Chronological

David Is Made King of Israel

5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron. They said to him, “Look, we are your own family. ² In the past Saul was king over us. But you were the one leading us in battle for Israel. The Lord said to you, ‘You will be like a shepherd for my people, the Israelites. You will become their ruler.’”

³ All the elders of Israel came to King David at Hebron. Then he made an agreement with them in Hebron in front of the Lord. Then they poured oil on David to make him king over Israel.

⁴ David was 30 years old when he became king. He ruled 40 years. ⁵ He was king over Judah in Hebron for 7 years and 6 months. And he was king over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem for 33 years.

⁶ The king and his men went to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there. The Jebusites said to David, “You can’t come into our city. Even our people who are blind and crippled can stop you.” They said this because they thought David could not enter their city. ⁷ But David did take the city of Jerusalem with its strong walls. It became the City of David.

⁸ That day David said to his men, “To defeat the Jebusites you must go through the water tunnel. Then you can reach those ‘crippled’ and ‘blind’ enemies. This is why people say, ‘The blind and the crippled cannot enter the palace.’”

⁹ So David lived in the city with its strong walls. He called it the City of David. David built more buildings around it. He began where the land was filled in on the east side of the city. He also built more buildings inside the city. ¹⁰ He became stronger and stronger, because the Lord of heaven’s armies was with him.

David Becomes King

11 All the people of Israel came to David at the town of Hebron. They said, “We are your people. ² Even when Saul was king, you were the man who led Israel in battle. The Lord your God spoke to you. He said, ‘David, you will be the shepherd of my people, the people of Israel. You will become their leader.’”

³ All the elders of Israel came to King David at Hebron. He made an agreement with them before the Lord in Hebron. The leaders poured olive oil on David to appoint him king over Israel. The Lord had promised this would happen. He had made this promise through Samuel.

David Defeats Jerusalem

⁴ David and all the Israelites went to the city of Jerusalem. At that time Jerusalem was called Jebus. The people living there were named Jebusites. ⁵ They said to David, “You can’t get inside our city.” But David captured their strong city of Jerusalem, the City of David.

⁶ David had said, “The person who leads the attack against the Jebusites will become the commander over all my army.” Joab son of Zeruiah led the attack. So he became the commander of the army.

⁷ Then David made his home in the strong, walled city. That is why it was named the City of David. ⁸ David rebuilt the city. He started where the land was filled in and went to the wall that was around the city. Joab repaired the other parts of the city. ⁹ David became more and more powerful. And the Lord of heaven’s armies was with him.

David’s Mighty Warriors

¹⁰ This is a list of the leaders over David’s warriors. These warriors helped make David’s kingdom strong. All the people of Israel also supported David’s kingdom. These heroes and all the people of Israel made David king. This happened as the Lord had promised.

¹¹ This is a list of David’s warriors:

Jashobeam was from the Hacmonite people. He was the leader of the Three,^[a] David’s most powerful soldiers. He used his spear to fight 300 men at one time. And he killed them all.

¹² Next was Eleazar. He was one of the Three. Eleazar was Dodai’s son. Dodai was from the Ahohite people. ¹³ Eleazar was with David at Pas-Dammim. The Philistines came there to fight the Israelites. There was a field of barley at that place. The Israelites ran away from the Philistines. ¹⁴ But they stopped in the middle of that field and fought the Philistines. And they killed the Philistines. The Lord gave Israel a great victory.

¹⁵ Three of the 30 leaders went to David. He was at the rock by the cave near Adullam. At the same time a group from the Philistine army was camped in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶ David was in a protected place at that time. The Philistine army was staying in the town of Bethlehem. ¹⁷ David had a strong desire for some water. He said, “Oh, I wish someone would get me water from the well near the city gate of Bethlehem!” ¹⁸ So the Three fought their way through the Philistine army. And they took water out of the well near the city gate in Bethlehem. Then they took it back to David. But he refused to drink it. He poured it out before the Lord. ¹⁹ David said, “May God keep me from drinking this water! It would be like drinking the blood of the men who risked their lives to bring me this water.” So David refused to drink it.

These were the brave things the Three did.

²⁰ Abishai brother of Joab was the leader of the Three. Abishai fought 300 men with his spear and killed them. He became as famous as the Three. ²¹ He was more honored than the Three. He became their commander even though he was not one of them.

²² Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a brave fighter from Kabzeel. Benaiah did many brave things. He killed two of the best warriors from Moab. He also went down into a pit when it was snowing. There he killed a lion. ²³ Benaiah also killed an Egyptian who was about seven and a half feet tall. The Egyptian had a spear as large as a weaver’s rod. Benaiah had a club. But he grabbed the spear from the Egyptian’s hand. And he used the Egyptian’s own spear to kill him. ²⁴ These were the things Benaiah son of Jehoiada did. Benaiah became as famous as the Three. ²⁵ He received more honor than the Thirty, David’s most powerful soldiers. But he did not become a member of the Three. David chose Benaiah to be the leader of his bodyguards.

