The man replied to Joab, "Even if I were receiving a thousand pieces of silver, I would not strike the king's son! In our very presence the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, 'Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.'

Then ten soldiers who were Joab's armor bearers struck Absalom and finished him off.

Then called out Ahimaaz, and said unto the king, Peace! And he bowed himself down to the king, with his face to the earth, - and said - Blessed, be Yahweh thy God, who hath surrendered the men who were lifting up their hand, against my lord the king.

So the victory of that day was turned to mourning as far as all the people were concerned. For the people heard on that day, "The king is grieved over his son."

by loving those who hate you and hating those who love you. Indeed, you have made clear this day that you have no [regard for your] commanders or officers, for I have realized today that [were] Absalom alive, and all of us were dead, then [that would] have been right in your eyes!

So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: “Look, the king is sitting in the gate.” Then they all came into the king’s presence.

Meanwhile, each Israelite had fled to his tent.

And all the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, The king saved us from the hand of our enemies, and he delivered us from the hand of the Philistines; and now he hath fled out of the land for Absalom.

He won over the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man. Then they sent word to the king saying, "Return, you and all your servants as well."

And there were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of the house of Saul, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the king.

For all of my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that ate at thy own table. What right therefore have I yet to cry any more to the king?

And the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him. And all the people of Judah were bringing the king, and also half the people of Israel.

Suddenly, all the men of Israel [were] coming to the king. They said to the king, "Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen away and brought the king and his household over the Jordan, with all the men of David?"

And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

And every man of Israel will go up from after David, after Sheba, son of Bichri: and the men of Judah were joined to the king, from Jordan and even to Jerusalem.

And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and fed them, but went not in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded to him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out.

Now Amasa was writhing in his blood in the middle of the highway, and the man had seen that all the people stopped. So he moved Amasa from the highway to the field and threw a garment over him because he realized that all those who encountered Amasa were stopping.

And he went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth-maachah, and all the Berites: and they were assembled, and went also after him.

And they came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-maachah, and they cast up a bank against the city, and it stood in the trench: and all the people that were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

Then she spoke, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They will surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter.

Then the woman went unto 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 returned to Jerusalem unto the king.

And Sheva was scribe: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:

In the days of David they were short of food for three years, year after year; and David went before the Lord for directions. And the Lord said, On Saul and on his family there is blood, because he put the Gibeonites to death.

And the king called the Gibeonites, and said to them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to slay them, in his zeal to the children of Israel and Judah.)

Then they said to the king, "The man who consumed us and who plotted against us [so that] we were destroyed from existing in all of the territory of Israel,

But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, who were the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, and the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite

And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD: and they fell all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest.

And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

And the Philistines went to war again with Israel; and David went down with his people, and while they were at Gob they had a fight with the Philistines:

Once again there [was] battle at Gath, and there [was] {a man of great size}. The fingers of his hand and the toes of his feet [were] six and six, twenty-four in number. He [was] also born to the Raphah.

These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came upon me.

Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven quaked And were shaken, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it.

The heavens were bent, so that he might come down; and it was dark under his feet.

Through the brightness before him were coals of fire kindled.

And he sent out his arrows, driving them in all directions; by his flames of fire they were troubled.

And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were laid open, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

For all his judgments were before me: and as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

And, a patient people, thou didst save, - but, thine eyes, were on the lofty - thou layedst them low;

Thou wilt enlarge my steps under me, And my joints were not unsteady.

I have pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them; Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.

They were crying out, but there was no one to come to their help: even to the Lord, but he gave them no answer.

Then they were crushed as small as the dust of the earth, stamped down under my feet like the waste of the streets.

The sons of the foreigner, were disheartened, and came quaking, out of their fortresses.

"The spirit of the LORD spake in me, and his words were on my tongue.

These [are] the names of the mighty warriors who [were] David's: Josheb-Basshebeth a Tahkemonite [was] chief of three officers; first Adino, whose spear [was] against eight hundred slain on one occurrence.

And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there assembled to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away:

And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines were collected into a troop, where was a piece of ground full of lentils: and the people fled from the Philistines.

Then three of the thirty leaders went down and came to David {at the time of the harvest} to the cave of Adullam, while a group of [the] Philistines [were] camping in the valley of [the] Rephaim.

And David was then in a hold. And the soldiers of the Philistines were then in Bethlehem.

and said, "O Lord, I will not do this! It is equivalent to the blood of the men who risked their lives by going." So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three elite warriors.

Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoida, who gained fame among the three elite warriors.

