2 Samuel 5

¹Then all Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, “Here we are, your own flesh and blood.

²Even in times past, while Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel out and brought them back. And the Lord your God said, ‘You will shepherd My people Israel, and you will be ruler over them.’”

¹⁴Then Laban declared, “You are indeed my own flesh and blood.” After Jacob had stayed with him a month,

¹³And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

³⁰For we are members of His body.

²³Now these are the numbers of men armed for battle who came to David at Hebron to turn Saul’s kingdom over to him, in accordance with the word of the Lord:

²⁴From Judah: 6,800 armed troops bearing shields and spears.

²“Please ask all the leaders of Shechem, ‘Is it better for you that seventy men, all the sons of Jerubbaal, rule over you, or just one man?’ Remember that I am your own flesh and blood.”

⁶‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people Israel.’”

⁴He will stand and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majestic name of the Lord His God. And they will dwell securely, for then His greatness will extend to the ends of the earth.

²³I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.

²⁴My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.

²⁵They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever.

¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

⁷In all My journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever asked any of the leaders I appointed to shepherd My people Israel, ‘Why haven’t you built Me a house of cedar?’

⁴Then the men of Judah came to Hebron, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, “It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul.”

¹³So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.

¹⁸So the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. And David remained in Horesh, while Jonathan went home.

¹⁷Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people that they would be the Lord’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.

¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the Lord at Mizpah.

²¹Then Abner said to David, “Let me go at once, and I will gather all Israel to my lord the king, that they may make a covenant with you, and that you may rule over all that your heart desires.” So David dismissed Abner, and he went in peace.

²⁷The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

²³Jesus Himself was about thirty years old when He began His ministry. He was regarded as the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

³¹As for the Hebronites, Jerijah was the chief of the Hebronites, according to the genealogies of his ancestors. In the fortieth year of David’s reign the records were searched, and strong, capable men were found among the Hebronites at Jazer in Gilead.

¹¹The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

⁴These six sons were born to David in Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months. And David reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three years,

¹¹And the length of time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months.

⁴These six sons were born to David in Hebron, where he reigned seven years and six months. And David reigned in Jerusalem thirty-three years,

¹¹The length of David’s reign over Israel was forty years—seven years in Hebron and thirty-three years in Jerusalem.

⁸Then the men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it. They put the city to the sword and set it on fire.

²⁸Zelah, Haeleph, Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), Gibeah, and Kiriath-jearim—fourteen cities, along with their villages. This was the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Benjamin.

⁶³But the descendants of Judah could not drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the descendants of Judah.

²¹The Benjamites, however, failed to drive out the Jebusites living in Jerusalem. So to this day the Jebusites live there among the Benjamites.

¹⁰Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

⁴Then David and all the Israelites marched to Jerusalem (that is, Jebus), where the Jebusites inhabited the land.

⁵The people of Jebus said to David, “You will never get in here.” Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).

¹⁰Then David rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David.

¹²Now it was reported to King David, “The Lord has blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him, because of the ark of God.” So David went and had the ark of God brought up from the house of Obed-edom into the City of David with rejoicing.

¹⁶As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

¹⁶And Jehoiada was buried with the kings in the City of David, because he had done what was good in Israel for God and His temple.

²At that time Solomon assembled in Jerusalem the elders of Israel—all the tribal heads and family leaders of the Israelites—to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Zion, the City of David.

⁶“I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.”

¹⁶And Caleb said, “To the man who strikes down Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage.”

¹⁷So Othniel son of Caleb’s brother Kenaz captured the city, and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage.

⁶Now David had said, “Whoever is the first to strike down a Jebusite will become chief commander.” And Joab son of Zeruiah went up first, and he became the chief.

⁷So David took up residence in the fortress; that is why it was called the City of David.

²⁵Now the men of Israel had been saying, “Do you see how this man keeps coming out to defy Israel? To the man who kills him the king will give great riches. And he will give him his daughter in marriage and exempt his father’s house from taxation in Israel.”

¹⁵This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon imposed to build the house of the Lord, his own palace, the supporting terraces, and the wall of Jerusalem, as well as Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

²⁴As soon as Pharaoh’s daughter had come up from the City of David to the palace that Solomon had built for her, he built the supporting terraces.

⁷Nevertheless, David captured the fortress of Zion (that is, the City of David).

⁵Then Hezekiah worked resolutely to rebuild all the broken sections of the wall and to raise up towers on it. He also built an outer wall and reinforced the supporting terraces of the City of David, and he produced an abundance of weapons and shields.

²⁷and this is the account of his rebellion against the king. Solomon had built the supporting terraces and repaired the gap in the wall of the city of his father David.

⁸He built up the city around it, from the supporting terraces to the surrounding wall, while Joab restored the rest of the city.

¹Now the war between the house of Saul and the house of David was protracted. And David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

³¹What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

¹¹The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

⁴⁴In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will shatter all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, but will itself stand forever.

⁴⁵And just as you saw a stone being cut out of the mountain without human hands, and it shattered the iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold, so the great God has told the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

⁷Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

¹⁸The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹Now Hiram king of Tyre sent envoys to David, along with cedar logs, stonemasons, and carpenters, to build a palace for him.

¹Now when Hiram king of Tyre heard that Solomon had been anointed king in his father’s place, he sent envoys to Solomon; for Hiram had always been a friend of David.

²And Solomon relayed this message to Hiram:

¹⁸So Solomon’s and Hiram’s builders, along with the Gebalites, quarried the stone and prepared the timber and stone for the construction of the temple.

⁸Then Hiram sent a reply to Solomon, saying: “I have received your message; I will do all you desire regarding the cedar and cypress timber.

