¹ There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, "We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!"

² So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem.

³ David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn't go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood.

⁴ Then the king said to Amasa, "Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present."

⁵ So Amasa went to call [the men of] Judah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

⁶ David said to Abishai, "Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than did Absalom. Take your lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight."

⁷ There went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

⁸ When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out.

⁹ Joab said to Amasa, "Is it well with you, my brother?" Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him.

¹⁰ But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹¹ There stood by him one of Joab's young men, and said, "He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!"

¹² Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

¹³ When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri.

¹⁴ He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth Maacah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.

¹⁵ They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down.

¹⁶ Then a wise woman cried out of the city, "Hear, Hear! Please say to Joab, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'"

¹⁷ He came near to her; and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" He answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Hear the words of your handmaid." He answered, "I do Hear."

¹⁸ Then she spoke, saying, "They were used to say in old times, 'They shall surely ask counsel at Abel;' and so they settled it.

¹⁹ I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh?"

²⁰ Joab answered, "Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.

²¹ The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city." The woman said to Joab, "Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall."

²² Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³ Now Joab was over all the army of Israel; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites;

²⁴ and Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

²⁵ and Sheva was scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests;

²⁶ and also Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.

¹ There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites."

² The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah);

³ and David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh?"

⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, "It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." He said, "Whatever you say, that will I do for you."

⁵ They said to the king, "The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel,

⁶ let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh." The king said, "I will give them."

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

⁸ But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

⁹ He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.

¹¹ It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

¹² David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;

¹³ and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

¹⁴ They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land.

¹⁵ The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;

¹⁶ and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred [shekels] of brass in weight, he being armed with a new [sword], thought to have slain David.

¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Israel."

¹⁸ It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant.

¹⁹ There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

²⁰ There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

²¹ When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him.

²² These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

¹ David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:

² and he said, "Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;

³ God, my rock, in him I will take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence.

⁴ I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵ For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

⁶ The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.

⁷ In my distress I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry [came] into his ears.

⁸ Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.

⁹ Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰ He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.

¹¹ He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.

¹² He made darkness pavilions around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

¹³ At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.

¹⁴ Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice.

¹⁵ He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them.

¹⁶ Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷ He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁸ He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁹ They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.

²⁰ He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²¹ Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.

²² For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³ For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

²⁴ I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁵ Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.

²⁶ With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.

²⁷ With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.

²⁸ You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.

²⁹ For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness.

³⁰ For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.

³¹ As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

³² For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God?

³³ God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect.

³⁴ He makes his feet like hinds' [feet], and sets me on my high places.