Beginning
8 After this David subdued and humbled the Philistines by conquering Gath, their largest city. 2 He also devastated the land of Moab. He divided his victims by making them lie down side by side in rows. Two-thirds of each row, as measured with a tape, were butchered, and one-third were spared to become David’s servants—they paid him tribute each year.
3 He also destroyed the forces of King Hadadezer (son of Rehob) of Zobah in a battle at the Euphrates River, for Hadadezer had attempted to regain his power. 4 David captured seventeen hundred cavalry and twenty thousand infantry; then he lamed all of the chariot horses except for one hundred teams. 5 He also slaughtered twenty-two thousand Syrians from Damascus when they came to help Hadadezer. 6 David placed several army garrisons in Damascus, and the Syrians became David’s subjects and brought him annual tribute money. So the Lord gave him victories wherever he turned. 7 David brought the gold shields to Jerusalem which King Hadadezer’s officers had used. 8 He also carried back to Jerusalem a very large amount of bronze from Hadadezer’s cities of Betah and Berothai.
9 When King Toi of Hamath heard about David’s victory over the army of Hadadezer, 10 he sent his son Joram to congratulate him, for Hadadezer and Toi were enemies. He gave David presents made from silver, gold, and bronze. 11-12 David dedicated all of these to the Lord, along with the silver and gold he had taken from Syria, Moab, Ammon, the Philistines, Amalek, and King Hadadezer.
13 So David became very famous. After his return he destroyed eighteen thousand Edomites[a] in Salt Valley, 14 and then placed garrisons throughout Edom, so that the entire nation was forced to pay tribute to Israel—another example of the way the Lord made him victorious wherever he went.
15 David reigned with justice over Israel and was fair to everyone. 16 The general of his army was Joab (son of Zeruiah), and his secretary of state was Jehoshaphat (son of Ahilud). 17 Zadok (son of Ahitub) and Ahimelech (son of Abiathar) were the High Priests, and Seraiah was the king’s private secretary. 18 Benaiah (son of Jehoiada) was captain of his bodyguard,[b] and David’s sons were his assistants.
9 One day David began wondering if any of Saul’s family was still living, for he wanted to be kind to them, as he had promised Prince Jonathan. 2 He heard about a man named Ziba, who had been one of Saul’s servants, and summoned him.
“Are you Ziba?” the king asked.
“Yes, sir, I am,” he replied.
3 The king then asked him, “Is anyone left from Saul’s family? If so, I want to fulfill a sacred vow by being kind to him.”
“Yes,” Ziba replied, “Jonathan’s lame son is still alive.”
4 “Where is he?” the king asked.
“In Lo-debar,” Ziba told him. “At the home of Machir.”
5-6 So King David sent for Mephibosheth—Jonathan’s son and Saul’s grandson. Mephibosheth arrived in great fear and greeted the king in deep humility, bowing low before him.
7 But David said, “Don’t be afraid! I’ve asked you to come so that I can be kind to you because of my vow to your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land of your grandfather Saul, and you shall live here at the palace!”
8 Mephibosheth fell to the ground before the king. “Should the king show kindness to a dead dog like me?” he exclaimed.
9 Then the king summoned Saul’s servant Ziba. “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family,” he said. 10-11 “You and your sons and servants are to farm the land for him, to produce food for his family; but he will live here with me.”
Ziba, who had fifteen sons and twenty servants, replied, “Sir, I will do all you have commanded.”
And from that time on, Mephibosheth ate regularly with King David, as though he were one of his own sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son, Mica. All the household of Ziba became Mephibosheth’s servants, 13 but Mephibosheth (who was lame in both feet) moved to Jerusalem to live at the palace.
10 Some time after this the Ammonite king died and his son Hanun replaced him.
2 “I am going to show special respect for him,” David said, “because his father, Nahash, was always so loyal and kind to me.” So David sent ambassadors to express regrets to Hanun about his father’s death.
3 But Hanun’s officers told him, “These men aren’t here to honor your father! David has sent them to spy out the city before attacking it!”
4 So Hanun took David’s men and shaved off half their beards and cut their robes off at the buttocks and sent them home half naked. 5 When David heard what had happened he told them to stay at Jericho until their beards grew out; for the men were very embarrassed over their appearance.
6 Now the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered David, so they hired twenty thousand Syrian mercenaries from the lands of Rehob and Zobah, one thousand from the king of Maacah, and ten thousand from the land of Tob. 7-8 When David heard about this, he sent Joab and the entire Israeli army to attack them. The Ammonites defended the gates of their city while the Syrians from Zobah, Rehob, Tob, and Maacah fought in the fields. 9 When Joab realized that he would have to fight on two fronts, he selected the best fighters in his army, placed them under his personal command, and took them out to fight the Syrians in the fields. 10 He left the rest of the army to his brother Abishai, who was to attack the city.
11 “If I need assistance against the Syrians, come out and help me,” Joab instructed him. “And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you. 12 Courage! We must really act like men today if we are going to save our people and the cities of our God. May the Lord’s will be done.”
13 And when Joab and his troops attacked, the Syrians began to run away. 14 Then, when the Ammonites saw the Syrians running, they ran too, and retreated into the city. Afterwards Joab returned to Jerusalem. 15-16 The Syrians now realized that they were no match for Israel. So when they regrouped, they were joined by additional Syrian troops summoned by Hadadezer from the other side of the Euphrates River. These troops arrived at Helam under the command of Shobach, the commander-in-chief of all of Hadadezer’s forces.
