Old/New Testament
3 There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. But David grew stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.
2 Sons were born to David in Hebron: his firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelitess;
3 His second, Chileab, by Abigail widow of Nabal of Carmel; the third, Absalom the son of Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;
4 The fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith; the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;
5 And the sixth, Ithream, by Eglah, David’s wife. These were born to David in Hebron.
6 While there was war between the houses of Saul and David, Abner was making himself strong in the house of Saul.
7 Now Saul had a concubine whose name was Rizpah daughter of Aiah. And Ish-bosheth said to Abner, Why have you gone in to my father’s concubine?
8 Then Abner was very angry at the words of Ish-bosheth and said, Am I a dog’s head [despicable and hostile] against Judah? This day I keep showing kindness and loyalty to the house of Saul your father, to his brothers, and his friends, and have not delivered you into the hands of David; and yet you charge me today with a fault concerning this woman!
9 May God do so to Abner, and more also, if I do not do for David what the Lord has sworn to him,
10 To transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and set the throne of David over Israel and Judah from Dan to Beersheba.
11 And Ish-bosheth could not answer Abner a word, because he feared him.
12 And Abner sent messengers to David where he was [at Hebron], saying, Whose is the land? Make your league with me, and my hand shall be with you to bring all Israel over to you.
13 And David said, Good. I will make a league with you. But I require one thing of you: that is, you shall not see my face unless you first bring Michal, Saul’s daughter, when you come to see me.
14 And David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son, saying, Give me my wife Michal, whom I betrothed for a hundred foreskins of the Philistines.
15 And Ish-bosheth sent and took her from her [second] husband, from Paltiel son of Laish [to whom Saul had given her].
16 But her husband went with her, weeping behind her all the way to Bahurim. Then Abner said to him, Go back. And he did so.
17 Abner talked with the seniors of Israel, saying, In times past you sought to make David king over you.
18 Now then, do it! For the Lord has spoken of David, saying, By the hand of My servant David I will save My people Israel from the hands of the Philistines and of all their enemies.(A)
19 Abner also spoke to [the men of] Benjamin. Then [he] went to Hebron to tell David all that seemed good to Israel and the whole house of Benjamin to do.
20 So Abner came to David at Hebron, and twenty men along with him. And David made Abner and the men with him a feast.
21 Abner said to David, I will go and gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a league with you, and that you may reign over all that your heart desires. So David sent Abner away in peace.
22 Then the servants of David came with Joab from pursuing a troop and brought much spoil with them. But Abner was not with David in Hebron, for he had sent him away, and he had gone in peace.
23 When Joab and all the army with him had come, it was told to Joab, Abner son of Ner came to the king, and he has sent him away, and he is gone in peace.
24 Then Joab came to the king and said, What have you done? Behold, Abner came to you. Why is it you have sent him away and he is quite gone?
25 You know that Abner son of Ner came to deceive you and to know your going out and coming in and all you are doing.
26 When Joab came from seeing David, he sent messengers after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah; but David did not know it.
27 And when Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside to the center of the gate to speak to him privately, and there he smote Abner in the abdomen, so that he died to avenge the blood of Asahel, Joab’s brother.
28 When David heard of it, he said, I and my kingdom are guiltless before the Lord forever of the blood of Abner son of Ner.
29 Let it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and let the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or is a leper or walks with a crutch or is a distaff holder [unfit for war] or who falls by the sword or lacks food!
30 So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner because he had slain their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
31 And David said to Joab and to all the people with him, Rend your clothes, gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And King David followed the bier.
32 They buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
33 And the king lamented over Abner and said, Should Abner die as a fool dies?
34 Your hands were not bound or your feet put into fetters; as a man falls before wicked men, so you fell. And all the people wept again over him.
35 All the people came to urge David to eat food while it was yet day; but David took an oath, saying, May God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else, till the sun is down.
36 And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them, as whatever the king did pleased all the people.
37 For all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not the king’s will to slay Abner son of Ner.
38 King David said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
39 And I am this day weak, though anointed [but not crowned] king; these sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May the Lord repay the evildoer according to his wickedness!
4 When Ish-bosheth, Saul’s son [king over Israel], heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his courage failed, and all the Israelites were troubled and dismayed.
