The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁴ Sheba passed through the territory of all the tribes of Israel and came to the city of Abel Beth Maacah, and all the members of the clan of Bikri^[a] assembled and followed him into the city. ¹⁵ Joab's men heard that Sheba was there, and so they went and besieged the city. They built ramps of earth against the outer wall and also began to dig under the wall to make it fall down. ¹⁶ There was a wise woman in the city who shouted from the wall, “Listen! Listen! Tell Joab to come here; I want to speak with him.” ¹⁷ Joab went, and she asked, “Are you Joab?”

“Yes, I am,” he answered.

“Listen to me, sir,” she said.

“I'm listening,” he answered.

¹⁸ She said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Go and get your answer in the city of Abel’—and that's just what they did. ¹⁹ Ours is a great city, one of the most peaceful and loyal in Israel. Why are you trying to destroy it? Do you want to ruin what belongs to the Lord?”

²⁰ “Never!” Joab answered. “I will never ruin or destroy your city! ²¹ That is not our plan. A man named Sheba son of Bikri, who is from the hill country of Ephraim, started a rebellion against King David. Hand over this one man, and I will withdraw from the city.”

“We will throw his head over the wall to you,” she said. ²² Then she went to the people of the city with her plan, and they cut off Sheba's head and threw it over the wall to Joab. He blew the trumpet as a signal for his men to leave the city, and they went back home. And Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

David's Officials

²³ Joab was in command of the army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was in charge of David's bodyguards; ²⁴ Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was in charge of the records; ²⁵ Sheva was the court secretary; Zadok and Abiathar were the priests, ²⁶ and Ira from the town of Jair was also one of David's priests.

Saul's Descendants Are Put to Death

21 During David's reign there was a severe famine which lasted for three full years. So David consulted the Lord about it, and the Lord said, “Saul and his family are guilty of murder; he put the people of Gibeon to death.” (^2 (A)The people of Gibeon were not Israelites; they were a small group of Amorites whom the Israelites had promised to protect, but Saul had tried to destroy them because of his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.) ³ So David summoned the people of Gibeon and said to them, “What can I do for you? I want to make up for the wrong that was done to you, so that you will bless the Lord's people.”

⁴ They answered, “Our quarrel with Saul and his family can't be settled with silver or gold, nor do we want to kill any Israelite.”

“What, then, do you think I should do for you?” David asked.

⁵ They answered, “Saul wanted to destroy us and leave none of us alive anywhere in Israel. ⁶ So hand over seven of his male descendants, and we will hang them before the Lord at Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the Lord's chosen king.”

“I will hand them over,” the king answered.

^7 (B)But because of the sacred promise that he and Jonathan had made to each other, David spared Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul. ^8 (C)However, he took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons that Rizpah the daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul; he also took the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab, whom she had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai, who was from Meholah. ⁹ David handed them over to the people of Gibeon, who hanged them on the mountain before the Lord—and all seven of them died together. It was late in the spring, at the beginning of the barley harvest, when they were put to death.

¹⁰ Then Saul's concubine Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah, used sackcloth to make a shelter for herself on the rock where the corpses were, and she stayed there from the beginning of harvest until the autumn rains came. During the day she would keep the birds away from the corpses, and at night she would protect them from wild animals.

¹¹ When David heard what Rizpah had done, ^12 (D)he went and got the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan from the people of Jabesh in Gilead. (They had stolen them from the public square in Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged the bodies on the day they killed Saul on Mount Gilboa.) ¹³ David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan and also gathered up the bones of the seven men who had been hanged. ¹⁴ Then they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the grave of Saul's father Kish, in Zela in the territory of Benjamin, doing all that the king had commanded. And after that, God answered their prayers for the country.

Battles against Philistine Giants^(E)

¹⁵ There was another war between the Philistines and Israel, and David and his men went and fought the Philistines. During one of the battles David grew tired. ¹⁶ A giant named Ishbibenob, who was carrying a bronze spear that weighed about seven and a half pounds and who was wearing a new sword, thought he could kill David. ^17 (F)But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to David's help, attacked the giant, and killed him. Then David's men made David promise that he would never again go out with them to battle. “You are the hope of Israel, and we don't want to lose you,” they said.

¹⁸ After this there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, during which Sibbecai from Hushah killed a giant named Saph.

¹⁹ There was another battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair^[b] from Bethlehem killed Goliath from Gath, whose spear had a shaft as thick as the bar on a weaver's loom.

²⁰ Then there was another battle at Gath, where there was a giant who loved to fight. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. ²¹ He defied the Israelites, and Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shammah, killed him.

²² These four were descendants of the giants of Gath, and they were killed by David and his men.

1 ^(A)Dear Theophilus:

In my first book I wrote about all the things that Jesus did and taught from the time he began his work ² until the day he was taken up to heaven. Before he was taken up, he gave instructions by the power of the Holy Spirit to the men he had chosen as his apostles. ³ For forty days after his death he appeared to them many times in ways that proved beyond doubt that he was alive. They saw him, and he talked with them about the Kingdom of God. ^4 (B)And when they came together,^[a] he gave them this order: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift I told you about, the gift my Father promised. ^5 (C)John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus Is Taken Up to Heaven

⁶ When the apostles met together with Jesus, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time give the Kingdom back to Israel?”

⁷ Jesus said to them, “The times and occasions are set by my Father's own authority, and it is not for you to know when they will be. ^8 (D)But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ^9 (E)After saying this, he was taken up to heaven as they watched him, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

¹⁰ They still had their eyes fixed on the sky as he went away, when two men dressed in white suddenly stood beside them ¹¹ and said, “Galileans, why are you standing there looking up at the sky? This Jesus, who was taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way that you saw him go to heaven.”

Judas' Successor

¹² Then the apostles went back to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is about half a mile away from the city. ^13 (F)They entered the city and went up to the room where they were staying: Peter, John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Patriot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴ They gathered frequently to pray as a group, together with the women and with Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

¹⁵ A few days later there was a meeting of the believers, about a hundred and twenty in all, and Peter stood up to speak. ¹⁶ “My friends,” he said, “the scripture had to come true in which the Holy Spirit, speaking through David, made a prediction about Judas, who was the guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷ Judas was a member of our group, for he had been chosen to have a part in our work.”

(^18 (G)With the money that Judas got for his evil act he bought a field, where he fell to his death; he burst open and all his insides spilled out. ¹⁹ All the people living in Jerusalem heard about it, and so in their own language they call that field Akeldama, which means “Field of Blood.”)

^20 (H)“For it is written in the book of Psalms,

^21-22 (I)“So then, someone must join us as a witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. He must be one of the men who were in our group during the whole time that the Lord Jesus traveled about with us, beginning from the time John preached his message of baptism^[b] until the day Jesus was taken up from us to heaven.”

²³ So they proposed two men: Joseph, who was called Barsabbas (also known as Justus), and Matthias. ²⁴ Then they prayed, “Lord, you know the thoughts of everyone, so show us which of these two you have chosen ²⁵ to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs.” ²⁶ Then they drew lots to choose between the two men, and the one chosen was Matthias, who was added to the group of eleven apostles.

The Lord Our Protector

¹⁸ Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall.