Beginning
David Wins Many Wars
8 Later, David defeated the Philistines. And he took control of their capital city.
2 He also defeated the people of Moab. He forced them to lie on the ground. Then he used a rope to measure them. When two men were measured, David ordered them killed. But every third man was allowed to live. So the people of Moab became servants of David. They gave him the payments he demanded.
3 As David went to take control again at the Euphrates River, he defeated Hadadezer. Hadadezer son of Rehob was king of Zobah. 4 David took from Hadadezer 1,700 men who rode in his chariots. He also captured 20,000 foot soldiers. David crippled all but 100 of the chariot horses. He saved those horses to pull chariots.
5 Arameans from Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah. But David defeated those 22,000 Arameans. 6 Then David put groups of soldiers in Damascus in Aram. The Arameans became David’s servants and gave him the payments he demanded. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.
7 David took the shields of gold that had belonged to Hadadezer’s officers. He brought them to Jerusalem. 8 David also took many things made of bronze from Tebah and Berothai. (They were cities that had belonged to Hadadezer.)
9 Toi king of Hamath heard that David had defeated all the army of Hadadezer. 10 So Toi sent his son Joram to greet and congratulate King David. Joram congratulated David for defeating Hadadezer. (Hadadezer had fought wars against Toi before.) Joram brought things made of silver, gold and bronze. 11 David took these things and gave them to the Lord. He also had given other silver and gold to the Lord. He had taken it from the nations he had defeated. 12 These nations were Edom, Moab, Ammon, Philistia and Amalek. David also defeated the king of Zobah who was Hadadezer son of Rehob.
13 David was famous after he returned from the Valley of Salt. There he had defeated 18,000 Arameans. 14 David put groups of soldiers through all the land of Edom. All the people of Edom became servants for him. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.
15 David was king over all Israel. His decisions were fair and right for all his people. 16 Joab son of Zeruiah was commander over the army. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder. 17 Zadok son of Ahitub and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests. Seraiah was the royal assistant. 18 Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites, the king’s bodyguards. And David’s sons were important leaders.
David Helps Saul’s Family
9 David asked, “Is there anyone still left in Saul’s family? I want to show kindness to this person for Jonathan’s sake!”
2 Now there was a servant named Ziba from Saul’s family. So David’s servants called Ziba to him. King David said to him, “Are you Ziba?”
He answered, “Yes, I am Ziba, your servant.”
3 The king asked, “Is there anyone left in Saul’s family? I want to show God’s kindness to this person.”
Ziba answered the king, “Jonathan has a son still living. He is crippled in both feet.”
4 The king asked Ziba, “Where is this son?”
Ziba answered, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.”
5 Then King David had servants bring Jonathan’s son from the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar. 6 Mephibosheth, Jonathan’s son, came before David and bowed facedown on the floor.
David said, “Mephibosheth!”
Mephibosheth said, “I am your servant.”
7 David said to him, “Don’t be afraid. I will be kind to you for your father Jonathan’s sake. I will give you back all the land of your grandfather Saul. And you will always be able to eat at my table.”
8 Mephibosheth bowed to David again. Mephibosheth said, “You are being very kind to me, your servant! And I am no better than a dead dog!”
9 Then King David called Saul’s servant Ziba. David said to him, “I have given your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and his family. 10 You, your sons and your servants will farm the land for Mephibosheth. You will harvest the crops. Then your master’s grandson will have food to eat. But Mephibosheth, your master’s grandson, will always be able to eat at my table.”
(Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.) 11 Ziba said to King David, “I am your servant. I will do everything my master, the king, commands me.”
So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table as if he were one of the king’s sons. 12 Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. Everyone in Ziba’s family became Mephibosheth’s servants. 13 Mephibosheth was crippled in both feet. He lived in Jerusalem and always ate at the king’s table.
War with Ammonites and Arameans
10 Later Nahash king of the Ammonites died. His son Hanun became king after him. 2 David said, “Nahash was kind to me. So I will be kind to his son Hanun.” So David sent his officers to comfort Hanun about his father’s death.
David’s servants went to the land of the Ammonites. 3 But the important men of Ammon spoke to Hanun, their master. They said, “Do you think David wants to honor your father by sending men to comfort you? No! David sent them to study the city and to spy it out. They plan to capture it!” 4 So Hanun took David’s officers and shaved off half their beards to shame them. He cut their clothes off at the hips to insult them. Then he sent them away.
