¹⁴ Now he went through all the tribes of Israel, to Abel and Beth-Maacah. All the Berites gathered together and indeed followed him. ¹⁵ They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-Maacah and cast up a siege ramp against the city. It stood against the outer fortification and all the people with Joab battered the wall in order to topple it.

¹⁶ Then a wise woman cried out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come over here that I may speak with him.” ¹⁷ When he approached her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?”

“I am,” he answered.

Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your handmaid.”

“I’m listening,” he answered.

¹⁸ Then she spoke up saying, “They used to say in old time, ‘They shall surely seek counsel at Abel and that’s how they settled any dispute. ¹⁹ I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. Are you seeking to destroy a mother city in Israel? Why would you devour Adonai’s inheritance?”

²⁰ Joab replied saying, “Never! Far be it from me that I would devour up or ruin. ²¹ The matter is not so; but a fellow from the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba son of Bichri his name, has lifted up his hand against King David. Give him up alone and I will withdraw from the city.”

So the woman replied to Joab, “Look here, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” ²² Then the woman approached all the people wisely. So they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it over to Joab. He then blew the shofar and they were dismissed from the city, each to his tent. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³ Now Joab remained over all the army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; ²⁴ Adoram was over the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; ²⁵ Sheba was scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were kohanim; ²⁶ and Ira the Jairite also was a kohen to David.

Justice for the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year, so David sought the face of Adonai. Adonai replied, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, for he put the Gibeonites to death.” ² So the king summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not of Bnei-Yisrael but a remnant of the Amorites; however, Bnei-Yisrael had sworn a covenant with them. Yet Saul had tried to eradicate them in his zeal for Bnei-Yisrael and Judah.) ³ David asked the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? How may I make atonement so that you would bless the inheritance of Adonai?”

⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; nor is it our right to put any man to death in Israel.”

“Whatever you say, I will do for you,” he said.

⁵ Then they said to the king, “The man who consumed us and plotted against us to annihilate us from remaining in any of Israel’s territory, ⁶ let seven men of his sons be given over to us and we will hang them up before Adonai at Gibeah of Saul, Adonai’s chosen.”

“I will give them over,” the king said. ⁷ Now the king spared Mephibosheth, son of Jonathan son of Saul, because of Adonai’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan son of Saul. ⁸ But the king took the two sons of Rizpah daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul—Armoni and Mephibosheth; also the five sons of Michal^[a] daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite, ⁹ and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites. So they hanged them on the hill before Adonai, so that all seven fell together. They were put to death during the days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Then Rizpah daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it on the rock for herself, from the beginning of harvest until the rain poured on them from the sky. She did not let the birds of the sky rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹ David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. ¹² So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa. ¹³ He had the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan brought up from there, and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. ¹⁴ So they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish. They did all of what the king commanded. Afterward, God was moved by prayer for the land.

¹⁵ Once again the Philistines made war with Israel, so David went down with his servants and fought against the Philistines. But David became weary. ¹⁶ So Ishbi-benob—who was a descendant of the Raphah, whose spear weighed 300 shekels of bronze, who was girded with new armor—thought to kill David. ¹⁷ But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “You must not go out with us to battle anymore. You must not quench the lamp of Israel!”

¹⁸ Now it came to pass after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob, and Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, a descendant of the Rapha. ¹⁹ Then there was war again with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite killed Goliath the Gittite—his spear had a shaft like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰ Once again there was war at Gath, where there was a champion that had on every hand six fingers and on every foot six toes—a total of 24, and he also was a descendant of the Rapha. ²¹ When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of David’s brother Shimea killed him. ²² These four were born to the Rapha in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

When Will Yeshua Restore the Kingdom?

1 I wrote the first volume, Theophilus, about all that Yeshua began to do and teach— ² up to the day He was taken up, after He had given orders by the Ruach ha-Kodesh to the emissaries He had chosen. ³ To them He showed Himself to be alive after His suffering through many convincing proofs, appearing to them for forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

⁴ Now while staying with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father promised—which, He said, “you heard from Me. ⁵ For John immersed with water, but you will be immersed in the Ruach ha-Kodesh not many days from now.”

⁶ So when they gathered together, they asked Him, “Lord, are You restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?”

⁷ He said to them, “It is not your place to know the times or seasons which the Father has placed under His own control. ⁸ But you will receive power when the Ruach ha-Kodesh has come upon you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and through all Judah, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

⁹ After saying all this—while they were watching—He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. ¹⁰ While they were staring into heaven as He went up, suddenly two men stood with them in white clothing. ¹¹ They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you keep standing here staring into heaven? This Yeshua, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Appointing a New Emissary

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives^[a] (which is near Jerusalem, a Shabbat day’s journey^[b]). ¹³ When they had entered, they went up to the upper room where they were staying—Peter and John and Jacob and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; Jacob son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judah son of Jacob. ¹⁴ All these with one mind were continuing together in prayer—along with the women and Miriam, Yeshua’s mother, and His brothers.

¹⁵ In those days, Peter stood up among the brothers and sisters (the number of names all together was about a hundred and twenty) and said, ¹⁶ “Brothers,^[c] the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Ruach ha-Kodesh foretold by the mouth of David, concerning Judah—who became a guide to those who seized Yeshua. ¹⁷ For he was counted among us and received his share of this office.” ¹⁸ (Now this man Judah bought a field with the reward of his wickedness. Falling headfirst, he burst open in the middle and his intestines splattered out. ¹⁹ And it became known to all those living in Jerusalem, so in their own language that field was called Akeldama^[d]—that is, ‘Field of Blood.’) ²⁰ For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

²¹ “Therefore one of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Yeshua went in and out among us— ²² beginning with His immersion by John until the day He was taken up from us—must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

²³ So they nominated two—Joseph, called Barsabbas (also called Justus), and Matthias. ²⁴ And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who knows the hearts of all men, show us which of these two You have chosen ²⁵ to take the position in this office as emissary, from which Judah turned aside to go to his own place.” ²⁶ Then they cast lots for them, and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was added to the eleven emissaries.

He Watches Over You

Psalm 121