the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought with the Philistines. And David was exhausted. ¹⁶And Ishbibenob, who was of the children of Raphah—the weight of his lance was three hundred shekels of bronze, and he was girded with new armour —thought to smite David. ¹⁷And Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel. ¹⁸And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines, at Gob; then Sibbechai the Hushathite smote Saph, who was of the children of Raphah. ¹⁹And there was again a battle at Gob with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, smote Goliath the Gittite; now the shaft of his spear was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰And there was again a battle, at Gath; and there was a man there of great stature, that had on each hand six fingers, and on each foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to Raphah. ²¹And he defied Israel; but Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother smote him. ²²These four were born to Raphah, in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

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