5 When the people told David, he sent messengers to meet his officers. He did this because these men were very ashamed. King David said, “Wait at Jericho until your beards have grown out. Then come back to Jerusalem.”
6 Now the Ammonites saw that they had become David’s enemies. So they hired 20,000 Aramean foot soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah. They also hired the king of Maacah with 1,000 men. And they hired 12,000 men from Tob.
7 David heard about this. So he sent Joab with the whole army of warriors. 8 The Ammonites came out and got ready for the battle. They stood at the city gate. The Arameans from Zobah and Rehob and the men from Tob and Maacah were out in the field. They were standing away from the Ammonites.
9 Joab saw that there were enemies both in front of him and behind him. So he chose some of the best men from the Israelites. He got them ready for battle against the Arameans. 10 Then Joab gave the other men to his brother Abishai to lead against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said to Abishai, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, come help me. If the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come and help you. 12 Be strong. Let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. The Lord will do what he decides is right.”
13 Then Joab and his men attacked the Arameans, and they ran away. 14 The Ammonites saw that the Arameans were running away. So they ran away from Abishai and went back to their city. So Joab returned from the battle with the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
15 The Arameans saw that the Israelites had defeated them. So they came together into one big army. 16 Hadadezer sent messengers to bring the Arameans who lived on the other side of the Euphrates River. These Arameans went to Helam. Their leader was Shobach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army.
17 When David heard about this, he gathered all the Israelites together. They crossed over the Jordan River and went to Helam. There the Arameans prepared for battle and attacked. 18 But David defeated the Arameans, and they ran away from the Israelites. David killed 700 Aramean chariot drivers and 40,000 Aramean horsemen. He also killed Shobach, the commander of the Aramean army.
19 The kings who served Hadadezer saw that the Israelites had defeated them. So they made peace with the Israelites and served them. And the Arameans were afraid to help the Ammonites again.
David and Bathsheba
11 In the spring the kings would go out to war. So in the spring David sent out Joab, his servants and all the Israelites. They destroyed the Ammonites and attacked the city of Rabbah. But David stayed in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed. He walked around on the roof[a] of his palace. While he was on the roof, he saw a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. 3 So David sent his servants to find out who she was. A servant answered, “That woman is Bathsheba daughter of Eliam. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 David sent messengers to bring Bathsheba to him. When she came to him, he had physical relations with her. (Now Bathsheba had purified herself from her monthly period.) Then she went back to her house. 5 But Bathsheba became pregnant. She sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6 So David sent this message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 Uriah came to David. And David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go home and rest.”
So Uriah left the palace. The king also sent a gift to him. 9 But Uriah did not go home. He slept outside the door of the palace. He slept there as all the king’s officers did.
10 The officers told David, “Uriah did not go home.”
Then David said to Uriah, “You came from a long trip. Why didn’t you go home?”
11 Uriah said to him, “The Ark of the Covenant and the soldiers of Israel and Judah are staying in tents. My master Joab and his officers are camping out in the fields. It isn’t right for me to go home to eat and drink and have intimate relations with my wife!”
12 David said to Uriah, “Stay here today. Tomorrow I’ll send you back to the battle.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 Then David called Uriah to come to see him. Uriah ate and drank with David. David made Uriah drunk, but he still did not go home. That evening Uriah went to sleep with the king’s officers outside the king’s door.
14 The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. 15 In the letter David wrote, “Put Uriah on the front lines where the fighting is worst. Then leave him there alone. Let him be killed in battle.”
16 Joab watched the city and saw where its strongest defenders were. He put Uriah there. 17 The men of the city came out to fight against Joab. Some of David’s men were killed. And Uriah the Hittite was one of them.
