Wherefore the LORD show you mercy and truth again. And I will do you good also, because ye have done this thing.

And Joab answered, "As truly as God liveth, if thou hadst so said, then even in the morning had the people departed, each from following his brother."

So do God to Abner, and so thereto: except that as the LORD hath sworn to David, I so do to him,

And when Abner was come again to Hebron, Joab took him aside in the gate, to speak with him guilefully, and there smote him under the short ribs that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

And when all the people came to eat meat with David, while it was yet day, David sware, saying, "So do God to me and so thereto, if I taste bread or ought else till the sun be down."

And the people wist it, and it pleased them, as well as all other good things which the king did in the sight of the people.

For they came into the house as he slept on his bed in his resting chamber, and smote him and slew him and beheaded him and took his head and gat them away through the wild fields all night.

him that told me how that Saul was dead, thinking to have brought me good tidings, I caught and slew in Ziklag, to give him a reward for his tidings-bringing.

And David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet and hanged them up by the pole in Hebron. And they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.

And David waxed great and the LORD God of hosts was with him.

But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, they came all up to seek David. And as soon as David heard of it, he gat him to a hold.

and arose and went, with all the folk that were with him of the men of Judah, to fetch away the Ark of God: upon which is called the name of the LORD of Hosts that dwelleth between the cherubims.

And they put the Ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that dwelt at Gibeah. And Uzzah and Ahio the sons of Abinadab drove the new cart.

And when they brought it out of that house of Abinadab that dwelt at Gibeah, with the Ark of God, Ahio went before the ark.

And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put his hand to the ark of God and held it, for the oxen stumbled.

And the LORD was wrath with Uzzah; and God smote him in the same place for his fault, and there he died by the ark of God.

And when it was told king David how that the LORD had blessed the house of Obededom and all that pertained unto him, because of the Ark of God, he went and brought the Ark of God from the house of Obededom unto the city of David with gladness.

he said unto Nathan the prophet, "Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar trees, but the Ark of God dwelleth in the midst of curtains."

Now therefore so say unto my servant David, thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts, 'I took thee out of a shepherd's cote from following sheep to be a ruler over my people Israel.

Wherefore, thou art great O LORD God and there is none like thee, neither is there any God save thou, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

And what one people in the earth is like thy people Israel? Which God went and delivered to be his people, and to make him a name, and to show them great and terrible things in the earth, before thy people which thou redeemest to thee out of Egypt, even from the people and from their gods.

And thou hast ordained thy people Israel to be thy people forever. And thou, LORD, art their God.

And now, LORD God, the thing thou hast said of thy servant and of his house: make it good forever and do as thou hast said.

And let thy name be great forever, that men may say, 'The LORD of Hosts is the God of Israel.' And let the house of thy servant David be established before thee.

For thou, LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, hast told in the ear of thy servant, saying, "I will build thee a house. And therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee.

And now, Lord Jehovah, thou art the God, and thy words must be true: for thou hast told this goodness unto thy servant.

Then said the king, "Remaineth there yet any man of the kindred of Saul, whom I may show the mercy of God upon?" And Ziba said unto the king, "Jonathan hath yet a son which is lame on both feet."

Wherefore Hanun took David's servants and shaved off the one half of every man's beard and cut off their garments even in the middle, even hard by the buttocks of them and sent them away.

And the children of Ammon came out and waged battle before the gate, and the Syrians of Zobah, of Rehob, Ishtob and Maacah were by themselves in the fields.

And he said, "If the Syrians overcome me, then succor me. But if the children of Ammon be too good for thee, I will come and succor thee.

Quite thee like a man, and let us fight lustily for our people and for the cities of our God. And the LORD do what seemeth best in his eyes."

and said unto David, "The men prevail against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we stuck unto them, even unto the entering of the gate.

Then Nathan said to David, "Thou art the man. Thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel, 'I anointed thee king over Israel and rid thee out of the hands of Saul.

And David besought God for the boy and fasted and went and lay all night upon the earth.

And he answered, "While the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I this thought, 'Who can tell whether God will have mercy on me that the child may live?'

And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah and assaulted it and gat it.

And Absalom said unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad. Howbeit, Absalom hated Amnon because he had forced his sister Tamar.

Then said she, "Let the king remember his LORD God, that the next of the blood gather not on heaps together to destroy, and that they slay not my son." And he said, "As sure as the LORD liveth, there shall not one hair of thy son's head fall to the earth."

And the woman said, "Wherefore then hast thou determined on this same manner against the people of God? - That the king should speak this thing and be faulty therein, so that the king should not fetch home again his banished.

For we must needs die, and perish as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered up again: and God will not take away the life, but find the means that the banished be not utterly expelled from him.

And the king shall hear his handmaid and deliver her out of the hand of the man that would have destroyed me and my son also out of the inheritance of God.'

Then thine handmaid said, 'I pray God that the word of my lord the king may be immutable. For my lord the king is as an angel of God, in hearing of good or bad.' And therefore the LORD thy God be with thee."

And the turning of my tale another way, that made thy servant Joab. And so I see that my lord is wise, even as an angel of God, to understand all things that are in the earth."

And Absalom said to Joab, "Behold, I sent for thee desiring thee to come; because I would have sent thee to the king, for to say wherefore I am come from Geshur. It had been as good for me to have bidden there still. Now therefore let me come to the king's presence, or else if there be any trespass in me, kill me."

After this Absalom gat him chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him.

And thereto he used to rise up early in the mornings and to stand by the wayside that led to the gate of the city. And all the men of Israel that had complaints and came to the king for judgment, he called unto him, and said, "Of what city art thou?" And when the other answered, "thy servant is of such a tribe of Israel,"

then said Absalom unto him, "See, thy matter is good and righteous, and yet no man is deputed of the king to hear thee."

And behold, Zadok and all the Levites were with him and bare the ark of the covenant of God. And when they had fetched down the Ark of God, Abiathar came up, until the people were all come over, out of the city.

Then said the king unto Zadok, "Carry the Ark of God again into the city. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the LORD, he will bring me again, and show me both it and the tabernacle thereof also.

And so Zadok and Abiathar carried the Ark of God again to Jerusalem, and they tarried there.

When David was come to the top of the mount and had bowed himself unto God: behold, Hushai the Archite came against him with his coat torn and earth upon his head.

And so Hushai, David's friend, gat him to the city. And Absalom also entered into Jerusalem.

Haply, the LORD will look on my wretchedness, and do me good for his cursing this day."

And as soon as he was come, Hushai the Archite went unto Absalom and said unto him, "God save the king, God save the king."

And Ahithophel said unto Absalom, "Get thee in unto thy father's concubines which he hath left to keep the house. For when all Israel shall hear that thou hast made thy father to stink, then shall the hands of all that are with thee be strong."

And the counsel of Ahithophel which he counseled in those days, was as a man had asked counsel of God: even so was all the counsel of Ahithophel, both unto David and also unto Absalom.

Then said Hushai to Absalom, "The counsel that Ahithophel hath given is not good at this time.

And Absalom and all the men of Israel said that the counsel of Hushai the Archite was better than the counsel of Ahithophel - For it was even the LORD's determination to destroy the counsel of Ahithophel, which was good, that the LORD might bring evil upon Absalom.

Now therefore send quickly and show David, saying, 'Tarry not all night in the fields of the wilderness, but get thee over, lest the king be devoured and all the people that are with him.'"

And as soon as they were departed, the other came out of the well, and went and told King David and said unto him, "Up, and get you quickly over the water for such counsel hath Ahithophel given."

And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass and arose and gat him home to his own house and to his own city, and put his household in order and hanged himself and died, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father.

Then said the king, "What seemeth you best, that will I do." And the king stood up by the Gate's side, and all the people came out by hundreds and by thousands.

And David sat between the two gates. And the watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes and saw: and behold, there came a man running alone.

And the watchman said, "Me thinketh the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok." And the king said, "He is a good man and cometh with good tidings."

And Ahimaaz called and said to the king, "Good tidings," and bowed himself to the earth upon his face before the king and said, "Blessed be the LORD thy God which hath shut up all the men that lifted up their hands against my Lord the king."

And the king was moved and went up to a chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went thus he said, "My son Absalom, my son, my son, my son Absalom, would to God I had died for thee Absalom, my son, my son."

Then the king arose and sat down in the Gate. And it was told unto all the people, how the king sat in the Gate. And then all the people came before the king. But Israel fled every man to his tent.

And say to Amasa, 'Art thou not my bone and my flesh? And God do so to me and so thereto: except thou be captain of the host to me forever in the room of Joab.'"

And he hath thereto complained on thy servant unto my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an Angel of God: do therefore what seemeth best in thine eyes.

Wherefore the king said to Abishai, "Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri be worse to us than Absalom. Take thou therefore thy lord's servants and follow after him: lest he get him walled cities and escape us."

And Joab answered and said, "God forbid! God forbid it me, that I should either devour or destroy it.

and buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin, in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father. And when they had performed all that the king commanded, God was then at one with the land.

God is my strength, and in him will I trust: my shield and the horn that defendeth me: mine high hold and refuge.

In my tribulation I called to the LORD, and cried to my God. And he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry entered into his ears.

For I kept the ways of the LORD, and did no wickedness, forsaking my God.

With thy help I will run through a host of men, and by the aid of my God will spring over a wall.

The way of God is undefiled, and the word of the LORD fined as gold, and he a shield to all that trust in him.

Who is a God save the LORD, and who mighty save our God?

God is my strength in war, and riddeth the way clear before me.

The LORD live, and blessed be he that is my strength: and exalted be God the strength that saveth me.

It is God that avengeth me, and bringeth down the people under me.

These be the last sayings of David. David the son of Jesse said: and the man which is lifted up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob and pleasant Psalmist of Israel said,

The God of Israel spake unto me, and the strength of Israel said, 'He that beareth rule over men, he that ruleth justly in the fear of God,

And is not mine house so with God? In that he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, perfect in all points. And in that he shall fulfill all that is healthsome unto me, and all my desires thereto;

And David longed and said, "Oh, that I had of the water that is in the well in the gate of Bethlehem for to drink."

And anon the three mighty brake through the Host of the Philistines and fetched water out of the well of Bethlehem that was in the gate, and took and brought it to David: Nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but offered it unto the LORD

And Joab said unto the king, "I beseech that the LORD thy God make the people as many more as they be: yea and a hundred times so many more, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see them. But how is it that my lord the king hath a lust in this thing?"

And they passed over Jordan and pitched in Aroer on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the valley of Gad and so forth to Jazer.

And when David was up in a morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

And Gad came to David and showed him and said unto him, "Whether wilt thou have seven years hunger in thy land, or that thou flee three months before thine enemies and they following thee, or that there be three days pestilence in thy land? Now understand, and see what word I shall bring again to him that sent me."

Then said David unto Gad, "I am in a marvelous strait. But let me fall I pray thee, into the hands of the LORD, for much is his mercy, and let me not fall into the hands of men.

And Gad came the same day to David and said unto him, "Go up and rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

And David according to the saying of Gad went up as the LORD commanded.

And Araunah said unto the king, "Let my lord the king take and offer what seemeth him good in his eyes: Behold, oxen for sacrifice, and sleds and the other instruments of the oxen for wood."

And Araunah the king's friend gave all to the king, and said moreover unto the king, "The LORD thy God accept thee."

But the king said unto Araunah, "Not so, but I will buy it of thee at a price, and will not offer sacrifice unto the LORD my God that shall cost me nought." And so David bought the threshing floor, and the oxen for fifty sicles of silver.