Beginning

4 ¶ And when Saul’s son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands were feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled.

² And Saul’s son had two men that were captains of companies; the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon, a Beerothite, of the sons of Benjamin (for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin;

³ and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and were sojourners there until this day).

⁴ And Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son that was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the tidings came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and it came to pass as she made haste to flee that he fell, and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.

⁵ And the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, who lay on a bed at noon.

⁶ And they came there into the midst of the house as though they were wheat merchants, and they smote him under the fifth rib; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.

⁷ For when they came into the house, he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they smote him, and slew him and beheaded him and took his head and walked all night through the plain.

⁸ And they brought the head of Ishbosheth unto David to Hebron and said to the king, Behold the head of Ishbosheth the son of Saul thy enemy, who sought thy life, and the LORD has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul and of his seed.

⁹ ¶ And David answered Rechab and Baanah, his brother, the sons of Rimmon, the Beerothite, and said unto them, As the LORD lives, who has ransomed my soul out of all adversity,

¹⁰ when one told me, saying, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking to have brought good tidings, I took hold of him and slew him in Ziklag as a reward for his tidings.

¹¹ How much more unto wicked men who have slain a righteous person in his own house upon his bed? Shall I not, therefore, now require his blood of your hand and remove you from the earth?

¹² Then David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up over the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth and buried it in the sepulchre of Abner in Hebron.

5 ¶ Then all the tribes of Israel came unto David in Hebron and spoke, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.

² And even yesterday and the day before yesterday, when Saul was king over us, it was thou that didst lead out and bring in Israel; and the LORD said to thee, Thou shalt feed my people Israel, and thou shalt be prince over Israel.

³ So all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron; and King David made a covenant with them in Hebron before the LORD; and they anointed David king over Israel.

⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years.

⁵ In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶ ¶ Then the king and his men went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, who dwelt in the land, who spoke unto David, saying, Except thou take away the blind and the lame, thou shalt not come in here, thinking, David cannot come in here.

⁷ Nevertheless, David took the fortress of Zion; the same is the city of David.

⁸ And David said on that day, Who shall go up the waterspout and smite the Jebusites and the lame and the blind, that are hated of David’s soul? Therefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.

⁹ So David dwelt in the fortress and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.

¹⁰ And David went on and grew great, and the LORD God of the hosts was with him.

¹¹ ¶ And Hiram, king of Tyre, also sent messengers to David, and cedar trees and carpenters and masons, and they built David a house.

¹² And David understood that the LORD had confirmed him as king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel’s sake.

¹³ And David took more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem after he had come from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born unto David.

¹⁴ And these were the names of those that were born unto him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

¹⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,

¹⁶ Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphalet.

¹⁷ ¶ But when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines came up to seek David, and David heard of it and went down to the fortress.

¹⁸ The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. {Heb. of the giants}

¹⁹ Then David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up to the Philistines? Wilt thou deliver them into my hand? And the LORD said unto David, Go up, for I without a doubt will deliver the Philistines into thy hand.

²⁰ And David came to Baalperazim, and David smote them there and said, The LORD has broken forth upon my enemies before me as the breach of waters. Therefore, he called the name of that place Baalperazim.

²¹ And they left their images there, and David and his men burned them.

²² And the Philistines came up yet again and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.

²³ And when David enquired of the LORD, he said, Thou shalt not go up, but go around behind them and come upon them over against the mulberry trees,

²⁴ and when thou hearest thunder going through the tops of the mulberry trees, then thou shalt move, for then the LORD shall go out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.

²⁵ And David did so as the LORD had commanded him and smote the Philistines from Geba unto Gazer.

6 ¶ Again, David gathered together all the chosen of Israel, thirty thousand.

² And David arose and went with all the people that were with him from Baale of Judah to bring up from there the ark of God upon which the name of the LORD of the hosts is invoked, who dwells there between the cherubim.

³ And they set the ark of God upon a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab that was in Gibeah, and Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab drove the new cart.

⁴ And when they brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was at Gibeah, with the ark of God, Ahio went before the ark.

⁵ And David and all the house of Israel danced before the LORD with all manner of instruments made of fir wood, even on harps and on psalteries and on timbrels and on cornets and on cymbals.

⁶ ¶ And when they came to Nachon’s threshingfloor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it.

