2 Samuel 20–21

¹And there hath been called there a man of worthlessness, and his name is Sheba, son of Bichri, a Benjamite, and he bloweth with a trumpet, and saith, ‘We have no portion in David, and we have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; each to his tents, O Israel.’ ²And every man of Israel goeth up from after David, after Sheba son of Bichri, and the men of Judah have cleaved to their king, from the Jordan even unto Jerusalem. ³And David cometh in unto his house at Jerusalem, and the king taketh the ten women-concubines—whom he had left to keep the house, and putteth them in a house of ward, and sustaineth them, and unto them he hath not gone in, and they are shut up unto the day of their death, in widowhood living.

⁴And the king saith unto Amasa, ‘Call for me the men of Judah in three days, and thou, stand here,’ ⁵and Amasa goeth to call Judah, and tarrieth beyond the appointed time that he had appointed him; ⁶and David saith unto Abishai, ‘Now doth Sheba son of Bichri do evil to us more than Absalom; thou, take the servants of thy lord, and pursue after him, lest he have found for himself fenced cities, and delivered himself from our eye.’ ⁷And the men of Joab go out after him, and the Cherethite, and the Pelethite, and all the mighty men, and they go out from Jerusalem to pursue after Sheba son of Bichri; ⁸they are near the great stone that is in Gibeon, and Amasa hath gone before them, and Joab is girded; his long robe he hath put on him, and upon it a girdle—a sword is fastened upon his loins in its sheath; and he hath gone out, and it falleth. ⁹And Joab saith to Amasa, ‘Art thou in peace, my brother?’ and the right hand of Joab layeth hold on the beard of Amasa to give a kiss to him; ¹⁰and Amasa hath not been watchful of the sword that is in the hand of Joab, and he smiteth him with it unto the fifth rib, and sheddeth out his bowels to the earth, and he hath not repeated it to him, and he dieth; and Joab and Abishai his brother have pursued after Sheba son of Bichri. ¹¹And a man hath stood by him, of the young men of Joab, and saith, ‘He who hath delight in Joab, and he who is for David—after Joab!’ ¹²And Amasa is rolling himself in blood, in the midst of the highway, and the man seeth that all the people have stood still, and he bringeth round Amasa out of the highway to the field, and casteth over him a garment, when he hath seen that every one who hath come by him—hath stood still. ¹³When he hath been removed out of the highway, every man hath passed on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba son of Bichri.

¹⁴And he passeth over through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth-Maachah, and to all the Berites, and they are assembled, and go in also after him, ¹⁵and they go in and lay siege against him, in Abel of Beth-Maachah, and cast up a mount against the city, and it standeth in a trench, and all the people who are are with Joab are destroying, to cause the wall to fall. ¹⁶And a wise woman calleth out of the city, ‘Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, and I speak unto thee.’ ¹⁷And he cometh near unto her, and the woman saith, ‘Art thou Joab?’ and he saith, ‘I am.’ And she saith to him, ‘Hear the words of thy handmaid;’ and he saith, ‘I am hearing.’ ¹⁸and she speaketh, saying, ‘They spake often in former times, saying, Let them diligently ask at Abel, and so they finished. ¹⁹I am of the peaceable—faithful ones of Israel; thou art seeking to destroy a city, and a mother in Israel; why dost thou swallow up the inheritance of Jehovah? ²⁰And Joab answereth and saith, ‘Far be it—far be it from me; I do not swallow up nor destroy. ²¹The matter is not so; for a man of the hill-country of Ephraim—Sheba son of Bichri his name—hath lifted up his hand against the king, against David; give ye up him by himself, and I go away from the city.’ And the woman saith unto Joab, ‘Lo, his head is cast unto thee over the wall.’ ²²And the woman cometh unto all the people in her wisdom, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri, and cast it unto Joab, and he bloweth with a trumpet, and they are scattered from the city, each to his tents, and Joab hath turned back to Jerusalem unto the king.

²³And Joab is over all the host of Israel, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada is over the Cherethite, and over the Pelethite, ²⁴and Adoram is over the tribute, and Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud is the remembrancer, ²⁵and Sheva is scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar are priests, ²⁶and also, Ira the Jairite hath been minister to David.

Chapter 21

¹And there is a famine in the days of David three years, year after year, and David seeketh the face of Jehovah, and Jehovah saith, ‘For Saul and for the bloody house, because that he put to death the Gibeonites.’ ²And the king calleth for the Gibeonites, and saith unto them—as to the Gibeonites, they are not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorite, and the sons of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul seeketh to smite them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah— ³yea, David saith unto the Gibeonites, ‘What do I do for you? and with what do I make atonement? and bless ye the inheritance of Jehovah.’ ⁴And the Gibeonites say to him, ‘We have no silver and gold by Saul and by his house, and we have no man to put to death in Israel;’ and he saith, ‘What ye are saying I do to you.’ ⁵And they say unto the king, ‘The man who consumed us, and who devised against us—we have been destroyed from stationing ourselves in all the border of Israel— ⁶let there be given to us seven men of his sons, and we have hanged them before Jehovah, in the height of Saul, the chosen of Jehovah.’ And the king saith, ‘I do give;’ ⁷and the king hath pity on Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the oath of Jehovah that is between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul; ⁸and the king taketh the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, and the five sons of Michal daughter of Saul whom she bare to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite, ⁹and giveth them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hang them in the hill before Jehovah; and the seven fall together, and they have been put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, the commencement of barley-harvest.

¹⁰And Rizpah daughter of Aiah taketh the sackcloth, and stretcheth it out for herself on the rock, from the commencement of harvest till water hath been poured out upon them from the heavens, and hath not suffered a fowl of the heavens to rest upon them by day, or the beast of the field by night. ¹¹And it is declared to David that which Rizpah daughter of Aiah, concubine of Saul, hath done, ¹²and David goeth and taketh the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the possessors of Jabesh-Gilead, who had stolen them from the broad place of Beth-Shan, where the Philistines hanged them, in the day of the Philistines smiting Saul in Gilboa; ¹³and he bringeth up thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gather the bones of those hanged, ¹⁴and bury the bones of Saul and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in Zelah, in the burying-place of Kish his father, and do all that the king commanded, and God is entreated for the land afterwards.

¹⁵And again have the Philistines war with Israel, and David goeth down, and his servants with him, and they fight with the Philistines; and David is weary, ¹⁶and Ishbi-Benob, who is among the children of the giant—the weight of his spear is three hundred shekels weight of brass, and he is girded with a new one—speaketh of smiting David, ¹⁷and Abishai son of Zeruiah giveth help to him, and smiteth the Philistine, and putteth him to death; then swear the men of David to him, saying, ‘Thou dost not go out again with us to battle, nor quench the lamp of Israel.’ ¹⁸And it cometh to pass afterwards, that the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, then hath Sibbechai the Hushathite smitten Saph, who is among the children of the giant. ¹⁹And the battle is again in Gob with the Philistines, and Elhanan son of Jaare-Oregim, the Beth-Lehemite, smiteth a brother of Goliath the Gittite, and the wood of his spear is like a beam of weavers. ²⁰And the battle is again in Gath, and there is a man of stature, and the fingers of his hands are six, and the toes of his feet are six, twenty and four in number, and he also hath been born to the giant, ²¹and he reproacheth Israel, and smite him doth Jonathan son of Shimeah, brother of David; ²²these four have been born to the giant in Gath, and they fall by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

Chapter 22