Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the children of Israel: Bela the son of Beor; and the name of his city was Dinhabah.

six were born to him in Hebron; and there he reigned seven years and six months. In Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years;

These were the potters, and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah. They lived there with the king in his service.

They found fat pasture and good, and the land was wide, and quiet, and peaceable; for those who lived there before were of Ham.

These written by name came in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and struck their tents, and the Meunim who were found there, and destroyed them utterly to this day, and lived in their place; because there was pasture there for their flocks.

They struck the remnant of the Amalekites who escaped, and have lived there to this day.

For there fell many slain, because the war was of God. They lived in their place until the captivity.

In Gibeon there lived the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah;

In Gibeon there lived the father of Gibeon, Jeiel, whose wife's name was Maacah:

David and all Israel went to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus); and the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there.

He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where there was a plot of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.

Of the Gadites there separated themselves to David to the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for war, that could handle shield and spear; whose faces were like the faces of lions, and they were as swift as the roes on the mountains;

There came of the children of Benjamin and Judah to the stronghold to David.

David went out to meet them, and answered them, "If you have come peaceably to me to help me, my heart shall be knit to you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, since there is no wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it."

Of Manasseh also there fell away some to David, when he came with the Philistines against Saul to battle; but they did not help them; for the lords of the Philistines sent him away after consultation, saying, "He will fall away to his master Saul to the jeopardy of our heads."

As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah, and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and Zillethai, captains of thousands who were of Manasseh.

For from day to day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like the army of God.

They were there with David three days, eating and drinking; for their brothers had made preparation for them.

Moreover those who were near to them, as far as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali, brought bread on donkeys, and on camels, and on mules, and on oxen, food of meal, cakes of figs, and clusters of raisins, and wine, and oil, and cattle, and sheep in abundance: for there was joy in Israel.

David went up, and all Israel, to Baalah, that is, to Kiriath Jearim, which belonged to Judah, to bring up from there the ark of God the LORD that sits above the cherubim, that is called by the Name.

The anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzza, and he struck him, because he put forth his hand to the ark; and there he died before God.

So they came up to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there; and David said, God has broken through my enemies by my hand, like a breakthrough of waters. Therefore they called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

They left their gods there; and David gave commandment, and they were burned with fire.

So he left there, before the ark of the covenant of the LORD, Asaph and his brothers, to minister before the ark continually, as every day's work required;

LORD, there is none like you, neither is there any God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

Then there went certain persons, and told David how the men were served. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."

David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set on David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.

It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.

David built an altar to the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the LORD; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

At that time, when David saw that the LORD had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

There are also workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work:

of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the LORD be with you."

There were more chief men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar; and they were divided like this: of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen, heads of ancestral houses; and of the sons of Ithamar, according to their fathers' houses, eight.

And thus were they divided impartially by drawing lots; for there were officiers of the sanctuary, and officiers of God, both of the sons of Eleazar, and of the sons of Ithamar.

Of the Hebronites was Jerijah the chief, even of the Hebronites, according to their generations by ancestral houses. In the fortieth year of the reign of David they were sought for, and there were found among them mighty men of valor at Jazer of Gilead.

Joab the son of Zeruiah began to number, but did not finish; and there came wrath for this on Israel; neither was the number put into the account in the chronicles of king David.

Behold, there are the divisions of the priests and the Levites, for all the service of God's house. There shall be with you in all kinds of work every willing man who has skill, for any kind of service. Also the captains and all the people will be entirely at your command."

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.