2 Samuel 20–21

CHAPTER 20

Sheba Goes Up Against David

¹Now ^aa vile fellow happened to be there whose name was Sheba, the son of ^bBichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet and said,

“^cWe have no portion in David,

Nor do we have inheritance in ^dthe son of Jesse;

^eEvery man to his tents, O Israel!”

²So all the men of Israel went up from following David and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah clung to their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

³Then David came to his house at Jerusalem, and ^athe king took the ten women, the concubines whom he had left to keep the house, and placed them under guard and provided them with sustenance, but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as widows.

⁴Then the king said to ^aAmasa, “Call out the men of Judah for me within three days, and you yourself stand here.”

⁵So Amasa went to call out the men of Judah, but he ^adelayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

⁶And David said to ^aAbishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom; ^btake your lord’s servants and pursue him, lest he find for himself fortified cities and deliver himself from our sight.”

⁷So Joab’s men pursued him, ^aalong with the Cherethites and the Pelethites and all the mighty men; and they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

⁸They were at the large stone which is in ^aGibeon, and Amasa came ¹to meet them. Now Joab was ²dressed in his military attire, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened at his ³waist; and as he came out, it fell out.

⁹Then Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” And ^aJoab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

Joab Strikes Amasa

¹⁰But Amasa was not on guard against the sword which was in Joab’s hand so ^ahe struck him in the belly with it and poured out his inward parts on the ground, and did not strike him again, and he died. Then Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹¹Now there stood by him one of Joab’s young men, and said, “Whoever delights in Joab and whoever is for David, ^alet him follow Joab.”

¹²But Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. And the man saw that all the people stood still. So he ¹removed Amasa from the highway into the field and threw a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

The Beheading of Sheba

¹³As soon as he was removed from the highway, all the men passed on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹⁴Now he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, even Beth-maacah, and all the Berites; and they were assembled and also came after him.

¹⁵So they came and besieged him in ^aAbel Beth-maacah, and ^bthey ¹cast up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood by the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to cause the wall to fall.

¹⁶Then ^aa wise woman called from the city, “Hear, hear! Please tell Joab, ‘Draw near that I may speak with you.’”

¹⁷So he drew near to her, and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” And he answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your maidservant.” And he answered, “I am listening.”

¹⁸Then she spoke, saying, “Formerly they used to speak in this way, saying, ‘They will surely ask advice at Abel,’ and thus they ended the dispute.

¹⁹“I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. ^aYou are seeking to put to death a city, even a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up ^bthe inheritance of Yahweh?”

²⁰And Joab answered and said, “Far be it, far be it from me that I should swallow up or destroy!

²¹“Such is not the case. But a man from ^athe hill country of Ephraim, ^bSheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give him over alone, and I will go from the city.” And the woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

²²Then the woman came to all the people in her ^awisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So ^bhe blew the trumpet, and they were scattered from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.

^23aNow Joab was over the whole army of Israel, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites;

²⁴and Adoram was over the forced labor, and ^aJehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

²⁵and Sheva was scribe, and Zadok and ^aAbiathar were priests;

²⁶and Ira the Jairite was also a priest to David.

CHAPTER 21

David Gives Saul’s Sons to the Gibeonites

¹And there was ^aa famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and ^bDavid sought the presence of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, “It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.”

²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites, and ^athe sons of Israel ¹made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

³Thus David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And how can I make atonement that you may bless ^athe inheritance of Yahweh?”

⁴Then the Gibeonites said to him, “^aWe have no concern of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “I will do for you whatever you say.”

⁵So they said to the king, “^aThe man who consumed us and who planned ¹to eradicate us from standing within any border of Israel,

⁶let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will ¹hang them ^abefore Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, ^bthe chosen of Yahweh.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷But the king spared ^aMephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, ^bbecause of the oath of Yahweh which was between them, between David and Saul’s son Jonathan.

⁸So the king took the two sons of ^aRizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of ^1bMerab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the ^cMeholathite.

⁹Then he gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they ¹hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at ^athe beginning of barley harvest.

^10aAnd Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until ¹it rained on them from the sky; and ^bshe ²allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.

¹¹Then it was told to David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

¹²So David went and took ^athe bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of ^bBeth-shan, ^cwhere the Philistines had hanged them on the day ^dthe Philistines struck down Saul in Gilboa.

¹³And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there, and they gathered the bones of those who had been ¹hanged.

¹⁴Then they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin in ^aZela, in the grave of Kish his father; thus they did all that the king commanded, and afterwards ^bGod was moved by the entreaty for the land.

War with the Philistines

¹⁵And ^athe Philistines were at war again with Israel, so David went down and his servants with him; and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary.

¹⁶Then Ishbi-benob, who was ^aamong those born to the ¹giants, the weight of whose spear was ²three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, ³was girded with a new sword, and he ⁴intended to strike down David.

¹⁷But ^aAbishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and put him to death. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “^bYou shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish ^cthe lamp of Israel.”

^18aNow it happened afterwards that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob; then ^bSibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was among those born to the ¹giants.

¹⁹There was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite struck down ¹Goliath the Gittite, ^athe shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰Then there was war at Gath again, and there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born ^ato the ¹giants.

²¹And he ¹reproached Israel, so Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck him down.

^22aThese four were born to the ¹giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.