The Kingdom · c. 1010–1000 BC
Chapter 8
King of Judah, King of Israel
Now there was a long war between Saul’s house and David’s house. David grew stronger and stronger, but Saul’s house grew weaker and weaker.
For parents
This chapter has a good deal of killing, told plainly and without gory detail. Twenty-four young men run each other through with swords in a contest, and Abner kills Asahel with his spear (2 Samuel 2:14–23). Joab kills Abner in the gateway of Hebron to avenge his brother, and David curses Joab’s family (3:27–30). Two captains kill Ishbosheth in his bed and cut off his head, so David has them killed, has their hands and feet cut off, and has them hung up beside the pool in Hebron (4:5–12). Ishbosheth accuses Abner of sleeping with Saul’s concubine (3:7). David demands his wife Michal back, whom he had won with a hundred Philistine foreskins, and she is taken from her husband, who follows her, weeping (3:13–16). David’s puzzling words about “the lame and blind” at Jerusalem (5:6–8) are kept close to the World English Bible.
After this, asked the Lord, “Should I go up into one of the towns in ?”
“Go up,” the Lord told him. When David asked where, the Lord said, “To .”
So David went up there with both his wives, from Jezreel and of Carmel, Nabal’s widow. He brought his men too, each with his family, and they settled in the towns of Hebron.
The men of Judah came and David there as king of Judah. Then David was told that it was the men of who had buried .
So David sent messengers to tell them, “May the Lord bless you for being kind to Saul, your lord, and burying him. May he show you love and faithfulness. I will repay you for your kindness too. So be strong and brave. Saul, your lord, is dead, and Judah has anointed me as its king.”
But Saul’s army commander, son of Ner, had taken Saul’s son across to . He made Ishbosheth king over , the Ashurites and Jezreel, over and , and over all Israel.
Ishbosheth was forty years old when he was made king over Israel, and he ruled for two years. But the people of Judah followed David, and David was king over Judah in Hebron for seven years and six months.
Abner son of Ner went out from Mahanaim to with Ishbosheth’s men. son of went out too, with David’s men. The two sides met at the pool of Gibeon and sat down, one group on each side of the pool.
“Let the young men get up and compete while we watch,” Abner said to Joab.
“Let them,” Joab said.
So the young men came forward: twelve for Benjamin and for Ishbosheth son of Saul, and twelve for David. Each took the man facing him by the head and thrust a sword into the other man’s side, and they fell down together. That is why that place in Gibeon is called Helkath Hazzurim, “field of daggers”.
The fighting that day was very hard, and David’s men beat Abner and the men of Israel.
The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, and . Asahel was as fast on his feet as a wild gazelle, and he chased Abner, never turning to the right or the left.
Abner looked back. “Is that you, Asahel?”
“It is,” he answered.
“Turn aside to your right or your left,” Abner told him. “Grab one of the young men and take his armor.” But Asahel would not turn away.
Abner told him again, “Stop following me! Why should I strike you to the ground? Then how could I look Joab your brother in the face?”
Still Asahel refused. So Abner struck him with the back end of his spear, which went into his body and came out behind him, and Asahel fell and died right there. Everyone who came to the place where he lay stood still.
But Joab and Abishai kept chasing Abner. At sunset they reached the hill of Ammah, which faces Giah, along the road to the wilderness of Gibeon. The men of Benjamin gathered behind Abner in one group and stood on the top of a hill.
Then Abner shouted to Joab, “Must the sword go on killing forever? Can’t you see it will be bitter in the end? When will you tell your men to stop chasing their own brothers?”
“As surely as God lives,” said Joab, “if you had not spoken, the men would have gone away in the morning, instead of each one chasing his brother.”
So Joab blew the trumpet, and his men stood still. They chased Israel no farther and fought no more. Abner and his men marched all night through the , across the and through all of Bithron, back to Mahanaim.
When Joab came back and gathered his men, nineteen of David’s men were missing, and so was Asahel. But David’s men had killed three hundred sixty of Abner’s men and the men of Benjamin.
They buried Asahel in his father’s tomb in . Joab and his men went on through the night and reached Hebron at daybreak.
