And Achish said, "Have ye not been a roving this day?" And David answered, "Yes, in the south of Judah, and in the south of the Jezreelites, and in the south of the Kenites."

Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, "This way they can't tell on us, saying, 'This is what David did.'" Such was his practice the entire time that he lived in the country of the Philistines.

And David will say to Achish, For this thou shalt know what thy servant will do. And Achish will say to David, For this I will set thee a watcher for my head all the days.

By this time Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his city, and Saul had removed the mediums and spiritists from the land.

And Saul swore to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.

Because thou didst not obey the voice of the LORD, nor execute his fierce wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the LORD done this thing to thee this day.

And more than this, the Lord will give Israel up with you into the hands of the Philistines: and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me: and the Lord will give up the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.

Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said to the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, who hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell to me to this day?

And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said to him, Make this man return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he should be an adversary to us: for with what would he reconcile himself to his master? would it not be with the heads of these men?

Is not this David, of whom they sung one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

Then Achish called David, and said to him, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee from the day of thy coming to me to this day: nevertheless the lords favor thee not.

And David said to Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant, so long as I have been with thee to this day, that I may not go and fight against the enemies of my lord the king.

And David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue; for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.

They gave him a slice of fig cake and two raisin cakes; he ate and {this revived him}, because he had not eaten food or drunk water [for] three days and three nights.

And David said to him, Canst thou conduct me down to this company? And he said, Swear to me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will lead thee down to this company.

And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drove before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.

At this point, all the wicked and worthless men of the group who had gone with David answered, "Because they didn't go with us, we won't give them any of the spoil that we recovered, except that each person may take his wife and his children and go."

But David said, "No! You shouldn't do this, my brothers. Look at what the Lord has given us! He has protected us and has delivered into our hands the raiding party that came against us.

For who will hearken to you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the goods: they shall part alike.

And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day.

David came to Ziklag, and he sent some of the spoil to the elders of Judah, and to his friends, telling them, "Look, this is a gift for you from the spoil of the enemies of the LORD

And when the men of Israel that were on this side of the valley, and they that were on this side of the Jordan, saw that the men of Israel fled, and that Saul and his sons were dead, they forsook the cities and fled; and the Philistines came and dwelt in them.

David said to the young man who was telling him this, "How do you know that Saul and his son Jonathan are dead?"

The young man who was telling him this said, "I just happened to be on Mount Gilboa and came across Saul leaning on his spear for support. The chariots and leaders of the horsemen were in hot pursuit of him.

On hearing this, David grabbed his clothes and tore them, as did all the men who were attending to him.

David said to the young man who told this to him, "Where are you from?" He replied, "I am an Amalekite, the son of a resident foreigner."

At this David asked him, "How is it that you weren't afraid to raise your hand to strike the LORD's anointed?"

And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul, and over Jonathan his son:

And it came to pass after this, that David inquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said to him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, To Hebron.

After this, the army of Judah arrived, and they anointed David king over the house of Judah. There they informed David, "The men of Jabesh-gilead buried Saul."

And David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said to them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shown this kindness to your lord, even to Saul, and have buried him.

And now the LORD show kindness and truth to you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing.

And Joab son of Zeruiah, and servants of David, have gone out, and they meet by the pool of Gibeon together, and sit down, these by the pool on this side, and these by the pool on that.

Then each man grabbed his opponent by the head and thrust his sword into his opponent’s side so that they all died together. So this place, which is in Gibeon, is named Field of Blades.

Abner turned around and said, "[Are] you this Asahel?" And he said, "Yes."

Then Abner called out to Joab, "Must the sword devour forever? Don't you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?"

Joab replied, "As surely as God lives, if you had not said this, it would have been morning before the people would have abandoned pursuit of their brothers!"

After this, a state of protracted war existed between Saul's dynasty and David's dynasty, and the dynasty of David continued to grow and become strong while the dynasty of Saul continued to grow weaker.

During this time, sons were born to David while he was living in Hebron. His firstborn was Amnon by Ahinoam from Jezreel,

Then was Abner very wroth for the words of Ish-bosheth, and said, Am I a dog's head, who against Judah do show kindness this day to the house of Saul thy father, to his brethren, and to his friends, and have not delivered thee into the hand of David, that thou chargest me to-day with a fault concerning this woman?

Therefore may God do to me and more also! just as the LORD has promised to David, since I'm doing this for him:

So Abner sent messengers to David at Hebron to ask him, "Who owns this land? Cut a deal with me, and look! I'll lend my hand in bringing all of Israel over to you!"

David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth son of Saul with this demand: "Give me my wife Michal whom I acquired for a hundred Philistine foreskins."

So do it, then! Because the LORD has said this about David: "Through my servant David I will save my people Israel from the control of the Philistines and from all of their enemies.'"

And Joab came to the king and said, What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is this, that you have sent him away, and he has already gone?

As soon as Joab left David, Joab sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the cistern at Sirah, but David was not aware of this.

