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But Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. And the man saw that all the people stood still. So he removed Amasa from the highway into the field and threw a garment over him when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

So they came and besieged him in Abel Beth-maacah, and they cast up a siege ramp against the city, and it stood by the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab were wreaking destruction in order to cause the wall to fall.

So he drew near to her, and the woman said, "Are you Joab?" And he answered, "I am." Then she said to him, "Listen to the words of your maidservant." And he answered, "I am listening."

Then the woman came to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the trumpet, and they were scattered from the city, each to his tent. Joab also returned to the king at Jerusalem.

So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah).

So they said to the king, "The man who consumed us and who planned to eradicate us from standing within any border of Israel,

So the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite.

Then he gave them into the hand of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at the beginning of barley harvest.

So 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 open square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them on the day the Philistines struck down Saul in Gilboa.

And the Philistines were at war again with Israel, so David went down and his servants with him; and as they fought against the Philistines, David became weary.

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and put him to death. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish the lamp of Israel."

And he reproached Israel, so Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down.

He trains my hands for battle,So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

And I have consumed them and crushed them, so that they did not rise;And they fell under my feet.

Truly is not my house so with God?For He has made an everlasting covenant with me,Ordered in all things, and secured;For all my salvation and all my desire,Will He not indeed make it grow?

But he took his stand in the midst of that portion and delivered it and struck down the Philistines. So Yahweh brought about a great salvation.

So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David. Nevertheless, he was not willing to drink it, but poured it out to Yahweh;

So the king said to Joab the commander of the military force who was with him, "Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people, that I may know the total count of the people."

Nevertheless, the king's word stood strong against Joab and against the commanders of the military force. So Joab and the commanders of the military force went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel.

So they had gone about through the whole land, and they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.