⁹My servants will haul the logs from Lebanon to the Sea, and I will float them as rafts by sea to the place you specify. There I will separate the logs, and you can take them away. And in exchange, you can meet my needs by providing my household with food.”

²he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

¹⁴who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.

¹⁵Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.

¹⁶Your house and kingdom will endure forever before Me, and your throne will be established forever.”

⁹Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, He has made you king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

²And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and had highly exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel.

²⁵I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.

²⁶I will restore your judges as at first, and your counselors as at the beginning. After that you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

³⁰And to me this mystery has been revealed, not because I have more wisdom than any man alive, but in order that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.

¹¹Then Hiram king of Tyre wrote a letter in reply to Solomon: “Because the Lord loves His people, He has set you over them as king.”

⁹These were all the sons of David, besides the sons by his concubines. And Tamar was their sister.

¹⁷He must not take many wives for himself, lest his heart go astray. He must not accumulate for himself large amounts of silver and gold.

¹⁸And Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

¹⁹She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²¹But Abijah grew strong, married fourteen wives, and became the father of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

⁵Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac.

⁶But while he was still alive, Abraham gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

³And David took more wives in Jerusalem and became the father of more sons and daughters.

⁴These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

⁵and these sons were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. These four were born to him by Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel.

⁶David’s other sons were Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet,

²⁴Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. So she gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. Now the Lord loved the child

²⁵and sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah because the Lord loved him.

³¹which You have prepared in the sight of all people,

⁶and Jesse the father of David the king. Next: David was the father of Solomon by Uriah’s wife,

⁴These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,

¹Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor.

²The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle,

⁵Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet,

⁶David’s other sons were Ibhar, Elishua, Eliphelet,

⁷Elishama, Beeliada, and Eliphelet.

⁸Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet—nine in all.

¹⁴At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

⁸When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they all went in search of him; but David learned of this and went out to face them.

⁹Now the Philistines had come and raided the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

¹Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

²The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the Lord and against His Anointed One:

¹⁵Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”

¹⁶And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,

⁸From there the border went up the Valley of Ben-hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusites (that is, Jerusalem) and ascended to the top of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim.

⁵In the fourteenth year, Chedorlaomer and the kings allied with him went out and defeated the Rephaites in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzites in Ham, the Emites in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

¹⁵Joshua answered them, “If you have so many people that the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go to the forest and clear for yourself an area in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim.”

¹³At harvest time, three of the thirty chief men went down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

⁵as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁶Then it went down to the foot of the hill that faces the Valley of Ben-hinnom at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim and ran down the Valley of Hinnom toward the southern slope of the Jebusites and downward to En-rogel.

¹Some time later, David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go up to one of the towns of Judah?” “Go up,” the Lord answered. Then David asked, “Where should I go?” “To Hebron,” replied the Lord.

²So David inquired of the Lord, “Should I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.”

²³So David inquired of the Lord, who answered, “Do not march straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees.

⁶in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.

²⁸and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before it.) The Israelites asked, “Should we again go out to battle against our brothers the Benjamites, or should we stop?” The Lord answered, “Fight, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.”

⁴Once again, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord answered him: “Go at once to Keilah, for I will deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

²¹For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.

¹¹So David and his men went up to Baal-perazim, where he defeated the Philistines and said, “Like a bursting flood, God has burst out against my enemies by my hand.” So they called that place Baal-perazim.

¹²There the Philistines abandoned their gods, and David ordered that they be burned in the fire.

⁵Instead, this is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, cut down their Asherah poles, and burn their idols in the fire.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

²⁵You must burn up the images of their gods; do not covet the silver and gold that is on them or take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it; for it is detestable to the Lord your God.

²carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.

³When the people of Ashdod got up early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on his face before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and returned him to his place.

¹Bel crouches; Nebo cowers. Their idols weigh down beasts and cattle. The images you carry are burdensome, a load to the weary animal.

²The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity.

¹⁸Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim.

²²Afterward, the prophet approached the king of Israel and said, “Go and strengthen your position, and take note what you must do, for in the spring the king of Aram will come up against you.”

¹³Once again the Philistines raided the valley.

¹⁴So David again inquired of God, who answered him, “Do not march up after them, but circle around them and attack them in front of the balsam trees.

⁶When Jesus had said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud, and applied it to the man’s eyes.

⁷Then He told him, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came back seeing.

²³When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.

²⁴Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves. But Jesus was sleeping.

²⁹Then He touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith will it be done to you.”

³⁰And their eyes were opened. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one finds out about this!”

²And you shall do to Ai and its king as you did to Jericho and its king, except that you may carry off their plunder and livestock for yourselves. Set up an ambush behind the city.”

⁷you are to rise from the ambush and seize the city, for the Lord your God will deliver it into your hand.

⁶For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots, horses, and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel must have hired the kings of the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us.”

¹⁴Then Deborah said to Barak, “Arise, for this is the day that the Lord has delivered Sisera into your hand. Has not the Lord gone before you?” So Barak came down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men following him.

¹⁵When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed in worship. He returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Get up, for the Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand.”

⁹If they say, ‘Wait until we come to you,’ then we will stay where we are and will not go up to them.

¹⁰But if they say, ‘Come on up,’ then we will go up, because this will be our sign that the Lord has delivered them into our hands.”

¹⁵As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, move out to battle, because this will mean that God has gone out before you to strike the camp of the Philistines.”

¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

¹²Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

¹⁶So David did as God had commanded him, and they struck down the army of the Philistines all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim. He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon, to do His work, His strange work, and to perform His task, His disturbing task.

¹⁰But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.