⁷ And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God smote him there for his effrontery, and there he died by the ark of God.

⁸ And David was grieved because the LORD had made a breach upon Uzzah, and he called the name of the place Perezuzzah to this day.

⁹ And David was afraid of the LORD that day and said, How shall the ark of the LORD come to me?

¹⁰ So David would not remove the ark of the LORD unto him into the city of David, but David carried it aside into the house of Obededom, the Gittite.

¹¹ And the ark of the LORD continued in the house of Obededom the Gittite three months; and the LORD blessed Obededom, and all his household.

¹² ¶ And it was told King David, saying, The LORD has blessed the house of Obededom and all that pertains unto him because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness.

¹³ And it was so that when those that bore the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings.

¹⁴ And David danced before the LORD with all his might, and David was girded with a linen ephod.

¹⁵ So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the shofar.

¹⁶ And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁷ And they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place, in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, and David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

¹⁸ And as soon as David had finished offering burnt offerings and peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of the hosts.

¹⁹ And he dealt among all the people, even among the whole multitude of Israel, to the men as well to the women, to each one a cake of bread and a good piece of flesh and a flagon of wine. So all the people departed each one to his house.

²⁰ ¶ Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal, the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his slaves as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!

²¹ Then David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, who chose me over thy father and over all his house to appoint me prince over the people of the LORD, over Israel; therefore, I will dance before the LORD.

²² And I will yet be more vile than thus and will be base in my own sight and before the maidservants whom thou hast spoken of, of them shall I be had in honour.

²³ Therefore, Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no children unto the day of her death.

7 ¶ And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him,

² that the king said unto Nathan, the prophet, See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.

³ And Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that is in thy heart, for the LORD is with thee.

⁴ ¶ And it came to pass that night that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,

⁵ Go and tell my slave David, Thus hath the LORD said, Shalt thou build me a house for me to dwell in?

⁶ For I have not dwelt in any house since the time that I brought up the sons of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle.

⁷ In all the places in which I have walked with all the sons of Israel did I speak a word in any of the tribes of Israel, unto whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why did ye not build me a house of cedar?

⁸ Now, therefore, so shalt thou say unto my slave David, Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people, over Israel;

⁹ and I have been with thee wherever thou didst walk and have cut off all thine enemies out of thy sight and have made thee a great name, like unto the name of the great men that are in the earth.

¹⁰ Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their place and never again be removed; neither shall the sons of iniquity afflict them any more as before,

¹¹ since the time that I commanded judges to be over my people Israel. And I will cause thee to rest from all thy enemies. Likewise, the LORD makes thee to know that he will make thee a house.

¹² And when thy days are fulfilled and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹³ He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

¹⁴ I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the sons of men;

¹⁵ but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I took away from before thee.

¹⁶ And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee; thy throne shall be established for ever.

¹⁷ According to all these words and according to all this vision, so did Nathan speak unto David.

¹⁸ ¶ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, O Lord GOD, Who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me thus far?

¹⁹ And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy slave’s house for a great while to come and that this shall be the condition of a man, O Lord GOD.

²⁰ And what more can David say unto thee? For thou, Lord GOD, knowest thy slave.

²¹ For thou hast done all these great things by thy word and according to thine own heart to make thy slave know them.

²² Therefore, thou art great, O LORD God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.

²³ And who in the earth is like thy people, like Israel? A Gentile for the love of whom God went to ransom as a people to himself and to give him a name and to do with you great and terrible things in thy land because of thy people whom thou didst redeem unto thee from Egypt, from the Gentiles and their gods?

²⁴ For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be thy people for ever, and thou, LORD, have become their God.

²⁵ And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy slave and concerning his house, raise it up for ever and do as thou hast said.

²⁶ For thus shall thy name be magnified for ever that it may be said, The LORD of the hosts is God over Israel and that the house of thy slave David be established before thee.

²⁷ For thou, O LORD of the hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy slave, saying, I will build thee a house. Therefore, thy slave has found it in his heart to pray this prayer in thy presence.

²⁸ And now, O Lord GOD, thou art God, and thy words shall be firm, and thou hast spoken this goodness unto thy slave.

²⁹ Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy slave that it may continue for ever before thee, for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it, and with thy blessing the house of thy slave shall be blessed for ever.