Beginning
David’s Wars
8 After this, David defeated the Philistines and subdued them. David took Metheg Ha’ammah[a] from the control of the Philistines.
2 He defeated Moab and measured the men with a length of rope after making them lie down on the ground. He measured two lengths to be put to death and one full length to live. The Moabites became subject to David and brought tribute.
3 David also defeated Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to restore his control[b] at the river Euphrates. 4 David captured seventeen hundred charioteers and twenty thousand foot soldiers[c] from him. David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but he left enough horses for a hundred chariots. 5 Arameans from Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, but David killed twenty-two thousand men in Aram. 6 Then David put garrisons in Damascus in the land of Aram,[d] and the Arameans became subject to David and brought tribute.
The Lord gave victory to David everywhere he went.
7 David took the gold shields that belonged to the officials of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 From Betah and Berothai,[e] cities of Hadadezer, King David took large amounts of bronze.
9 Toi[f] king of Hamath heard that David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer. 10 So Toi sent his son Joram[g] to King David to petition him for peace and to bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, because Toi had been at war with Hadadezer. In his hand he brought items made of silver and items of gold and items of bronze.
11 King David dedicated these things to the Lord along with the silver and gold that he had dedicated from all the nations he had subdued: 12 from Aram, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, from Amalek, and from the spoils of Hadadezer son of Rehob, king of Zobah.
13 David made a name for himself when he returned from striking eighteen thousand Edomites[h] in the Valley of Salt. 14 He put garrisons in Edom, in all of it, and all the Edomites became subject to David.
The Lord gave victory to David wherever he went. 15 David was king over all Israel, and he treated all his people with justice and fairness.
David’s Officials
16 Joab son of Zeruiah was over the army. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the record keeper.[i] 17 Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelek son of Abiathar were priests. Seraiah was the secretary. 18 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in charge of the Kerethites and the Pelethites. The sons of David were government ministers.[j]
David and Mephibosheth
9 David said, “Is there anyone still left from the house of Saul, to whom I may show kindness for the sake of Jonathan?”
2 There was a servant of Saul’s house named Ziba, so they summoned him to come to David.
The king said to him, “Are you Ziba?” He said, “I am.”
3 The king said, “Isn’t there still a man left who belongs to the house of Saul, to whom I may show the kindness of God?”
Ziba said to the king, “There is still a son of Jonathan. He has crippled feet.”
4 The king said to him, “Where is he?”
Ziba said to the king, “He is in the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 So King David sent and brought him from the house of Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar.
6 When Mephibosheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, came to David, he bowed facedown to the ground.
David said, “Mephibosheth?” He said, “I am.”
7 David said to him, “Do not be afraid. I will certainly show kindness to you because of Jonathan, your father. I will return to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat bread at my table.”
8 He bowed down and said, “What is your servant that you have paid attention to a dead dog like me?”
9 The king called Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said to him, “Everything that belonged to Saul and to his entire house I am giving to your master’s son. 10 You are to work the soil for him, you and your sons and your servants. You are to bring in the crops, so your master’s son will have food to eat. Mephibosheth, your master’s son, will always eat bread at my table.”
(Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.)
11 Ziba said to the king, “Everything that my lord the king commands his servant, your servant will do.”
So Mephibosheth began eating at the king’s table[k] like one of the king’s sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. Everyone living in Ziba’s house became servants of Mephibosheth. 13 So Mephibosheth took up residence in Jerusalem because he was always to eat at the table of the king. He was crippled in both his feet.
The War With Ammon
10 After this, the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun became king in his place.
2 David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent his officials to express condolences to Hanun concerning his father. David’s officials arrived in the land of the Ammonites.
3 But the officials of the Ammonites said to Hanun their master, “Do you really think David was honoring your father when he sent messengers to express his sympathy to you? No, David sent his officials to you in order to gather information about the city and to spy on it, in order to overthrow it.”
4 So Hanun seized the officials of David, shaved off half of each one’s beard, cut off their clothing up to their buttocks, and sent them away.
5 David was told about this, and he sent messengers to meet them because the men were deeply humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown. Then return.”
6 The Ammonites saw that they had become a digusting stench to David, so they sent and hired twenty thousand foot soldiers from Aram Beth Rehob and Aram Zobah, one thousand men from the king of Ma’akah, and twelve thousand men from Tob.[l]
7 When David heard about it, he deployed Joab and the entire army, the strong warriors.
8 The Ammonites went out and lined up in battle formation in front of the entrance to the city gate. Aram Zobah and Aram Rehob, as well as the men of Tob and Ma’akah, were lined up by themselves in the open country.
9 Joab saw that the battle lines were drawn up against him both in front of him and behind him, so he chose some of the best troops of Israel and lined them up to confront the Arameans. 10 The rest of the men he placed under the command of his brother Abishai and lined them up to face the Ammonites. 11 He said, “If Aram is too strong for me, then you are to rescue me. If the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong. We must show ourselves to be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his eyes.”
13 Joab and all the people with him advanced to join battle against the Arameans, and the Arameans fled from him. 14 When the Ammonites saw that Aram had fled, they also fled from Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came back to Jerusalem.
15 When the Arameans saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they regrouped. 16 Hadadezer sent for Arameans from beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helam with Shobak, who was the commander of the army of Hadadezer, at their head.
17 When David was informed, he gathered all Israel, crossed the Jordan, and came to Helam. The Arameans lined up to confront David and fought against him. 18 The Arameans fled from Israel. David killed seven hundred Aramean charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers.[m] Shobak, the commander of their army, was wounded, and he died there. 19 All the kings who were the subjects of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, so they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. Then the Arameans were afraid to try to rescue the Ammonites anymore.