Among the thirty [were] Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

and Uriah the Hittite. Altogether there were thirty-seven.

And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army, who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the people.

And Joab presented the sum of the number of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

And he had talk with Joab, the son of Zeruiah, and with Abiathar the priest; and they were on his side and gave him their support.

But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.

Were you behind this, your majesty, without letting your servants know who would sit on your majesty's throne after him?"

"Get me Zadok the priest," King David said, "along with Nathan the prophet, and Jehoiada's son Benaiah." So they were ushered into the king's presence

All the people went up after him, and the people were playing on the flutes and rejoicing [with] great joy, and the earth shook with their noise.

And Adonijah and all the guests that were with him heard it as they had made an end of eating. And when Joab heard the sound of the trumpet, he said, Why is this noise of the city being in an uproar?

And while the words were on his lips, Jonathan, the son of Abiathar the priest, came; and Adonijah said, Come in; for you are a man of good faith and the news which you have for us will be good.

And all the guests that were with Adonijah were afraid, and arose, and went every man his way.

And the days of David were at hand that he should die; and he enjoined Solomon his son saying,

Moreover, thou knowest also what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me, and what he did to the two captains of the armies of Israel, to Abner the son of Ner, and to Amasa the son of Jether, whom he slew, and shed the blood of war in peace, and put the blood of war upon his girdle that was about his loins, and in his shoes that were on his feet.

But now don't treat him as if he were innocent. You are a wise man and you know how to handle him; make sure he has a bloody death."

And the days that David reigned over Israel were forty years: seven years reigned he in Hebron, and thirty and three years reigned he in Jerusalem.

To Abiathar the priest the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted."

May the Lord punish him for the blood he shed; behind my father David's back he struck down and murdered with the sword two men who were more innocent and morally upright than he -- Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel's army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah's army.

Solomon became the son-in-law of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter as his wife, keeping her in the town of David, till the house he was building for himself, and the house of the Lord and the wall round Jerusalem, were complete.

But the people [were] sacrificing on the high places, for the house for the name of Yahweh had not [yet] been built in those days.

Now these words and Solomon's request were pleasing to the Lord.

Then came there two women, that were harlots, to the king, and stood before him.

And it came to pass the third day after I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save us two in the house.

The real mother spoke up to the king, for her motherly instincts were aroused. She said, "My master, give her the living child! Whatever you do, don't kill him!" But the other woman said, "Neither one of us will have him! Let them cut him in two!"

And these were the princes which he had; Azariah the son of Zadok the priest,

Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha, [were] the secretaries; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud [was] the recorder.

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the army: and Zadok and Abiathar were the priests:

Solomon also appointed twelve governors over all of Israel, each of whom were responsible for providing one month's food provisions to the king and to his administration during each year.

These were their names: Ben-Hur was in charge of the hill country of Ephraim.

Ben-Hesed [was] in the Arubbot; Socoh and all the land of Hepher [were] his.

Ben-Geber [was] in Ramoth-Gilead; the villages of Jair, the son of Manasseh which are in the Gilead [were] his, and the region of Argob which [is] in the Bashan, sixty great cities, with walls [having] crossbars of bronze, [were] his.

Geber, the son of Uri, in the land of Gilead, the country of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan; and one overseer had authority over all the overseers who were in the land.

Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry.

Now Solomon was ruling over all the kingdoms from the River [to] the land of [the] Philistines, and up to the border of Egypt, who [were] bringing tribute and [were] serving Solomon all the days of his life.

Solomon’s provisions for one day were 150 bushels of fine flour and 300 bushels of meal,

So Judah and Israel were living safely, every man under his vine and his fig-tree, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon.

Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries they brought to the place where the officers were, every man according to his charge.

God gave Solomon wisdom and great discernment. His insights were as numerous as sand on the seashore.

And he spoke three thousand proverbs: and his songs were a thousand and five.

Thou knowest how that David my father could not build a house to the name of the LORD his God, for the wars which were about him on every side, until the LORD put them under the soles of his feet.

So the Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he had promised him. And Hiram and Solomon were at peace and made a treaty.

And he sent them to Lebanon ten thousand a month by courses; a month they were in Lebanon, and two months at home. And Adoniram was over the levy.

And Solomon had threescore and ten thousand that bare burdens, and fourscore thousand that were hewers in the mountains;

Besides the chief of Solomon's officers who were over the work, three thousand and three hundred, who ruled over the people that wrought in the work.

By the king's orders great stones, stones of high price, were cut out, so that the base of the house might be made of squared stone.

And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the LORD.