17 When David heard what was happening, he personally led the Israeli army to Helam, where the Syrians attacked him. 18 But again the Syrians fled from the Israelis, this time leaving seven hundred charioteers dead on the field, also forty thousand cavalrymen, including General Shobach. 19 When Hadadezer’s allies saw that the Syrians had been defeated, they surrendered to David and became his servants. And the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore after that.
11 In the spring of the following year, at the time when wars begin, David sent Joab and the Israeli army to destroy the Ammonites. They began by laying siege to the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem.
2 One night he couldn’t get to sleep[c] and went for a stroll on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking her evening bath. 3 He sent to find out who she was and was told that she was Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah. 4 Then David sent for her and when she came he slept with her. (She had just completed the purification rites after menstruation.) Then she returned home. 5 When she found that he had gotten her pregnant she sent a message to inform him.
6 So David dispatched a memo to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” 7 When he arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was prospering. 8 Then he told him to go home and relax, and he sent a present to him at his home. 9 But Uriah didn’t go there. He stayed that night at the gateway of the palace with the other servants of the king.
10 When David heard what Uriah had done, he summoned him and asked him, “What’s the matter with you? Why didn’t you go home to your wife last night after being away for so long?”
11 Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies and the general and his officers are camping out in open fields, and should I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I will never be guilty of acting like that.”
12 “Well, stay here tonight,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.”
So Uriah stayed around the palace. 13 David invited him to dinner and got him drunk; but even so he didn’t go home that night, but again he slept at the entry to the palace.
14 Finally the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. 15 The letter instructed Joab to put Uriah at the front of the hottest part of the battle—and then pull back and leave him there to die! 16 So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the besieged city where he knew that the enemies’ best men were fighting; 17 and Uriah was killed along with several other Israeli soldiers.
18 When Joab sent a report to David of how the battle was going, 19-21 he told his messenger, “If the king is angry and asks, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? Wasn’t Abimelech killed at Thebez by a woman who threw down a millstone on him?’—then tell him, ‘Uriah was killed too.’”
22 So the messenger arrived at Jerusalem and gave the report to David.
23 “The enemy came out against us,” he said, “and as we chased them back to the city gates, 24 the men on the wall attacked us; and some of our men were killed, and Uriah the Hittite is dead too.”
25 “Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword kills one as well as another![d] Fight harder next time, and conquer the city; tell him he is doing well.”
26 When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him; 27 then, when the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to the palace and she became one of his wives; and she gave birth to his son. But the Lord was very displeased with what David had done.
12 1-2 So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to tell David this story:
“There were two men in a certain city, one very rich, owning many flocks of sheep and herds of goats; 3 and the other very poor, owning nothing but a little lamb he had managed to buy. It was his children’s pet, and he fed it from his own plate and let it drink from his own cup; he cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. 4 Recently a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing a lamb from his own flocks for food for the traveler, he took the poor man’s lamb and roasted it and served it.”
5 David was furious. “I swear by the living God,” he vowed, “any man who would do a thing like that should be put to death; 6 he shall repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are that rich man! The Lord God of Israel says, ‘I made you king of Israel and saved you from the power of Saul. 8 I gave you his palace and his wives and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more. 9 Why, then, have you despised the laws of God and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah and stolen his wife. 10 Therefore murder shall be a constant threat in your family from this time on because you have insulted me by taking Uriah’s wife. 11 I vow that because of what you have done, I will cause your own household to rebel against you. I will give your wives to another man, and he will go to bed with them in public view.[e] 12 You did it secretly, but I will do this to you openly, in the sight of all Israel.’”
13 “I have sinned against the Lord,” David confessed to Nathan.
Then Nathan replied, “Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. 14 But you have given great opportunity to the enemies of the Lord to despise and blaspheme him, so your child shall die.”
15 Then Nathan returned to his home. And the Lord made Bathsheba’s baby deathly sick. 16 David begged him to spare the child and went without food, and lay all night before the Lord on the bare earth. 17 The leaders of the nation pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused. 18 Then, on the seventh day, the baby died. David’s aides were afraid to tell him.
“He was so broken up about the baby being sick,” they said, “what will he do to himself when we tell him the child is dead?”
19 But when David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened.
“Is the baby dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is.” 20 Then David got up off the ground, washed himself, brushed his hair, changed his clothes, and went into the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord. Then he returned to the palace and ate. 21 His aides were amazed.
“We don’t understand you,” they told him. “While the baby was still living, you wept and refused to eat; but now that the baby is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again.”
22 David replied, “I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”
24 Then David comforted Bathsheba; and when he slept with her, she conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Solomon. And the Lord loved the baby, 25 and sent congratulations[f] and blessings through Nathan the prophet. David nicknamed the baby Jedidiah (meaning, “Beloved of Jehovah”) because of the Lord’s interest. 26-27 Meanwhile Joab and the Israeli army were successfully ending their siege of Rabbah the capital of Ammon. Joab sent messengers to tell David, “Rabbah and its beautiful harbor are ours![g] 28 Now bring the rest of the army and finish the job, so that you will get the credit for the victory instead of me.”
29-30 So David led his army to Rabbah and captured it. Tremendous amounts of loot were carried back to Jerusalem, and David took the king of Rabbah’s crown—a $50,000 treasure made from solid gold set with gems—and placed it on his own head. 31 He made slaves of the people of the city and made them labor with saws, picks, and axes and work in the brick kilns;[h] that is the way he treated all of the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and the army returned to Jerusalem.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.