David and Bathsheba
11 Springtime arrived, the time when kings go out to war. David sent Joab out with his officers and with all Israel. They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David had gotten up from his couch and was walking around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very good looking. 3 David sent to inquire about the woman, and he was told, “Isn’t this Bathsheba daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
4 David sent messengers to bring her. She came to him, and he lay down with her. (She had been purifying herself from her ceremonial uncleanness.)[n] She then returned to her house.
5 The woman became pregnant, so she sent a message and told David, “I am pregnant.”
6 David sent a message to Joab, “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David, 7 and Uriah came to him.
David asked how Joab and the troops were doing, and how the war effort was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.”
When Uriah went out from the palace, the king sent a gift to him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all the servants of his master. He did not go down to his own house.
10 David was informed, “Uriah has not gone down to his house.” So David said to Uriah, “Haven’t you come a long distance? Why didn’t you go down to your house?”
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are living in shelters, and my master Joab and the servants of my master are camped on the bare ground in the open countryside. Should I go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie down with my wife? By your life, as surely as you live, I will not do such a thing.”
12 Then David said to Uriah, “Stay here today also. Tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 David summoned him, and Uriah ate as his guest, and David got him drunk. But in the evening he went and slept on his mat where the servants of his master were. He did not go to his own house.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it in the hands of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Station Uriah opposite the fiercest fighting. Then withdraw from behind him so that he will be struck down and die.”
16 So when Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew that the enemy’s strongest warriors were. 17 The men of the city came out and fought against Joab, and some of the troops of David fell. Uriah the Hittite also died.
18 Joab sent a message to inform David about all the events of the war. 19 He instructed the messenger, “As you are finishing reporting all the events of the war to the king, 20 if the king becomes angry and says to you, ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know that they would be shooting from on top of the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelek son of Jerubbesheth?[o] Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone from the wall on him, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ Then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”
22 The messenger set out. He came and told David everything that Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “Their men gained an advantage over us and drove us back into the open country. But then we gained the upper hand and drove them back all the way to the entrance of the city gate. 24 The archers shot at your troops from the wall. Some of the servants of the king died. And your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”
25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not take this too hard, because the sword devours people at random. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ Encourage Joab.”
26 The wife of Uriah the Hittite heard that her husband was dead, so she mourned for her husband. 27 When her mourning was completed, David sent for her and brought her to his house, and she became his wife. She gave birth to a son for him. But what David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord.
David and Nathan
12 So the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came and told him this:
There were two men in a city. One was rich and one poor. 2 The rich man had a large number of flocks and herds. 3 The poor man did not own anything except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. He raised it so that it grew up together with him and his children. It ate from his food and drank from his cup. It slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 When a traveler came to the rich man, the rich man was unwilling to take an animal from his flock or from his herd to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. So he took the lamb from the poor man and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
5 David’s anger flared up against that man. He said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this is as good as dead. 6 In place of that lamb, he will restore four lambs, because he did this and had no pity.”
7 Nathan told David, “You are the man. This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says.”
The Message of Judgment Against David
I anointed you king over Israel. I rescued you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave the house of your master to you, and I gave the wives of your master into your embrace. I gave you the house of Israel and the house of Judah. If this was too little, I would have added even more. 9 Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his eyes? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife as your own wife. You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 So now the sword will not depart from your house forever, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
11 This is what the Lord says. Look! I am raising up disaster against you from your own house. Right in front of your eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie down with your wives in the sight of the sun. 12 Because you acted in secret, I will do this in front of all Israel in broad daylight.
13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan said to David, “The Lord himself has put away your sin. You will not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have treated the Lord with utter contempt,[p] the child that is born to you shall surely die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house.
The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne for David, and the child became sick. 16 David sought the Lord’s mercy for the child. David fasted and spent the night lying on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to pick him up off the ground, but he was not willing, and he would not eat food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, because they said, “Look! When the child was living, we spoke to David, but he did not listen to what we said. How will we speak to him now when the child is dead? He might do something harmful.”
19 When David saw that his servants were whispering together, he understood that the child was dead. So David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “Yes, he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the ground, washed, put on lotion, and changed his clothes. He went to the House of the Lord and worshipped. He then went back to his house and asked for food. So they prepared a meal for him, and he ate.
21 His servants said to him, “What are you doing? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept. But when the child died, you got up and ate food.”
22 He said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept because I said, ‘Who knows? Will the Lord be gracious to me and let my child live?’ 23 Now he has died. Why should I fast? Am I able to return him to life again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
24 David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. He went to her and lay down with her. She gave birth to a son. David called him Solomon. The Lord loved him, 25 and the Lord sent a message by the hand of Nathan the prophet that he should be called Jedidiah[q] because of the Lord.
The Defeat of the Ammonites
26 Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal city.
27 He sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah. I have also captured the city’s water supply. 28 Now gather the rest of the troops, set up camp against the city, and take it. If you do not, I might take the city, and it will be named after me.” 29 So David gathered all the troops and went to Rabbah. He fought against it and took it.
30 He removed the gold crown of their king[r] from his head. It weighed seventy-five pounds,[s] and it had a precious stone. It was placed on[t] the head of David.
He brought out large quantities of plunder from the city. 31 He also brought the people out from it and made them work with saws, with iron picks and axes, and at brickmaking. He did the same to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the troops returned to Jerusalem.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.