2 Saul’s son had two men who were captains of raiding bands. One was named Baanah and the other Rechab, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite of Benjamin—for Beeroth also was reckoned to Benjamin,
3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there to this day.
4 Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was a cripple in his feet. He was five years old when the news came out of Jezreel [of the deaths] of Saul and Jonathan. And the boy’s nurse took him up and fled; and in her haste, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.
5 Now the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went about in the heat of the day to the house of Ish-bosheth, who lay resting on his bed at noon.
6 And they came into the interior of the house as though they were delivering wheat, and they smote him in the body; and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
7 Now when they had come into the house and he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they [not only] smote and slew him, [but] beheaded him and took his head and went by the way of the plain all night.
8 And they brought the head of Ish-bosheth to David at Hebron and said to the king, Behold, the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life; and the Lord has avenged my lord the king this day on Saul and on his offspring.
9 And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, As the Lord lives, Who redeemed my life out of all adversity,
10 When one told me, Behold, Saul is dead, thinking he was bringing good news, I seized and slew him in Ziklag who expected me to give him a reward for his news.
11 How much more—when wicked men have slain a just man in his own house on his bed—shall I not now require his blood of your hand and remove you from the earth!
12 David commanded his young men, and they slew them and cut off their hands and feet and hanged them over the pool in Hebron. But they took Ish-bosheth’s head and buried it in Hebron in the tomb of Abner [his relative and once chief supporter].
5 Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your bone and your flesh.
2 In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord told you, You shall feed My people Israel and be prince over [them].(B)
3 So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them [there] before the Lord, and they anointed [him] king over Israel.
4 David was thirty years old when he began his forty-year reign.
5 In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.
6 And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, You shall not enter here, for the blind and the lame will prevent you; they thought, David cannot come in here.
7 Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the City of David.
8 David said on that day, Whoever smites the Jebusites, let him get up through the water shaft and smite the lame and the blind who are detested by David’s soul. So they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
9 So David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the City of David. And he built round about from the Millo and inward.
10 David became greater and greater, for the Lord God of hosts was with him.
11 Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house.
12 And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that He had exalted his kingdom for His people Israel’s sake.
13 And David took more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and other sons and daughters were born to [him].
14 And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
15 Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,
16 Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
17 When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they all went up to find [him], but [he] heard of it and went down to the stronghold.
18 The Philistines also came and spread themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.
19 David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, Go up, for I will surely deliver [them] into your hand.
20 And David came to Baal-perazim, and he smote them there, and said, The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like the bursting out of great waters. So he called the name of that place Baal-perazim [Lord of breaking through].
21 There the Philistines left their [a]images, and David and his men took them away.
22 The Philistines came up again and spread themselves out in the Valley of Rephaim.
23 When David inquired of the Lord, He said, You shall not go up, but go around behind them and come upon them over opposite the mulberry (or balsam) trees.
24 And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then bestir yourselves, for then has the Lord gone out before you to smite the army of the Philistines.
25 And David did as the Lord had commanded him, and smote the Philistines from Geba to Gezer.
25 Now huge crowds were going along with [Jesus], and He turned and said to them,
26 If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his [own] father and mother [[a]in the sense of indifference to or relative disregard for them in comparison with his attitude toward God] and [likewise] his wife and children and brothers and sisters—[yes] and even his own life also—he cannot be My disciple.
27 Whoever does not persevere and carry his own cross and come after (follow) Me cannot be My disciple.
28 For which of you, wishing to build a [b]farm building, does not first sit down and calculate the cost [to see] whether he has sufficient means to finish it?
29 Otherwise, when he has laid the foundation and is unable to complete [the building], all who see it will begin to mock and jeer at him,
30 Saying, This man began to build and was not able ([c]worth enough) to finish.
31 Or what king, going out to engage in conflict with another king, will not first sit down and consider and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand [men] to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
32 And if he cannot [do so], when the other king is still a great way off, he sends an envoy and asks the terms of peace.
33 So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, [d]say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.
34 Salt is good [an excellent thing], but if salt has lost its strength and has become saltless (insipid, flat), how shall its saltness be restored?
35 It is fit neither for the land nor for the manure heap; men throw it away. He who has ears to hear, let him listen and consider and comprehend by hearing!
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation