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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.

3 David 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.

4 Then the king said to Amasa, ‘Call the men of Judah together to me within three days, and be here yourself.’ ⁵So 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.’ ⁷Joab’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. ⁸When 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. ¹⁰But 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. ¹¹And one of Joab’s men took his stand by Amasa, and said, ‘Whoever favours 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.

14 Sheba^* passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-maacah;^* and all the Bichrites^* assembled, and followed him inside. ¹⁵Joab’s forces^* 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. ¹⁶Then a wise woman called from the city, ‘Listen! Listen! Tell Joab, “Come here, I want to speak to you.” ’ ¹⁷He 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?’ ²⁰Joab 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.’ ²²Then 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.

23 Now Joab was in command of all the army of Israel;^* Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in command of the Cherethites and the Pelethites; ²⁴Adoram was in charge of the forced labour; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; ²⁵Sheva was secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ²⁶and 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 blood-guilt 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.) ³David said to the Gibeonites, ‘What shall I do for you? How shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?’ ⁴The 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?’ ⁵They 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— ⁶let 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.’^* The king said, ‘I will hand them over.’

7 But 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. ⁸The king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth;^* and the five sons of Merab^* daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹he 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 the barley harvest.

10 Then 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 bodies^* by day, or the wild animals by night. ¹¹When 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. ¹³He 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

15 The 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,^* 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.’

18 After 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. ¹⁹Then 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. ²⁰There 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. ²¹When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimei, killed him. ²²These four were descended from the giants in Gath; they fell by the hands of David and his servants.

David’s Song of Thanksgiving

22David spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. ²He said:
The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer,
³   my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation,
   my stronghold and my refuge,
   my saviour; you save me from violence.
⁴ I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
   and I am saved from my enemies.

⁵ For the waves of death encompassed me,
   the torrents of perdition assailed me;
⁶ the cords of Sheol entangled me,
   the snares of death confronted me.

⁷ In my distress I called upon the Lord;
   to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
   and my cry came to his ears.

⁸ Then the earth reeled and rocked;
   the foundations of the heavens trembled
   and quaked, because he was angry.
⁹ Smoke went up from his nostrils,
   and devouring fire from his mouth;
   glowing coals flamed forth from him.
¹⁰ He bowed the heavens, and came down;
   thick darkness was under his feet.
¹¹ He rode on a cherub, and flew;
   he was seen upon the wings of the wind.
¹² He made darkness around him a canopy,
   thick clouds, a gathering of water.
¹³ Out of the brightness before him
   coals of fire flamed forth.
¹⁴ The Lord thundered from heaven;
   the Most High uttered his voice.
¹⁵ He sent out arrows, and scattered them
   —lightning, and routed them.
¹⁶ Then the channels of the sea were seen,
   the foundations of the world were laid bare
at the rebuke of the Lord,
   at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷ He reached from on high, he took me,
   he drew me out of mighty waters.
¹⁸ He delivered me from my strong enemy,
   from those who hated me;
   for they were too mighty for me.
¹⁹ They came upon me in the day of my calamity,
   but the Lord was my stay.
²⁰ He brought me out into a broad place;
   he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²¹ The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
   according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
²² For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
   and have not wickedly departed from my God.
²³ For all his ordinances were before me,
   and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
²⁴ I was blameless before him,
   and I kept myself from guilt.
²⁵ Therefore the Lord has recompensed me according to my righteousness,
   according to my cleanness in his sight.

²⁶ With the loyal you show yourself loyal;
   with the blameless you show yourself blameless;
²⁷ with the pure you show yourself pure,
   and with the crooked you show yourself perverse.
²⁸ You deliver a humble people,
   but your eyes are upon the haughty to bring them down.
²⁹ Indeed, you are my lamp, O Lord,
   the Lord lightens my darkness.
³⁰ By you I can crush a troop,
   and by my God I can leap over a wall.
³¹ This God—his way is perfect;
   the promise of the Lord proves true;
   he is a shield for all who take refuge in him.

³² For who is God, but the Lord?
   And who is a rock, except our God?
³³ The God who has girded me with strength^*
   has opened wide my path.^*
34 He made my^* feet like the feet of deer,
   and set me secure on the heights.
³⁵ He trains my hands for war,
   so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁶ You have given me the shield of your salvation,
   and your help^* has made me great.
³⁷ You have made me stride freely,
   and my feet do not slip;
³⁸ I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
   and did not turn back until they were consumed.
³⁹ I consumed them; I struck them down, so that they did not rise;
   they fell under my feet.
⁴⁰ For you girded me with strength for the battle;
   you made my assailants sink under me.
⁴¹ You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
   those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
⁴² They looked, but there was no one to save them;
   they cried to the Lord, but he did not answer them.
⁴³ I beat them fine like the dust of the earth,
   I crushed them and stamped them down like the mire of the streets.

⁴⁴ You delivered me from strife with the peoples;^*
   you kept me as the head of the nations;
   people whom I had not known served me.
⁴⁵ Foreigners came cringing to me;
   as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
⁴⁶ Foreigners lost heart,
   and came trembling out of their strongholds.

⁴⁷ The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock,
   and exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation,
⁴⁸ the God who gave me vengeance
   and brought down peoples under me,
⁴⁹ who brought me out from my enemies;
   you exalted me above my adversaries,
   you delivered me from the violent.

⁵⁰ For this I will extol you, O Lord, among the nations,
   and sing praises to your name.
⁵¹ He is a tower of salvation for his king,
   and shows steadfast love to his anointed,
   to David and his descendants for ever.