²⁶ These were also mighty warriors:

Warriors Join David

12 These were the men who came to David at Ziklag. David was hiding from Saul son of Kish at that time. These were the men who helped David in battle. ² They came with bows for weapons. They could use either their right or left hands to shoot arrows or to sling rocks. They were Saul’s relatives from the tribe of Benjamin. ³ Ahiezer was their leader. And there was Joash. (Ahiezer and Joash were Shemaah’s sons. He was from the town of Gibeah.) There were also Jeziel and Pelet the sons of Azmaveth. There were Beracah and Jehu from the town of Anathoth. ⁴ And there was Ishmaiah from the town of Gibeon. Ishmaiah was one of the Thirty. In fact, he was the leader of the Thirty. There were Jeremiah, Jahaziel, Johanan and Jozabad from Gederah. ⁵ There were Eluzai, Jerimoth, Bealiah and Shemariah. There was Shephatiah from Haruph. ⁶ There were Elkanah, Isshiah, Azarel, Joezer and Jashobeam. They were from the family group of Korah. ⁷ And there were Joelah and Zebadiah the sons of Jeroham. They were from the town of Gedor.

⁸ Part of the people of Gad joined David at his protected place in the desert. They were brave warriors trained for war. They were skilled with shields and spears. They were as fierce as lions. And they could run as fast as gazelles over the hills.

⁹ Ezer was the leader of Gad’s army. Obadiah was second in command. Eliab was third. ¹⁰ Mishmannah was fourth, and Jeremiah was fifth. ¹¹ Attai was sixth, and Eliel was seventh. ¹² Johanan was eighth, and Elzabad was ninth. ¹³ Jeremiah was tenth, and Macbannai was eleventh in command.

¹⁴ They were the commanders of the army from Gad. The weakest of these leaders was in charge of 100 soldiers. The strongest was in charge of 1,000 soldiers. ¹⁵ They crossed the Jordan River and chased away the people living in the valleys. They chased them to the east and to the west. This happened in the first month of the year when the Jordan floods the valley.

¹⁶ Other people from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah also came to David at his protected place. ¹⁷ David went out to meet them. He said to them, “If you have come peacefully to help me, I welcome you. Join me. But you might have come to turn me over to my enemies, even though I have done nothing wrong. If you do this, the God of our ancestors will see this and punish you.”

¹⁸ Then the Spirit entered Amasai, the leader of the Thirty. Amasai said:

So David welcomed these men. He made them leaders of his army.

¹⁹ Some of the men from Manasseh also joined David. They joined him when he went with the Philistines to fight Saul. But David and his men did not really help the Philistines. After talking about it, the Philistine leaders decided to send David away. They said, “If David goes back to his master Saul, we will be killed!” ²⁰ The men from Manasseh joined David when he went to Ziklag. These were the men: Adnah, Jozabad, Jediael, Michael, Jozabad, Elihu and Zillethai. Each of these men was a leader of a thousand men from Manasseh. ²¹ All these men of Manasseh were brave soldiers. They helped David fight against groups of men who went around the country robbing people. These soldiers became commanders in David’s army. ²² Every day more men joined David. So his army became large. It was like the army of God.

Others Join David at Hebron

²³ These are the numbers of the men who joined David at Hebron. They came ready for battle. They came to help turn the kingdom of Saul over to David. The Lord had said this would happen.

²⁴ There were 6,800 men with their weapons from the people of Judah. They carried shields and spears.

²⁵ There were 7,100 men from the people of Simeon. They were warriors ready for war.

²⁶ There were 4,600 men from the people of Levi. ²⁷ Jehoiada, a leader from Aaron’s family, was in that group. There were 3,700 with him. ²⁸ Zadok was also in that group. He was a strong young warrior. He came with 22 leaders from his family.

²⁹ There were 3,000 men from the people of Benjamin. They were Saul’s relatives. And most of them had remained loyal to Saul’s family until then.

³⁰ There were 20,800 men from the people of Ephraim. They were brave warriors. They were famous men in their own family groups.

³¹ There were 18,000 men from the western half-tribe of Manasseh. Each man was especially chosen to make David king.

³² There were 200 leaders from the family of Issachar. They knew what Israel should do. And they knew the right time to do it. Their relatives were with them and under their command.

³³ There were 50,000 men from the people of Zebulun. They were trained soldiers. They were trained to use every kind of weapon of war. They followed David completely.

³⁴ There were 1,000 officers from the people of Naphtali. They had 37,000 men with them who carried shields and spears.

³⁵ There were 28,600 men from the people of Dan. They were ready for war.

³⁶ There were 40,000 trained soldiers from the people of Asher. They were ready for war.

³⁷ There were 120,000 men from the east side of the Jordan River. They were from the people of Reuben, Gad and the eastern half-tribe of Manasseh. They had every kind of weapon.

³⁸ All these fighting men were ready to go to war. They came to Hebron fully agreed to make David king of all Israel. All the other Israelites also agreed to make David king. ³⁹ The men spent three days there with David. They ate and drank, because their relatives had prepared food for them. ⁴⁰ Also, their neighbors brought food. They came from as far as the areas belonging to Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali. They brought food on donkeys, camels, mules and oxen. They brought much flour, fig cakes, raisins, wine, oil, cows and sheep. This was because the people of Israel were very happy.