And there happened to be there a man of Belial, whose name was Seba, the son of Bochri, a man of Jemini: and he sounded the trumpet, and said: We have no part in David, nor inheritance in the son of Isai: return to thy dwellings, O Israel.

²And all Israel departed from David, and followed Seba the son of Bochri: but the men of Juda stuck to their king from the Jordan unto Jerusalem.

³And when the king was come into his house at Jerusalem, he took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them inward, allowing them provisions: and he went not in unto them, but they were shut up unto the day of their death living in widowhood.

⁴And the king said to Amasa: Assemble to me all the men of Juda against the third day, and be thou here present.

⁵So Amasa went to assemble the men of Juda, but he tarried beyond the set time which the king had appointed him.

⁶And David said to Abisai: Now will Seba the son of Bochri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou therefore the servants of thy lord, and pursue after him, lest he find fenced cities, and escape us.

⁷So Joab’s men went out with him, and the Cerethi and the Phelethi: and all the valiant men went out of Jerusalem to pursue after Seba the son of Bochri.

⁸And when they were at the great stone which is in Gabaon, Amasa coming met them. And Joab had on a close coat of equal length with his habit, and over it was girded with a sword hanging down to his flank, in a scabbard, made in such manner as to come out with the least motion and strike.

⁹And Joab said to Amasa: God save thee, my brother. And he took Amasa by the chin with his right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰But Amasa did not take notice of the sword, which Joab had, and he struck him in the side, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and gave him not a second wound, and he died. And Joab, and Abisai his brother pursued after Seba the son of Bochri.

¹¹In the mean time some men of Joab’s company stopping at the dead body of Amasa, said: Behold he that would have been in Joab’s stead the companion of David.

¹²And Amasa imbrued with blood, lay in the midst of the way. A certain man saw this that all the people stood still to look upon him, so he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and covered him with a garment, that they who passed might not stop on his account.

¹³And when he was removed out of the way, all the people went on following Joab to pursue after Seba the son of Bochri.

¹⁴Now he had passed through all the tribes of Israel unto Abela and Bethmaacha: and all the chosen men were gathered together unto him.

¹⁵And they came, and besieged him in Abela, and in Bethmaacha, and they cast up works round the city, and the city was besieged: and all the people that were with Joab, laboured to throw down the walls.

¹⁶And a wise woman cried out from the city: Hear, hear, and say to Joab: Come near hither, and I will speak with thee.

¹⁷And when he was come near to her, she said to him: Art thou Joab? And he answered: I am. And she spoke thus to him: Hear the words of thy handmaid. He answered: I do hear.

¹⁸And she again said: A saying was used in the old proverb: They that inquire, let them inquire in Abela: and so they made an end.

¹⁹Am not I she that answer truth in Israel, and thou seekest to destroy the city, and to overthrow a mother in Israel? Why wilt thou throw down the inheritance of the Lord?

²⁰And Joab answering said: God forbid, God forbid that I should, I do not throw down, nor destroy.

²¹The matter is not so, but a man of mount Ephraim, Seba the son of Bochri by name, hath lifted up his hand against king David: deliver him only, and we will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab: Behold his head shall be thrown to thee from the wall.

²²So she went to all the people, and spoke to them wisely: and they cut off the head of Seba the son of Bochri, and cast it out to Joab. And he sounded the trumpet, and they departed from the city, every one to their home: and Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³So Joab was over all the army of Israel: and Banaias the son of Joiada was over the Cerethites and Phelethites,

²⁴But Aduram over the tributes: and Josaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder.

²⁵And Siva was scribe: and Sadoc and Abiathar, priests.

²⁶And Ira the Jairite was the priest of David.

Chapter 21

And there was a famine in the days of David for three years successively: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slew the Gabaonites.

²Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda:)

³David therefore said to the Gabaonites: What shall I do for you? and what shall be the atonement for you, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

⁴And the Gabaonites said to him: We have no contest about silver and gold, but against Saul and against his house: neither do we desire that any man be slain of Israel. And the king said to them: What will you then that I should do for you?

⁵And they said to the king: The man that crushed us and oppressed us unjustly, we must destroy in such manner that there be not so much as one left of his stock in all the coasts of Israel.

⁶Let seven men of his children be delivered unto us, that we may crucify them to the Lord in Gabaa of Saul, once the chosen of the Lord. And the king said: I will give them.

⁷And the king spared Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

⁸So the king took the two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni, and Miphiboseth: and the five sons of Michol the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Hadriel the son of Berzellai, that was of Molathi:

⁹And gave them into the hands of the Gabaonites: and they crucified them on a hill before the Lord: and these seven died together in the first days of the harvest, when the barley began to be reaped.

¹⁰And Respha the daughter of Aia took haircloth, and spread it under her upon the rock from the beginning of the harvest, till water dropped upon them out of heaven: and suffered neither the birds to tear them by day, nor the beasts by night.

¹¹And it was told David, what Respha the daughter of Aia, 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 Jabes Galaad, who had stolen them from the street of Bethsan, where the Philistines had hanged them when they had slain Saul in Gelboe.

¹³And he brought from thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered up the bones of them that were crucified,

¹⁴And they buried them with the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in the side, in the sepulchre of Cis his father: and they did all that the king had commanded, and God shewed mercy again to the land after these things.

¹⁵And the Philistines made war again against Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David growing faint,

¹⁶Jesbibenob, who was of the race of Arapha, the iron of whose spear weighed three hundred ounces, being girded with a new sword, attempted to kill David.

¹⁷And Abisai the son of Sarvia rescued him, and striking the Philistine killed him. Then David’s men swore unto him saying: Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, lest thou put out the lamp of Israel.

¹⁸There was also a second battle in Gob against the Philistines: then Sobochai of Husathi slew Saph of the race of Arapha of the family of the giants.

¹⁹And there was a third battle in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus the son of the Forrest an embroiderer of Bethlehem slew Goliath the Gethite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰A fourth battle was in Geth: where there was a man of great stature, that had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, four and twenty in all, and he was of the race of Arapha.

²¹And he reproached Israel: and Jonathan the son of Samae the brother of David slew him.

²²These four were born of Arapha in Geth, and they fell by the hand of David, and of his servants.

Read in Logos

Public Domain