When David heard this afterwards, he said: "I and my kingdom [are] innocent {before Yahweh} forever [for] the blood of Abner the son of Ner.

He said this because Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner after he had killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

The king composed this mourning song for Abner: "Should Abner's death be like a fool's?

Then all the people cried again because of him. Everyone tried to persuade David to have a meal while there was still daylight, but David took an oath by saying, "May God to do like this to me and more, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!"

All the people noticed this and it pleased them. In fact, everything the king did pleased all the people.

And the king said to his servants, Know ye not that there hath a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel?

And I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. The LORD shall reward the doer of evil according to his wickedness.

Now this Saul's son had two men that were become captains over the soldiers, the one called Baanah and the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon a Beerothite, and of the children of Benjamin: for Beeroth was reckoned to pertain to Benjamin.

And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have been sojourners there until this day.)

And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, Behold the head of Ish-bosheth the son of Saul thy enemy, who sought thy life; and the LORD hath avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed.

After this, all of the tribes of Israel assembled with David at Hebron and declared, "Look, we're your own flesh and blood!

Then the king and his men advanced to Jerusalem against the Jebusites who lived in the land. The Jebusites said to David, "You cannot invade this place! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back, saying, 'David cannot invade this place!'"

And David will take the fastness of Zion: this the city of David.

And David said on that day, Anyone who strikes the Jebusite, let him go by the water-shaft and take the lame and the blind, the hated of David's soul. On account of this they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.

And David entered Baal-perazim, and David smote them there, and said - Yahweh hath broken forth upon mine enemies, before me, like a breaking forth of waters. For this cause, called he the name of that place, Baal-perazim.

So David asked the Lord what he should do. This time the Lord said to him, "Don't march straight up. Instead, circle around behind them and come against them opposite the trees.

After this, David gathered together again 30,000 men from all of the choicest men of Israel.

And David was displeased, because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah: and he called the name of the place Perez-uzzah to this day.

When David went home to pronounce a blessing on his own house, Michal, Saul's daughter, came out to meet him. She said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself this day! He has exposed himself today before his servants' slave girls the way a vulgar fool might do!"

I will demean myself again more than this, and I will be abased in my eyes, but with the maids whom you mentioned, with them I will be honored."

But later that same night, this message came to Nathan from the LORD:

"Go, tell my servant David: 'This is what the Lord says: Do you really intend to build a house for me to live in?

Whereas I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent, and in a tabernacle.

"So now, say this to my servant David: 'This is what the Lord of hosts says: I took you from the pasture and from your work as a shepherd to make you leader of my people Israel.

According to all these words, and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak to David.

Then King David went and sat before Yahweh and said, "Who [am] I, my lord Yahweh, and what [is] my house that you have brought me up to {this place}?

And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord GOD?

Because of your word and according to your heart, you have done all of this great thing, [in order] to let your servant know.

This is why You are great, Lord God. There is no one like You, and there is no God besides You, as all we have heard confirms.

So now, O Lord God, make this promise you have made about your servant and his family a permanent reality. Do as you promised,

For thou, O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house: therefore hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer to thee.

And now, O Lord GOD, thou art that God, and thy words are true, and thou hast promised this goodness to thy servant:

And after this it came to pass, that David smote the Philistines, and subdued them: and David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.

including Aram, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amelek. This also included some of the plunder taken from King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah.

At this the king asked, "Isn't there still someone left from Saul's household to whom I may show God's gracious love?" "There's Jonathan's son. He has maimed feet," Ziba answered.

At this, King David sent for him and brought him from the home of Ammiel's son Makir in Lo-debar.

At this, the king called for Saul's servant Ziba and told him, "I'm restoring to your master's grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family.

See therefore that thou and thy sons and thy servants till the land for him, and bring in, that thy master's son may have food to eat. For Mephibosheth thy master's son shall eat meat always upon my table." For this Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

This Mephibosheth had a son that was young named Mica, and all that dwelled in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.

And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead.

When this was reported to David, he sent someone to meet them, since they were deeply humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back; then return.”

And hearing of this, David sent Joab and all the army and the best fighting-men.

When this was reported to David, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, and went to Helam. Then the Arameans lined up in formation to engage David in battle and fought against him.

When all the kings who were Hadadezer’s subjects saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became their subjects. After this, the Arameans were afraid to ever help the Ammonites again.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive.

And David sent and inquired after the woman. And one said, Is not this Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

The woman conceived, and she sent this message to David: "I'm pregnant."

And Uriah said to David, The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? as thou livest, and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing.

Then said David unto Uriah, "Tarry here this day also, and tomorrow I will let thee depart." And so Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and on the morrow.

Then David said to the messenger, Thus shalt thou say to Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the LORD liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die:

And he shall restore the lamb four-fold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.

Nathan said to David, "You are that man! This is what the Lord God of Israel says: 'I chose you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.

""I gave you your former master's household. ""I placed your former master's wives right in your arms. ""I gave you Israel and Judah. ""And if this had been too little, I would have added much more than that to you!