The Daily Audio Bible

4 When Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul, heard that his general Abner was dead, murdered in Hebron, he panicked, and so did all Israel. ² Now the two captains of Ish-bosheth’s raiding parties were Baanah and Rechab, the sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from the town of Beeroth (which was considered to belong to Benjamin since the time its original inhabitants tricked the Israelites into making a pact of friendship with them. ³ The people of Beeroth fled to Gittaim, where they still live as aliens).

⁴ Saul’s son Jonathan, David’s friend, had a son named Mephibosheth who was unable to use his feet. When he was only five, the news of his father and grandfather’s defeat came from Jezreel. In her rush to flee, his nurse grabbed him up, and Mephibosheth fell; he had been lame ever since.

⁵ Baanah and Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, hatched a plan. They set out, and they came to Ish-bosheth’s residence during the noonday heat as he was taking a nap. ^6-7 They crept inside the house as if to get some wheat. There they stabbed Ish-bosheth in the abdomen while he lay asleep on his bed, killing him. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah cut off Ish-bosheth’s head and escaped. They carried his head away and traveled all night across the desert plains.^[a]

⁸ At Hebron, they brought Ish-bosheth’s head before David.

¹² David commanded his young men, and they killed Baanah and Rechab. Then the young men cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies as an example beside the pool at Hebron. But Ish-bosheth’s head they took and buried in Abner’s tomb in Hebron.

5 Then all the tribes that made up the people of Israel came to David at Hebron.

³ All the leaders of Israel came before the king there at Hebron. So King David made a covenant with the leaders there before the Eternal, and they anointed David king over all Israel. ⁴ David was 30 years old when he first became king, and he was king for 40 years; ⁵ he reigned in Hebron over Judah alone for 7½ years, and then he reigned over the united kingdom of Judah and Israel for 33 years.

⁶ At one point, David and his army marched to Jerusalem to fight the Jebusites who lived there. The Jebusites felt secure behind their walls and were sure David could not enter into the city. They jeered, “Even the blind and the lame could defend this city against you.” ⁷ Despite the taunts, David and his army managed to capture the fortress of Zion, which became the city of David.^[b]

(From this exchange came the saying, “The blind and the lame cannot enter the house.”)

⁹ Once David captured the fortress, he stayed there and named it the city of David. He built it up all around, carefully terracing the hillside from the Millo^[c] inward. ¹⁰ And David continued to grow in power and reputation because the Eternal God, Commander of heavenly armies, was with him.

¹¹ King Hiram of Tyre sent diplomats to David with cedars and carpenters and masons to build David a palace.

¹² David realized then that the Eternal One had established him as king over Israel and that He was increasing David’s kingdom in power and majesty for the sake of His people Israel.

^13-14 After the move from Hebron to Jerusalem, David married more women from Jerusalem, took more concubines, and fathered more sons and daughters: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ¹⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, ¹⁶ Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

¹⁷ When David’s former allies, the Philistines, discovered that David, whom they still considered a vassal of Gath, was now king over a united Israel, they sent an army to battle him; but David heard they were coming and withdrew into the fortress.

¹⁸ The Philistines spread their forces in the valley of Rephaim southwest of Jerusalem.

²⁰ So David battled the Philistines at Baal-perazim and defeated them.

That is why the place was named Baal-perazim, meaning “the Lord who bursts through.”

²¹ The Philistines abandoned their idols on the field, and David and his forces carried them away.

²² Yet again the Philistines came up and prepared for battle in the valley of Rephaim. ²³ David asked the Eternal One what he should do.

²⁵ David did just as the Eternal One commanded and won a great victory. He struck down the fleeing Philistines from Geba all the way to Gezer, just before the coastal plain.

6 Once again David gathered the elite soldiers of Israel, some 30,000, ² and they went down to Baale-judah to bring back the covenant chest of the True God, called by the Name: the Eternal One, Commander of heavenly armies, who sits enthroned above the winged creatures who protect the chest.

^3-4 They carried the covenant chest of the True God on a new cart from the house of Abinadab on the hill where it had rested, and Abinadab’s sons Uzzah and Ahio directed the new cart, with Ahio walking in front of the chest. ⁵ David and all the Israelites were joyous before the Eternal; and they were accompanied by wooden lyres and harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.

⁶ When they came alongside the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah put out his hand to steady the covenant chest. ⁷ The Eternal burned with anger against Uzzah, and the True God struck Uzzah dead on the spot for daring to touch the covenant chest.

⁸ David was angry that the Eternal One had broken through to strike Uzzah, so the place was named Perez-uzzah, meaning “Breech against Uzzah,” to remember that act. ⁹ David was also frightened of the Eternal that day.

¹⁰ So he decided he did not want to take the chest of the Eternal into the city of David, and he left it there in the care of Obed-edom, a man from the Philistine city Gath. ¹¹ The covenant chest of the Eternal One remained there for three months; and in that time, the Eternal One blessed the household and farms of Obed-edom the Gittite.

¹² When news was taken to King David that the Eternal had blessed Obed-edom and all his household because of the covenant chest of God, the king went down and brought the chest from Obed-edom’s house up to the city of David, again accompanying it with rejoicing and ceremony. ¹³ When the people carrying the chest of the Eternal had gone six steps, David sacrificed an ox and a fattened calf; ¹⁴ and he danced before the Eternal One with all his might, clad in a priestly vest.

^15-16 So David and the house of Israel carried the covenant chest of the Eternal One up to the city of David with shouts and the sounding of the trumpet. When Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Eternal without thought for how he looked, she hated him.

¹⁷ They carried the covenant chest of the Eternal One to its place inside the tent David had pitched to house it, and the king offered burnt sacrifices and peace offerings to the Eternal. ¹⁸ When he had finished with the sacrifices and peace offerings, he spoke a priestly blessing over the people in the name of the Eternal One, the Commander of heavenly armies; and ¹⁹ he gave all of the Israelites—every man and woman—a loaf of bread, a date roll,^[d] and a raisin cake. Then they all returned to their homes.

²⁰ On David’s return, he wanted to bestow good favor on his household, but Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him.

²³ And to her dying day, Michal, the daughter of Saul, was humbled before God and did not bear a child. Therefore no descendant of Saul ever regained the throne of Israel.

³¹ Upon Judas’s departure, Jesus spoke:

Gimel

Daleth