2 Samuel 4

⁴Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build.

⁷Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt.

²⁴We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

²I will attack him while he is weak and weary; I will throw him into a panic, and all the people with him will flee; I will strike down only the king

³Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees!

²asking, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? We saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.”

³When King Herod heard this, he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

²⁵Gibeon, Ramah, Beeroth,

¹⁷So the Israelites set out and on the third day arrived at their cities—Gibeon, Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim.

²²Just then David’s soldiers and Joab returned from a raid, bringing with them a great plunder. But Abner was not with David in Hebron, because David had sent him on his way in peace.

²At this time the Arameans had gone out in bands and had taken a young girl from the land of Israel, and she was serving Naaman’s wife.

²³So the king prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. And the Aramean raiders did not come into the land of Israel again.

³³Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim,

⁷When the Israelites along the valley and those on the other side of the Jordan saw that the army of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons had died, they abandoned their cities and ran away. So the Philistines came and occupied their cities.

³So the king asked, “Is there anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I can show the kindness of God?” Ziba answered, “There is still Jonathan’s son, who is lame in both feet.”

⁶And when Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, came to David, he fell facedown in reverence. Then David said, “Mephibosheth!” “I am your servant,” he replied.

⁴⁰The son of Jonathan: Merib-baal, who was the father of Micah.

¹¹So David and his men got up early in the morning to return to the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

³⁴The son of Jonathan: Merib-baal, and Merib-baal was the father of Micah.

¹Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them, and many fell slain on Mount Gilboa.

²The Philistines hotly pursued Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.

³³A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

³⁴and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

³While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

⁴But you, brothers, are not in the darkness so that this day should overtake you like a thief.

²One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.

⁸Meanwhile, Abner son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, took Saul’s son Ish-bosheth, moved him to Mahanaim,

⁹However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.

²⁷From the time that Amaziah turned from following the Lord, a conspiracy was formed against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But men were sent after him to Lachish, and they killed him there.

²³But Asahel refused to turn away. So Abner thrust the butt of his spear into his stomach, and it came out his back, and he fell dead on the spot. And every man paused when he came to the place where Asahel had fallen and died.

¹⁰Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.

²⁷When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.

²⁸The man brought John’s head on a platter and presented it to the girl, who gave it to her mother.

²⁹When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb.

⁹They cut off Saul’s head, stripped off his armor, and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to proclaim the news in the temples of their idols and among their people.

²⁹And all that night Abner and his men marched through the Arabah. They crossed the Jordan, marched all morning, and arrived at Mahanaim.

⁵⁴David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, and he put Goliath’s weapons in his own tent.

⁶Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.

⁷And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

¹¹John’s head was brought in on a platter and presented to the girl, who carried it to her mother.

²⁹And should someone pursue you and seek your life, then the life of my lord will be bound securely by the Lord your God in the bundle of the living. But He shall fling away the lives of your enemies like stones from a sling.

⁴⁸the God who avenges me and brings down nations beneath me,

¹Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? How have I sinned against your father, that he wants to take my life?”

⁴So David’s men said to him, “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do with him as you wish.’” Then David crept up and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

¹⁵But Saul sent the messengers back to see David and told them, “Bring him up to me in his bed so I can kill him.”

²⁰Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced for you His judgment against her.

²⁹And the king swore an oath, saying, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress,

¹⁶the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”

²Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

⁶This poor man called out, and the Lord heard him; He saved him from all his troubles.

⁷The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and he delivers them.

⁴who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you with loving devotion and compassion,

¹⁷The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears; He delivers them from all their troubles.

²On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.

³“Where have you come from?” David asked. “I have escaped from the Israelite camp,” he replied.

¹²For the Avenger of bloodshed remembers; He does not ignore the cry of the afflicted.

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

⁵And surely I will require the life of any man or beast by whose hand your lifeblood is shed. I will demand an accounting from anyone who takes the life of his fellow man:

⁶Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.

³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death.

³²Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest.

⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.

¹⁵May their sins always remain before the Lord, that He may cut off their memory from the earth.

³²When they buried Abner in Hebron, the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb, and all the people wept.

¹⁵Then David summoned one of the young men and said, “Go, execute him!” So the young man struck him down, and he died.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree,

²³you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

²For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.