18 Then Joab sent a report to David about everything that had happened in the war. 19 Joab told the messenger, “Tell King David what happened in the war. 20 After you finish, the king may become angry. He may ask you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the city wall? 21 Do you remember who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth?[b] It was a woman on the city wall. She threw a large stone for grinding grain on Abimelech. She killed him there in Thebez. Why did you go so near the wall?’ If King David asks that, you must answer, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”
22 The messenger went in and told David everything Joab had told him to say. 23 The messenger told David, “The men of Ammon were winning. They came out and attacked us in the field. But we fought them back to the city gate. 24 The men on the city wall shot arrows at your servants. Some of your men were killed. Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”
25 David said to the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t be upset about this. The sword kills everyone the same. Make a stronger attack against the city and capture it.’ Encourage Joab with these words.”
26 When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she cried for him. 27 After she finished her time of sadness, David sent servants to bring her to his house. She became David’s wife and gave birth to his son. But the Lord did not like what David had done.
David’s Son Dies
12 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When Nathan came to David, Nathan said, “There were two men in a city. One man was rich, but the other was poor. 2 The rich man had very many sheep and cattle. 3 But the poor man had nothing except one little female lamb he had bought. The poor man fed the lamb. It grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup. It slept in his arms. The lamb was like a daughter to him.
4 “Then a traveler stopped to visit the rich man. The rich man wanted to give food to the traveler. But he didn’t want to take one of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveler. Instead, he took the lamb from the poor man. The rich man killed the lamb and cooked it for his visitor.”
5 David became very angry at the rich man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this should die! 6 He must pay for the lamb four times for doing such a thing. He had no mercy!”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I appointed you king of Israel. I saved you from Saul. 8 I gave you his kingdom and his wives. And I made you king of Israel and Judah. And if that had not been enough, I would have given you even more. 9 So why did you ignore the Lord’s command? Why did you do what he says is wrong? You killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites! And you took his wife to become your wife! 10 So there will always be people in your family who will be killed by a sword. This is because you showed that you did not respect me! And you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite!’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am bringing trouble to you from your own family. While you watch, I will take your wives from you. And I will give them to someone who is very close to you. He will have physical relations with your wives, and everyone will know it. 12 You had physical relations with Bathsheba in secret. But I will do this so all the people of Israel can see it.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan answered, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die. 14 But what you did caused the Lord’s enemies to lose all respect for him. For this reason the son who was born to you will die.”
15 Then Nathan went home. And the Lord caused the son of David and Bathsheba, Uriah’s widow, to become very sick. 16 David prayed to God for the baby. David refused to eat or drink. He went into his house and stayed there. He lay on the ground all night. 17 The elders of David’s family came to him. They tried to pull him up from the ground. But he refused to get up. And he refused to eat food with them.
18 On the seventh day the baby died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the baby was dead. They said, “Look, we tried to talk to David while the baby was alive. But he refused to listen to us. If we tell him the baby is dead, he may harm himself.”
19 But David saw his servants whispering. Then he understood that the baby was dead. So he asked them, “Is the baby dead?”
They answered, “Yes, he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the floor. He washed himself, put lotions on himself and changed his clothes. Then he went into the Lord’s house to worship. After that, he went home and asked for something to eat. His servants gave him some food, and he ate.
21 David’s servants said to him, “Why are you doing this? When the baby was still alive, you refused to eat. You cried. But when the baby died, you got up and ate food.”
22 David said, “While the baby was still alive, I refused to eat, and I cried. I thought, ‘Who knows? Maybe the Lord will feel sorry for me and let the baby live.’ 23 But now the baby is dead. So why should I go without food? I can’t bring him back to life. Some day I will go to him. But he cannot come back to me.”
24 Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife. He slept with her and had intimate relations with her. She became pregnant again and had another son. David named the boy Solomon. The Lord loved Solomon. 25 The Lord sent word through Nathan the prophet to name the baby Jedidiah.[c] This was because the Lord loved the child.
David Captures Rabbah
26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah, a city of the Ammonites. And he was about to capture the royal city. 27 Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah. I have captured its water supply. 28 Now bring the other soldiers together and attack this city. Capture it before I capture it myself. If I capture this city, it will be called by my name!”
29 So David gathered all the army and went to Rabbah. He fought against Rabbah and captured it. 30 David took the crown off their king’s head. It was gold and weighed about 75 pounds. It also had gems in it. They put the crown on David’s head. And David took many valuable things out of the city. 31 He also brought out the people of the city. He made them work with saws, iron picks and axes. He also forced them to build with bricks. David did this to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all his army went back to Jerusalem.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.