And Joab said, As God lives unless thou had spoken, surely then in the morning the people would have gone up every man from followed his brother.

God do so to Abner, and more also, if, as LORD has sworn to David, I do not even so to him,

And Abner also spoke in the ears of Benjamin. And Abner also went to speak in the ears of David in Hebron all that seemed good to Israel, and to the whole house of Benjamin.

And when Abner was returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the midst of the gate to speak with him quietly, and smote him there in the body, so that he died, for the blood of Asahel his brother.

And all the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day, but David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, till the sun is down.

when he who told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news.

And David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

And David said on that day, Whoever smites the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, and [smite] the lame and the blind, the hated by David's soul, because the blind and the lame say, He cannot come into the house.

And David grew greater and greater, for LORD, the God of hosts, was with him.

And David arose, and went with all the people who were with him, from Baale-judah, to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the Name, even the name of LORD of hosts who sits [above] the cherubim.

And they set the ark of God upon a new cart, and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, drove the new cart.

And they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill, with the ark of God, and Ahio went before the ark.

And when they came to the threshing-floor of Nacon, Uzzah put forth to the ark of God, and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled.

And the anger of LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of God.

And it was told king David, saying, LORD has blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertains to him, because of the ark of God. And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David w

that the king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.

And I have been with thee wherever thou went, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee. And I will make thee a great name, like the name of the great ones that are on the earth.

Therefore thou are great, O LORD God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God besides thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

And what one nation on the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself for a people, and to make him a name, and to do great things for you, and awesome things for thy land, before thy people whom

And thou established to thyself thy people Israel to be a people to thee forever, and thou, LORD, became their God.

And now, O LORD God, the word that thou have spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his house, confirm it forever, and do as thou have spoken.

And let thy name be magnified forever, saying, LORD of hosts is God over Israel, and the house of thy servant David shall be established before thee.

For thou, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house. Therefore thy servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to thee.

And now, O lord LORD, thou are God, and thy words are truth, and thou have promised this good thing to thy servant.

And David got a name for him when he returned from smiting the Syrians in the Valley of Salt, even eighteen thousand men.

And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? And Ziba said to the king, Jonathan has yet a son who is lame in his feet.

So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

And the sons of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the gate. And the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.

Be of good courage, and let us play the man for our people, and for the cities of our God. And LORD do that which seems good to him.

And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us, and came out to us into the field, and we were upon them even to the entrance of the gate.

And Nathan said to David, Thou are the man. Thus says LORD, the God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul.

David therefore besought God for the child. And David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the ground.

And Absalom spoke to Amnon neither good nor bad, for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar.

And the servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king's sons arose, and every man got up upon his mule, and fled.

Then she said, I pray thee, let the king remember LORD thy God, that the avenger of blood not destroy any more, lest they destroy my son. And he said, As LORD lives, there shall not one hair of thy son fall to the earth.

And the woman said, Why then have thou devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as he who is guilty, in that the king does not fetch home again his banished one.

For we must die, and are as water split on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, neither does God take away life, but devises means that he who is banished be not an outcast from him.

For the king will hear to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

Then thy handmaid said, Let, I pray thee, the word of my lord the king be gracious, for as an agent of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. And LORD thy God be with thee.

Thy servant Joab has done this thing to change the face of the matter. And my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an agent of God, to know all things that are on the earth.

And when he cut the hair of his head (now it was at every year's end that he cut it, because it was heavy on him, therefore he cut it), he weighed the hair of his head at two hundred shekels, after the king's weight.

And Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. And it was so, that, when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, Of what city are thou? And he said, Thy

And Absalom said to him, See, thy matters are good and right, but there is no man appointed by the king to hear thee.

And, lo, Zadok also [came], and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God. And they set down the ark of God, and Abiathar went up until all the people had finished passing out of the city.

And the king said to Zadok, Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I shall find favor in the eyes of LORD he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation.

But if he says thus, I have no delight in thee, behold, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him.

Therefore Zadok and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem, and they abode there.

And it came to pass, that, when David came to the top [of the ascent], where God was worshipped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and dirt upon his head.

It may be that LORD will look on the wrong done to me, and that LORD will reward me good for [his] cursing of me this day.

And the counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

And Hushai said to Absalom, The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.

And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For LORD had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that LORD might bring evil upon A

And when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey, and arose, and got home to his city, and set his house in order, and hanged himself. And he died, and was buried in the sepulcher of his father.

And the king said to them, What seems best to you I will do. And the king stood by the gate-side, and all the people went out by hundreds and by thousands.

Now David was sitting between the two gates. And the watchman went up to the roof of the gate to the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a man running alone.

And the watchman said, I think 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 comes with good news.

And Ahimaaz called, and said to the king, All is well. And he bowed himself before the king with his face to the earth, and said, Blessed be LORD thy God, who has delivered up the men who lifted up their hand against my lord the ki

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept. And as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. And they told to all the people, saying, Behold, the king is sitting in the gate. And all the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent.

And say ye to Amasa, Are thou not my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if thou not be captain of the army before me continually in the place of Joab.

And there went over a ferry-boat to bring over the king's household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king when he came over the Jordan.

And he has slandered thy servant to my lord the king. But my lord the king is as an agent of God; do therefore what is good in thine eyes.

I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern between good and bad? Can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should thy servant be yet a burden to my

Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in my own city by the grave of my father and my mother. But, behold, thy servant Chimham, let him go over with my lord the king, and do to him what shall seem good to th

And the king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to thee. And whatever thou shall require of me, that I will do for thee.

And David said to Abishai, Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom. Take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.

Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. And he blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab re

And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulcher of Kish his father. And they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was appealed for the land.

God, my rock, in him I will take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my savior. Thou save me from violence.

In my distress I called upon LORD. Yea, I called to my God. And he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry [came] into his ears.

For I have kept the ways of LORD, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

For by thee I run upon a troop. By my God do I leap over a wall.

As for God, his way is perfect. The word of LORD is tried. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

For who is God, except LORD? And who is a rock, except our God?

God is my strong fortress, and he guides the perfect in his way.

Thou have also made my enemies turn their backs to me that I might cut off those who hate me.

LORD lives. And blessed be my rock. And exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,

Even the God who executes vengeance for me, and who brings down peoples under me,

Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, and the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:

The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me. He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God,

Truly my house is not so with God. Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure. For it is all my salvation, and all [my] desire, though he does not make it to grow.

And David longed, and said, Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!

And the three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it, but poured it out to LORD.

And he killed an Egyptian, a good-looking man. And the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

And Joab said to the king, Now LORD thy God add to the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer.

And when David rose up in the morning, the word of LORD came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to thee in thy land? Or will thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue thee? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land?

And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait. Let us fall now into the hand of LORD, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.

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

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

And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.

All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king. And Araunah said to the king, LORD thy God accept thee.

And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will truly buy it from thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver