Old/New Testament

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.’^[a]

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.^[b] 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.^[c] 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.

David and Bathsheba

11 In the spring, David sent out his army to attack the Ammonites. That was the time of year when kings go out to fight battles.^[d] Joab led the whole Israelite army, together with his officers. They attacked the Ammonites, and they won the fight against them. Israel's army made their camp all around Rabbah city. But David had stayed in Jerusalem.

² One evening, David got up from his bed. He walked around on the roof of his palace.^[e] From the roof he saw a woman who was washing herself. She was very beautiful. ³ David sent a servant to ask who she was. The servant told him, ‘She is Eliam's daughter, Bathsheba. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’

⁴ Then David sent some servants to bring Bathsheba to him. She came to him and he slept with her. (She had just made herself clean from her monthly blood loss.) Then she returned to her home. ⁵ Later, Bathsheba realized that she was pregnant. She sent a message to tell David about it.

⁶ So David sent a message to Joab. He said, ‘Send Uriah the Hittite to me.’ So Joab sent Uriah to David. ⁷ When Uriah arrived, David asked him about Joab and the Israelite army. He asked Uriah about the war. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, ‘Now go to your house and rest for a time.’ So Uriah left the palace. Then King David sent a gift to him at home. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the palace, together with his master's servants. He did not go to his house.

¹⁰ David's servants told him, ‘Uriah did not go to his house last night.’ So David said to Uriah, ‘You have just arrived after a long journey. Why did you not go to your house?’

¹¹ Uriah said to David, ‘The armies of Israel and Judah are all living in tents, as well as the Covenant Box. My master Joab and the soldiers of your army are sleeping in the fields. So I cannot go to my house and eat a meal there. It would not be right for me to go home and sleep with my wife. As surely as you live, I promise that I would never do that!’

¹² David said to Uriah, ‘Stay here one more day. Tomorrow I will send you back to the war.’ So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next day. ¹³ David asked him to come and eat a meal with him. David caused Uriah to drink a lot of wine so that he became drunk. But in the evening Uriah still did not go to his own house. He slept on his mat, where his master's servants all slept.

¹⁴ In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab. Uriah took the letter to Joab. ¹⁵ In the letter, David told Joab, ‘Put Uriah at the front of all our soldiers, where the battle is most dangerous. Then tell the other soldiers to move back away from him. Then he will be alone and the enemy's soldiers will kill him.’

¹⁶ Joab's soldiers were all around Rabbah city and they were watching it carefully. Joab sent Uriah to fight near to the city, where the enemy's best soldiers were. ¹⁷ When some of the Ammonite soldiers came out of the city to fight Joab's army, they killed some of David's men. Uriah the Hittite was one of the men who died there.

Joab tells David that Uriah is dead

¹⁸ Joab wrote a report to tell David about the battle. ¹⁹ He told the man who was taking the message, ‘When you finish giving my report to the king, ²⁰ the king may be angry. He may ask you, “Why did you go and fight so near to the city? Surely you knew that they would shoot arrows from the walls. ²¹ Remember how a woman killed Jerub-Besheth's son, Abimelech. She threw a heavy stone down on him from the city wall in Thebez. You should not have gone so near to Rabbah's city wall.” If King David does say that, tell him, “Your servant, Uriah the Hittite is dead too.” ’

²² The man that Joab sent to David with his message arrived. He told David all the news that Joab had sent with him. ²³ The man said to David, ‘The enemy's men were stronger than us and they attacked us in the fields. But we chased them back as far as the gate of their city. ²⁴ Then enemy soldiers shot arrows from the city wall and some of your men died. Your servant, Uriah the Hittite, is also dead.’

²⁵ David said to the man that Joab had sent, ‘Tell Joab, “Do not be too upset. The enemy will always kill some of our men, and it could be anyone. Continue to attack the city even more strongly and then you will take it for us.” If you say that to Joab, he will not be so sad.’

²⁶ Uriah's wife heard the news that her husband was dead. She was very sad and she wept because of his death. ²⁷ The time for Uriah's wife to weep for her husband came to an end. Then David sent some of his men to bring her to his palace. She became David's wife. Later, she gave birth to a son. But the Lord was not pleased with David because of the bad things that David had done.

A story about two sons

¹¹ Jesus then told another story: ‘There was a man that had two sons.^{[a] 12} The younger son went to his father and said to him, “Father, please give me now my part of your things.” So the father gave both sons the part of his things that each of them should have. ¹³ After a few days, the younger son sold what his father had given to him. Then he took all the money and left home. He went on a long journey to a country far away. There, he did whatever he wanted to do and wasted all his money. ¹⁴ After he had spent everything, there was no rain in that country. There was almost no food anywhere. So the young man had nothing to eat. ¹⁵ He went to a man who lived in that country. He asked to work for him. So the man sent him into his fields to give food to his pigs. ¹⁶ Nobody gave him anything to eat. He even wanted to eat the food that the pigs were eating. But he had nothing.

¹⁷ Then the son began to think about what he had done. He said to himself, “My father has many servants, and they have plenty of food to eat. They even have more food than they need. But I will die here because I do not have any food. ¹⁸ So I will go to my father and tell him, ‘I have done bad things against God, and I have done bad things against you. ¹⁹ So I am not good enough for you to call me your son any longer. Instead, please accept me as one of your servants.’ ”

²⁰ So he went off to return to his father. But he was still a long way from the house when his father saw him. He felt very sorry for his son and he ran towards him. Then he put his arms round his son and he kissed him. ²¹ “Father,” the son said, “I have done bad things against God and against you. So I am not good enough for you to call me your son.” ²² But the father shouted to his servants. “Hurry!” he said. “Fetch the most beautiful coat that we have. Put it on him and also put a ring on his finger. Put shoes on his feet. ²³ Fetch the young cow that we keep ready to eat on a special day. It is already fat. Kill it and prepare it. We will eat a big meal and we will be happy together. ²⁴ I thought that my son here was dead. But now he has returned to me and he is alive! I thought that he had left me for all time. But now he has come home.” Then they all began to be happy together.

²⁵ While these things were happening, the older son was working in the field.^[b] On his way back to the house, he heard music. People were dancing. ²⁶ So he asked one of the servants, “What is happening?” ²⁷ The servant replied, “Your brother has returned home. Your father has killed the fat young cow for him. He did this because your brother is alive and he is well.” ²⁸ When the older brother heard this, he was very angry. He would not go into the house. So his father came out. “Please come in to be happy with us,” he said. ²⁹ “Listen,” the older son replied, “I have worked a lot for you for many years. I have always obeyed you. But you never even killed a young goat for me so that I could be happy with my friends. We could have had a meal together. ³⁰ But now this other son of yours has returned. He has wasted all the money that you gave to him. He has spent it on prostitutes. But you have even killed the fat young cow for him.” ³¹ “My son,” his father said, “you are always with me. All the things that I have are yours. ³² We thought that your brother was dead. But now he has returned to us alive. We thought that he had left us for all time. But now he has come home. So we must all be happy together.” ’