2 Samuel 20–21

The Rebellion of Sheba

²⁰Now a scoundrel named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjaminite, happened to be there. He sounded the trumpet and cried out,

“We have no portion in David,

no share in the son of Jesse!

Everyone to your tents, O Israel!”^*

²So all the people of Israel withdrew from David and followed Sheba son of Bichri, but the people of Judah followed their king steadfastly from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

³David came to his house at Jerusalem, and the king took the ten concubines whom he had left to look after the house and put them in a house under guard and provided for them but did not go in to them. So they were shut up until the day of their death, living as if in widowhood.^*

⁴Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself.”^{* 5}So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he delayed beyond the set time that had been appointed him. ⁶David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom; take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities for himself and escape from us.”^{* 7}Joab’s men went out after him, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the warriors; they went out from Jerusalem to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.^{* 8}When they were at the large stone that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Now Joab was wearing a soldier’s garment, and over it was a belt with a sword in its sheath fastened at his waist; as he went forward, it fell out. ⁹Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” And Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.^{* 10}But Amasa did not notice the sword in Joab’s hand; Joab struck him in the belly so that his entrails poured out on the ground, and he died. He did not strike a second blow.

Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.^{* 11}And one of Joab’s men took his stand by Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab.” ¹²Amasa lay wallowing in his blood on the highway, and the man saw that all the people were stopping. Since he saw that all who came by him were stopping, he carried Amasa from the highway into a field and threw a garment over him. ¹³Once he was removed from the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

¹⁴Sheba^g passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maacah,^h and all the Bichritesⁱ assembled and followed him inside. ¹⁵Joab’s forces^j came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maacah; they threw up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood against the rampart. Joab’s forces were battering the wall to break it down.^{* 16}Then a wise woman called from the city, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab, ‘Come here, I want to speak to you.’ ”^{* 17}He came near her, and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your servant.” He answered, “I am listening.” ¹⁸Then she said, “They used to say in the old days, ‘Let them inquire at Abel,’ and so they would settle a matter. ¹⁹I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel; you seek to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel; why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?”^{* 20}Joab answered, “Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy! ²¹That is not the case! But a man of the hill country of Ephraim called Sheba son of Bichri has lifted up his hand against King David; give him up alone, and I will withdraw from the city.” The woman said to Joab, “His head shall be thrown over the wall to you.”^{* 22}Then the woman went to all the people with her wise plan. And they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it out to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they dispersed from the city, and all went to their homes, while Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.^*

²³Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel;^k Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites;^{* 24}Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; ²⁵Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests;^{* 26}and Ira the Jairite was also David’s priest.^*

David Avenges the Gibeonites

²¹Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, and David inquired of the Lord. The Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his 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 people of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had tried to wipe them out in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.)^{* 3}David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?”^{* 4}The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” He said, “What do you say that I should do for you?”^{* 5}They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel,^{* 6}let seven of his sons be handed over to us, and we will impale them before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord.”^l The king said, “I will hand them over.”

⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul.^{* 8}The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab^m daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite;^{* 9}he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they impaled them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it on a rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell on them from the heavens; she did not allow the birds of the air to come on the bodiesⁿ by day or the wild animals by night.^{* 11}When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, ¹²David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the people of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa.^{* 13}He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan, and they gathered the bones of those who had been impaled. ¹⁴They buried the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish; they did all that the king commanded. After that, God heeded supplications for the land.^*

Exploits of David’s Men

¹⁵The Philistines went to war again with Israel, and David went down together with his servants. They fought against the Philistines, and David grew weary. ¹⁶Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze and who was fitted out with new weapons,^o said he would kill David. ¹⁷But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You shall not go out with us to battle any longer, so that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.”^*

¹⁸After this a battle took place with the Philistines at Gob; then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants.^{* 19}Then there was another battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.^{* 20}There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great size who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; he, too, was descended from the giants.^{p 21}When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimei killed him. ²²These four were descended from the giants^q in Gath; they fell by the hands of David and his servants.