The war between Saul’s family and David’s went on and on. David kept growing stronger, and Saul’s family kept growing weaker.
Sons were born to David in Hebron. His firstborn was , Ahinoam’s son. The second was Chileab, Abigail’s son. The third was , the son of Maacah, who was the daughter of king of . , Haggith’s son, was the fourth. The fifth was Shephatiah, Abital’s son, and the sixth was Ithream, whose mother was David’s wife Eglah.
While the war went on, Abner was making himself powerful in Saul’s family. Saul had a named , the daughter of Aiah. “Why did you sleep with my father’s concubine?” Ishbosheth asked Abner.
Abner was very angry. “Do you take me for a worthless dog on Judah’s side?” he said. “I am still showing kindness to your father Saul’s family, his brothers and his friends, and I haven’t let David get hold of you. And today you accuse me of doing wrong with this woman! The Lord has made David a promise with an oath. May God punish me severely if I don’t carry it out for him: I will take the kingdom from Saul’s family and set up David’s throne over Israel and Judah, from to .”
Ishbosheth was so afraid of Abner that he couldn’t say another word back to him.
Abner sent messengers to David to say, “Whose land is it? Make a treaty with me, and I will be on your side and bring all Israel over to you.”
“Good,” David answered. “I will make a treaty with you. But I ask one thing: don’t come to see me unless you bring Saul’s daughter with you.”
David also sent messengers to Ishbosheth son of Saul: “Give me my wife Michal. She was given to me as my wife in exchange for a hundred of the .”
So Ishbosheth sent for her and took her from her husband, son of Laish. Saul had given her to Paltiel, though she was David’s wife.
Her husband went along, weeping as he walked behind her, as far as . Then Abner told him, “Go! Go back!” And he went back.
Abner talked with the of Israel. “You’ve wanted David as your king for a long while,” he said. “So do it! The Lord has said of David, ‘I will use my servant David to save my people Israel from the Philistines and all their enemies.’”
Abner talked to the men of Benjamin as well. Then he went to Hebron himself, to tell David everything that Israel and all of Benjamin had agreed to.
Abner arrived in Hebron with twenty men, and David held a feast for them. “Let me go now,” Abner told David, “and gather all Israel to my lord the king, so they can make a with you, and you can rule over all you desire.” So David sent Abner on his way, and he went in peace.
Just then Joab and David’s men came back from a raid with a great load of plunder. When Joab arrived with his army, he was told, “Abner son of Ner was here with the king, and the king let him go in peace!”
Joab went in to the king. “What have you done?” he said. “Abner came to you, and you sent him off, and now he’s gone! You know what Abner son of Ner is like. He came to trick you, to watch your coming and going and learn everything you do.”
When Joab had left David, he sent men after Abner, and they brought him back from the well of Sirah. David knew nothing about it.
When Abner got back to Hebron, Joab took him aside into the middle of the gateway to speak with him quietly. There Joab struck him in the body to avenge his brother Asahel, and Abner died.
When David heard about it afterward, he said, “In the Lord’s presence, my kingdom and I are forever innocent of the death of Abner son of Ner. Let the guilt for it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s family! May Joab’s family always have someone with a discharge or , someone leaning on a walking stick, someone killed by the sword, or someone going hungry.”
So it was Joab and Abishai his brother who killed Abner, because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon, in the battle.
David told Joab and all the people with him to tear their clothes and put on sackcloth, the rough cloth of mourning. They were to mourn in front of Abner’s body, and King David himself walked behind it.
They buried Abner in Hebron. The king wept out loud at his grave, and all the people wept too.
Then the king mourned for Abner with these words:
Should Abner die the way a fool dies?Your hands were not tied,your feet were not put in chains.You fell the way a man falls before wicked men.
Then all the people wept over him once more.
All the people came to David while it was still daylight and tried to get him to eat. But he swore, “May God punish me severely if I taste bread or anything else until the sun goes down.”
The people noticed and were pleased, as they were with everything the king did. That day all the people and all Israel understood that the killing of Abner had not been the king’s doing.
Then the king said to his men, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man has fallen in Israel today? Today I am weak, though I am the anointed king, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too hard for me. May the Lord pay back the wrongdoer as his wickedness deserves.”
