David asked the young man who had brought him the report, “How do you know Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?”

David questioned him, “How is it that you were not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the Lord’s anointed?”

The splendor of Israel lies slain on your heights.
How the mighty have fallen!

How the mighty have fallen in the thick of battle!
Jonathan lies slain on your heights.

How the mighty have fallen
and the weapons of war have perished!

Once again, Abner warned Asahel, “Stop chasing me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How could I ever look your brother Joab in the face?”

Then Abner called out to Joab: “Must the sword devour forever? Don’t you realize this will only end in bitterness? How long before you tell the troops to stop pursuing their brothers?”

How much more when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house on his own bed! So now, should I not require his blood from your hands and wipe you off the earth?”

David feared the Lord that day and said, “How can the ark of the Lord ever come to me?”

When David returned home to bless his household, Saul’s daughter Michal came out to meet him. “How the king of Israel honored himself today!” she said. “He exposed himself today in the sight of the slave girls of his subjects like a vulgar person would expose himself.”

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going.

Uriah answered David, “The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!”

On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

Then David said to Abishai and all his servants, “Look, my own son, my own flesh and blood, intends to take my life—how much more now this Benjaminite! Leave him alone and let him curse me; the Lord has told him to.

Barzillai replied to the king, “How many years of my life are left that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king?

She said, “In the past they used to say, ‘Seek counsel in Abel,’ and that’s how they settled disputes.

He asked the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How can I make atonement so that you will bring a blessing on the Lord’s inheritance?”