Historical
God gives promises to David
7 The king was living in his palace. The Lord kept him safe from all his enemies everywhere. 2 One day, the king said to Nathan the prophet, ‘I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But God's Covenant Box still has a tent for its home!’
3 Nathan replied to the king, ‘Do what you think is right. The Lord will help you.’
4 But that night the Lord said to Nathan, 5 ‘Go and tell my servant David,
“The Lord says this: Do not think that you are the right man to build a house for me to live in. 6 From the time that I brought Israel's people out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. While my people moved from place to place, I travelled with them. I lived in a tent as my home. 7 I have moved about to many different places with the Israelite people. I chose leaders to take care of Israel's tribes, like shepherds for them. But in all that time, I never said to any of the leaders, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’
8 So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. 9 I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men.
10 I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, where they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, 11 from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will keep you safe from all your enemies.
I, the Lord, say to you, David: I will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you! 12 When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. 13 He is the man who will build a house for me. People will give honour to my name there. I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. 14 I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does something wrong, I will punish him, so that he learns to do what is right. I will punish him in the way that human fathers punish their sons. 15 I removed my faithful love from Saul, and I removed him as king before you. But I will always continue to faithfully love your son. 16 The kingdom that your descendants rule will continue for ever. Someone from your family will always be king.” ’
17 Nathan told David the whole message that God had shown to him.
David prays
18 Then King David went into the Lord's tent.[a] He sat down and he prayed to the Lord.
He said, ‘Almighty Lord, I am not a special person and my family is not special. You have helped me very much and I do not deserve it. 19 You have also made a promise about the descendants in my family, Almighty Lord. You have promised to help them in the future, as well as me. I am only a man but you have shown this to me, Almighty Lord.
20 I am your servant, Almighty Lord, and you know me completely. There is nothing more that I can say. 21 Because of your covenant you have chosen to do all these great things. You have told me, your servant, what you promise to do. 22 Almighty Lord, you are very great. There is nobody like you. You alone are God. What we have heard about you is true! 23 There is no other nation on earth like your people, Israel. We are the only nation that you have rescued so that we would belong to you. You did that to show that your name is great. You did great miracles to rescue your people from Egypt where they were slaves. Then you chased out other nations and their gods from the land that you were giving to your people. 24 You chose Israel to be your own people for all time. You, Lord, became our God.
25 Lord God, please do the things that you have promised to do for me, your servant, and for my family. Continue to do for ever what you have promised to do. 26 Then people will always give honour to your great name. They will say, “The Lord Almighty is the God who rules over Israel!” And David's descendants will continue to serve you as kings.
27 Lord Almighty, Israel's God, you have made this promise to me, your servant. You have said to me, “You will always have descendants who will rule. That is the house that I will build for you.” That is why I am not afraid to pray to you like this.
28 Almighty Lord, you are the true God. We trust your promises. You have promised these good things to me, your servant. 29 I pray that you will be pleased to bless my family and my descendants. Then we will serve you faithfully for ever. Almighty Lord, you have promised to do this. So I know that you will continue to bless my descendants for ever.’
David wins more fights[b]
8 Some time later, David attacked the Philistines, and he won the fight against them. He now had power over them and over their towns.
2 David also won a battle against the Moabites. He made the Moabite prisoners lie down on the ground. Then he used a piece of rope to measure them into groups. When he had measured two groups, he would tell his men to kill all those prisoners. When he measured the next group, he would let those prisoners stay alive. So the Moabites were now under David's authority and they began to pay taxes to him.
3 David also won a battle against Rehob's son, Hadadezer, king of Zobah. This happened when Hadadezer took his army to the Euphrates river to show that he had authority there. 4 David took from Hadadezer 1,700 men who drove chariots. He also caught 20,000 of Hadadezer's other soldiers. David kept 100 of the horses that pulled chariots. But he cut the legs of the other horses so that they could not run.
5 The Syrians from Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David killed 22,000 soldiers of the Syrian army. 6 David put groups of his soldiers in Damascus to be guards over the Syrian people. So the Syrians were now under David's authority and they paid taxes to him. The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.
7 David took the gold shields that Hadadezer's officers had carried. He brought the shields to Jerusalem. 8 David also took a lot of bronze things from Tebah and Berothai, towns that had belonged to Hadadezer.
9 Toi, the king of Hamath, heard news that David had won the battle against the whole army of Hadadezer. 10 There had been a war between King Hadadezer and King Toi. So now Toi sent his son, Joram to say ‘hello’ to David. He wanted to thank David because he had won the battle against King Hadadezer. Joram brought gifts to David that were made of gold, silver and bronze.
11 David took these gifts and he offered them to the Lord. He also offered to the Lord all the silver and gold things that he had taken from other nations. Those were all the nations that David had won against in battle. 12 They included Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites. He also offered to the Lord things that he had taken from Rehob's son, King Hadadezer of Zobah.
13 After that, David's army won a battle in the Valley of Salt against 18,000 Edomites. David became very famous because of that. 14 He put groups of his soldiers in every part of Edom's land, so that David had authority over all the Edomites. The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.
David's officers
15 David ruled over all Israel. He did everything that was right and fair for all his people. 16 Zeruiah's son, Joab, was the leader of Israel's army. Ahilud's son, Jehoshaphat, wrote down the important things that happened. 17 Ahitub's son Zadok and Abiathar's son Ahimelech were priests. Seraiah was David's secretary. 18 Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of David's personal guards.[c] David's sons served as priests.[d]
David helps Mephibosheth
9 David asked, ‘Is there anyone from Saul's family who is still alive? I want to be kind to them because Jonathan was my friend.’