When Ishbosheth heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, he lost his courage, and all Israel was troubled.
Saul’s son had two captains who led raiding bands. They were brothers, and , the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, in Benjamin. Beeroth counts as part of Benjamin. Its people fled to Gittaim and have lived there as foreigners ever since.
Saul’s son had a son who was lame in his feet. The boy was five years old when news about Saul and Jonathan came out of Jezreel. His nurse snatched him up and ran, and as she hurried away he fell and became lame. His name was .
Rechab and Baanah came to Ishbosheth’s house in the hottest part of the day, while he was having his noon rest. They went in as if to get wheat, and as he lay on the bed in his bedroom they struck him, killed him and cut off his head. Then they escaped with the head, traveling all night by the road through the Arabah.
They brought the head to David at Hebron. “Here is the head of Ishbosheth son of Saul, your enemy, who was out to kill you,” they told the king. “Today the Lord has taken revenge on Saul and his family for my lord the king.”
David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has saved my life from all my troubles, listen to me. When a man told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ he thought his news was good. I took hold of him and killed him in ; that was his reward for the news. Now wicked men have killed a man who did no wrong, in his own house, on his own bed. How much more should I make you pay for his death, and rid the earth of you!”
So David gave the order, and his young men killed them. They cut off their hands and their feet and hung them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they buried Ishbosheth’s head in Abner’s grave in Hebron.
Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron. “We are your own flesh and blood,” they said. “Even when Saul was king over us, it was you who led Israel out to battle and brought them back. And the Lord told you, ‘You will be shepherd of my people Israel, and you will be leader over Israel.’”
So all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron. There King David made a covenant with them in the Lord’s presence, and they anointed him king over Israel. 1 Chronicles adds that this was what the Lord had said through .
1 Chronicles also counts the armed men who came to Hebron to hand Saul’s kingdom to David, as the Lord had said. From Judah came 6,800 men with shield and spear. From came 7,100 brave warriors, and from the , 4,600. Jehoiada, the leader of ’s family, had 3,700 men with him. Zadok, a brave young man, was there too, with twenty-two captains from his father’s family.
From Benjamin, Saul’s own relatives, came 3,000. Until then, most of them had stayed loyal to Saul’s family. From Ephraim came 20,800 brave men, famous in their clans, and from the half-tribe of came 18,000, chosen by name to come and make David king.
From came two hundred chiefs, men who understood their times and knew what Israel ought to do, with all their relatives under their orders. From came 50,000 men ready for war with every kind of weapon. They were able to command, and they were loyal with all their hearts. From came a thousand captains with 37,000 men carrying shield and spear. From came 28,600, and from , 40,000. And from across the Jordan, from , and half of Manasseh, came 120,000, with every kind of weapon.
All these fighting men came to Hebron with their whole hearts set on making David king over all Israel, and all the rest of Israel agreed that David should be king. For three days they ate and drank there with David, because their relatives had supplied food for them. People living near them, as far as Issachar, Zebulun and Naphtali, loaded donkeys, camels, mules and oxen with flour, fig cakes, raisins, wine and oil. They brought plenty of cattle and sheep too, because there was joy in Israel.
David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years: seven years and six months over Judah in Hebron, and thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.
The king and his men went to to fight the who lived in that land. 1 Chronicles says all Israel went with David, and that the city was also called Jebus. The Jebusites told David, “You won’t get in here. The blind and the lame will keep you out.” They thought, “David can’t get in here.”
But David captured the stronghold of , which is David’s city.
That day David said, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him go up to the water channel and strike those lame and blind, whom David hates.” That is why people say, “The blind and the lame can’t come into the house.”
1 Chronicles adds that David had said, “Whoever strikes the Jebusites first will be chief and captain.” Joab son of Zeruiah was the first to go up, and he was made chief.
David made his home in the stronghold and called it David’s city. He built all around it, from inward, and Chronicles adds that Joab repaired the rest of the city.
David grew greater and greater, because the Lord, the God of Armies, was with him.
king of sent messengers to David. He sent trees too, and carpenters and stonemasons, who built David a house. And David saw that the Lord had set him firmly as king over Israel and had made his kingdom great for the sake of his people Israel.
