²¹ That is not so. But a man from the mountains of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has raised his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city.”

So the woman said to Joab, “Watch, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

⁷ So it was, when the letter came to them, that they took the king’s sons and ^(A)slaughtered seventy persons, put their heads in baskets and sent them to him at Jezreel.

²² And he said, “All is ^(A)well. My master has sent me, saying, ‘Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.’ ”

¹⁸ Now ^(A)Abishai the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of ^[a]another three. He lifted his spear against three hundred men, killed them, and won a name among these three.

The Rebellion of Sheba

20 And there happened to be there a ^[a]rebel, whose name was Sheba the son of Bichri, a Benjamite. And he blew a trumpet, and said:

² I will come upon him while he is ^(A)weary and weak, and make him ^[a]afraid. And all the people who are with him will flee, and I will ^(B)strike only the king. ³ Then I will bring back all the people to you. When all return except the man whom you seek, all the people will be at peace.”

⁹ But David said to Abishai, “Do not destroy him; ^(A)for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and be guiltless?”

⁶ And he said to his men, ^(A)“The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.”