Study Desk

but the fields of the city and its villages they gave to Caleb the son of Jephunneh.

Then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised [Philistines] will come and abuse and humiliate me." But his armor bearer would not, for he was terrified. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

Then the Jebusites said to David, "You shall not come in here." But David captured the stronghold of Zion (that is, the City of David).

But they took their stand in the midst of that plot and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and the LORD rescued them by a great victory.

Then the three [mighty men] broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem which was next to the gate, and brought it to David. But David would not drink it; he poured it out to the LORD [as an offering];

He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain to [the rank of] the [first] three. David appointed him over his bodyguard.

David went out to meet them and said to them, "If you have come peacefully to me to help me, my heart shall be united with you; but if you have come to betray me to my adversaries, since there is no violence or wrong in my hands, may the God of our fathers look on [what you are doing] and punish [you]."

Some [of the men] of Manasseh also defected to David when he came with the Philistines to go to battle against Saul. But David's men did not [actually] assist the Philistines, for the lords (governors) of the Philistines after consultation sent him away, saying, "At the cost of our heads he may defect to his master Saul."

So David did not bring the ark with him to the City of David, but took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.

For all the gods of the peoples are [lifeless] idols, But the LORD made the heavens.

But it came about that same night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying,

for I have not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought Israel up [from Egypt] until this day, but I have gone from tent to tent and from one dwelling place to another.

"But I will settle him in My house and in My kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forevermore."'"

"This was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; but You have spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the standard and estate of a man of high degree (prominence), O LORD God.

David took from him 1,000 chariots, 7,000 horsemen, and 20,000 foot soldiers (infantrymen). David also hamstrung [nearly] all the chariot horses [to make them lame and useless], but left enough of them for 100 chariots.

But the leaders of the Ammonites said to Hanun, "Do you think that David has sent people to console and comfort you because he honors your father? Have his servants not come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land?"

He said, "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you shall help me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you.

But the Arameans fled before Israel, and David killed of the Arameans 7,000 charioteers and 40,000 foot soldiers, and put to death Shophach the commander of the army.

Then it happened at the end of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, Joab led out the army and ravaged and devastated the land of the Ammonites, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem [with Bathsheba]. Joab struck Rabbah and overthrew it.

Joab said, "May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why then does my lord require this? Why will he bring guilt on Israel?"