2 Saul's family had a servant called Ziba. So they asked him to come to see David. The king said to him, ‘Are you Ziba?’
Ziba replied, ‘Yes, I am your servant.’
3 The king asked him, ‘Is there anyone from Saul's family who is still alive? I want to be kind to them because of God's faithful love for his people.’[e]
Ziba replied, ‘One of Jonathan's sons still lives. But both his feet are weak so that he cannot walk properly.’
4 The king asked Ziba, ‘Where is he?’
Ziba answered, ‘He lives in the house of Ammiel's son, Makir, in Lo-Debar.’
5 So David sent his men to bring him from the house of Ammiel's son, Makir, in Lo-Debar.
6 Then Jonathan's son Mephibosheth, grandson of Saul, came to David. He bent his body down to the ground to respect David.
David said, ‘Mephibosheth!’
Mephibosheth replied, ‘Yes, I am your servant.’
7 David said to him, ‘Do not be afraid. I will be kind to you because your father Jonathan was my friend. I will give back to you all the land which belonged to your grandfather, Saul. You will always be able to eat here with me.’
8 Mephibosheth bent his body low. He said, ‘I am your servant, no better than a dead dog. I do not deserve that you should be so kind to me.’
9 Then David sent his men to fetch Saul's servant, Ziba. David said to him, ‘I have given everything that belonged to Saul or his family to your master's grandson, Mephibosheth. 10 You, your sons and your servants must work on the land for him. You must grow crops that will be food for your master's grandson to eat. But Mephibosheth will always be able to eat with me.’ Ziba himself had 15 sons and 20 servants.
11 Ziba said to the king, ‘I am your servant. I will do everything that my lord the king has told me to do.’ So after that, Mephibosheth ate meals at the king's table. He was like one of the king's own sons.
12 Mephibosheth had a young son called Mica. Ziba and all his family and servants became servants to Mephibosheth. 13 That is how Mephibosheth came to live in Jerusalem. He could always eat his meals at the king's table. He had two weak feet, so he could not walk properly.
David and the Ammonites
10 Some time later, the king of the Ammonites died.[f] His son Hanun became the new king. 2 David thought, ‘I will be kind to Hanun, because his father Nahash was kind to me.’
So David sent some of his officers to give a message to Hanun. David wanted to tell Hanun that he was sorry that Nahash had died. David's officers took his message to the land of the Ammonites.
3 The leaders of the Ammonites said to Hanun, the king, ‘David has sent his officers to you with a kind message about your father's death. But do not think that he really wants to give honour to your father. No, he has sent his officers to look at our city. They want to see how David's army can attack the city and take it for themselves.’
4 So Hanun took hold of David's officers. He cut off half the hair from their beards. He also cut off the lower half of their clothes up to their hips.[g] Then he sent them away.
5 Some people told David what had happened. His officers were very ashamed, so David sent a message to them. King David said, ‘Stay in Jericho city until your beards have grown again. Then you can return here.’
6 The Ammonites realized that they had made David very angry. So they paid 20,000 Syrian soldiers from Beth Rehob and Zobah to come and fight for them. They also brought 1,000 soldiers from the king of Maakah and 12,000 soldiers from Tob.
7 David heard news about this. So he sent Joab with all the soldiers in his army to fight against them. 8 The Ammonite soldiers marched out from their city. They stood in front of the city's gates and they were ready to fight. The Syrian soldiers from Zobah and Rehob and the soldiers from Tob and Maakah stayed in the fields near the city.
9 Joab saw that there were two groups of the enemy's soldiers. They were ready to attack his army from different sides. So he chose some of Israel's best soldiers. Joab himself led them to attack the Syrian soldiers in the fields. 10 He told his brother Abishai to lead the rest of Israel's army to fight against the Ammonites. 11 Joab said to Abishai, ‘If the Syrian soldiers are too strong for me, you must come to rescue me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will come to rescue you. 12 Be strong! We must be brave as we fight on behalf of our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what he decides is good.’
13 Then Joab and his group of soldiers went to fight against the Syrians. As they marched towards the Syrian soldiers, they ran away. 14 The Ammonites saw that the Syrians were running away from Joab. So they also ran away from his brother Abishai's men. They ran back into their city. So Joab stopped fighting the Ammonites. He returned to Jerusalem with his army.
15 The Syrian soldiers realized that Israel had won the battle against them. So they brought all their soldiers together. 16 King Hadadezer sent a message to fetch more Syrian soldiers from the other side of the Euphrates river. Shobach, the captain of his army, brought them all to Helam.
17 David heard about what was happening. So he took all Israel's soldiers across the Jordan River to Helam. The Syrian soldiers stood in their places ready to fight. When the battle started, 18 the Syrians ran away from the Israelites. David and his army killed 700 Syrians who drove chariots. They killed 40,000 other Syrian soldiers. David also knocked down Shobach, the captain of the Syrian army. Shobach died there.
19 All the other kings who were under Hadadezer's authority saw that Israel had won the battle. So they made an agreement with Israel that they would not fight against them any more. They agreed to serve the Israelites. After that, the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites any more.
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