The matter is not so; but a man of mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David: give up him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.

And the king called the Gibeonites, and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remainder of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to smite them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah.)

Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them out of the heavens, and suffered neither the fowl of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

And Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, that thou quench not the lamp of Israel.

For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

For all his ordinances were before me, And his statutes, I did not depart from them,

Thou enlargedst my steps under me; And mine ankles did not slip.

I pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them, And I turned not again till they were consumed.

And I have consumed them and have crushed them, and they rose not again; Yea, they fell under my feet.

They looked, and there was none to save Unto Jehovah, and he answered them not.

And thou hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou hast kept me to be head of the nations: A people I knew not doth serve me:

Although my house be not so before God, Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in every way and sure; For this is all my salvation, and every desire, Although he make it not to grow.

And the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate, and took it, and brought it to David; however he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Jehovah.

And he said, Be it far from me, Jehovah, that I should do this thing! is it not the blood of the men that went at the risk of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

Was he not most honourable of three? and he was their captain; but he did not attain to the first three.

He was honoured above the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three. And David set him in his council.

And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah; for his mercies are great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.