1 Chronicles names the chiefs of David’s mighty men. Together with all Israel, they stood strong with him to make him king, as the Lord had said. Jashobeam, chief of the thirty, killed three hundred men with his spear at one time. Eleazar son of Dodo, one of the three, was with David at Pasdammim, by a barley field, when the Philistines gathered there for battle. The people ran, but Eleazar and David stayed in the middle of the field, defended it and killed the Philistines. The Lord saved them with a great victory.
Once three of the thirty chiefs went down to David at the rock, into the cave of , while a Philistine army was camped in the . David was in the stronghold then, and the Philistines held Bethlehem. David longed for a drink. “If only someone would give me water from the well by Bethlehem’s gate!” he said.
The three broke through the Philistine army and brought him water from that well. But David would not drink any of it; he poured it out to the Lord. “My God keep me from doing this!” he said. “How could I drink the blood of these men, who put their lives in danger?” They had risked their lives to bring it.
Abishai, Joab’s brother, was chief of the three. He too killed three hundred men with his spear, and he was made their captain. son of Jehoiada killed the two sons of Ariel of . One snowy day he also killed a lion down in a pit. Once he fought an Egyptian who was five tall, about seven and a half feet. Benaiah went down to him with a staff, pulled the spear from his hand and killed him with it. David put Benaiah in charge of his guard.
More than forty others were counted among the mighty men, among them Joab’s brother Asahel and . Some came from other peoples, like Zelek the and Ithmah the Moabite.
Even before that, while David was on the run from Saul, twenty-three mighty men had come to him at Ziklag to help him in war. They were Saul’s own relatives from Benjamin, with Ahiezer as their chief. They were archers who could shoot arrows and sling stones with either hand.
Eleven captains from the tribe of Gad joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness. They were trained for war with shield and spear. Their faces were like lions’ faces, and they were as swift as the gazelles on the mountains. The least of them was equal to a hundred men, and the greatest was equal to a thousand. In the first month of the year, when the Jordan was flooding over all its banks, they crossed it. They drove off everyone who lived in the valleys, both east and west.
Men of Benjamin and Judah came to the stronghold too, and David went out to meet them. “If you are here in peace, to help me,” he said, “my heart will be one with yours. But if you’ve come to hand me over to my enemies, even though I have done nothing wrong, may the God of our ancestors see this and judge it.”
Then the Spirit came on Amasai, who was chief of the thirty, and he cried out, “We are yours, David, and on your side, son of ! Peace, peace be to you, and peace be to your helpers, because your God helps you.” So David took them in and made them captains of his band of men.
Men of Manasseh had gone over to David when he came with the Philistines to fight Saul. But they gave the Philistines no help, because the Philistine rulers talked it over and sent David away. “He will desert to his master Saul,” they said, “and it will cost us our heads.” As David went to Ziklag, seven men from Manasseh joined him, each a captain over a thousand, and they helped him fight the band of raiders. Day after day men came to David to help him, until there was a great army, like God’s army.
After he came from Hebron, David took more wives and concubines from Jerusalem, and he had more sons and daughters. Eleven sons were born to him in Jerusalem, among them Shammua, Shobab, Nathan and .
When the Philistines heard that Israel had anointed David as its king, they all went up to hunt for him, but David learned of it and went down to the stronghold. The Philistines came and spread out across the valley of Rephaim.
David asked the Lord, “Should I go up against the Philistines? Will you give me victory over them?”
“Go up,” the Lord told David. “I will certainly give you victory over the Philistines.”
So David went to and struck them down there. “The Lord has broken through my enemies in front of me, the way water breaks through,” he said. That is why he named the place Baal Perazim, which means “Lord who breaks out”. The Philistines left their there, and David and his men took them away.
Once again the Philistines came up and spread out across the valley of Rephaim. When David asked the Lord, the Lord said, “Don’t go up. Circle around behind them and attack them in front of the mulberry trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, go into action, because then the Lord has gone out ahead of you to strike the Philistine army.”
David did so, as the Lord had commanded him, and struck the Philistines all the way from Geba to .