u

24 ¶ And Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king, and had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came again in peace.

25 And it came to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king, that the king said unto him, * Wherefore wentest. not thou with me, Mephibosheth?

26 And he answered, My lord, O king, my servant deceived me: for thy servant said, I will saddle me an ass, that I may ride thereon, and go to the king; because thy servant is lame.

David's gratitude to Barzillai.

27 And he hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God: do therefore what is good in thine eyes.

28 For all of my father's house were but "dead men before my lord the king: yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table. What right therefore have I yet to ery any more unto the king?

29 And the king said unto him, Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide the land.

30 And Mephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house.

b

31 And Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim, and went over Jordan with the king, to conduct him over Jordan.

32 Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even fourscore years old: and he had provided the king of sustenance while he lay at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man.

33 And the king said unto Barzillai, Come thou over with me, and I will feed thee with me in Jerusalem.

8

34 And Barzillai said unto the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king unto Jerusalem?

35 I am this day fourscore years old: and can I discern between good and evil? can thy servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? wherefore then should thy servant be yet a burden unto my lord the king?

36 Thy servant will go a little way over Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward?

37 Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother. But behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee.

39 And all the people went over Jordan. And when the king was come over, the king 'kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned unto his own place.

40 Then the king went on to Gilgal, and ** Chimham went on with him and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel.

41 ¶ And, behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said unto the king, Why have our brethren the men of Judah stolen thee away, and have brought the king, and his household, and all David's men with him, over Jordan?

h

42 And all the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is near of kin to us: wherefore then be ye angry for this matter? have we eaten at all of the king's cost? or hath he given us any gift?

43 And the men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more right in David than ye: why then did ye "despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? And the words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel.

CHAPTER XX.

Sheba maketh a party in Israel. 3 David's ten concubines are put in ward unto the day of their death. 4 Amasa, made captain over Judah, is slain by Joab. 14 Joab pursueth Sheba unto Abel. 16 A wise woman saveth the city by Sheba's head. 23 David's officers. [B. c. 1022.]

Amasa slain by Joab.

2 So every man of Israel went up from after David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri: but the men of Judah clave unto their king, from Jordan even to Jerusalem.

c

3 And 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 'ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were 2 shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood.

4 Then said the king to Amasa, 4d Assemble me the men of Judah within three days, and be thou here present.

5 So Amasa went to assemble the men of Judah: but he tarried longer than the set time which he had appointed him.

e

6 And David said to Abishai, Now shall Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take thou thy lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fenced cities, and 'escape us.

7 And 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 went before them. And Joab's garment that he had put on was girded unto him, and upon it a girdle with a sword fastened upon his loins in the sheath thereof; and as he went forth it fell out.

9 And Joab said to Amasa, Art thou in health, my brother? And Joab took Amasa by the beard with the right hand to kiss him.

10 But Amasa took no heed to the sword

h

Belial, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew a trumpet, and said, "We have no part in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, O Israel.

6

therewith 'in the fifth rib, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and struck him not again; and he died. So Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri.

11 And one of Joab's men stood by him,

and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.

12 And Amasa wallowed in blood in the midst of the highway. And when the man saw that all the people stood still, he removed Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a cloth upon him, when he saw that every one that 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.

k

14 ¶ And he went through all the tribes of Israel unto Abel, and to Beth-maachah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him.

The Gibeonites avenged.

| the king, even against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said unto Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall.

22 Then the woman went unto all the people "in her wisdom: and they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and cast it out to Joab. And he blew a trumpet, and they "retired from the city, every man to his tent. And Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king.

23 ¶ Now Joab was over all the host of Israel: and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites:

24 And Adoram was over the tributs :

and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was

12 recorder:

8

16 Then cried a wise woman out of the city, Hear, hear; say, I pray you, unto Joab, Come near hither, that I may speak with thee.

17 And when he was come near unto her, the woman said, Art thou Joab? And he answered, I am he. Then she said unto

him, Hear the words of thine handmaid.

And he answered, I do hear.

18 Then she spake, saying, 'They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask counsel at Abel: and so they ended the matter.

19 I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why wilt thou swallow up the inheritance of the LORD?

20 And Joab answered and said, 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 mount Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against

10

S

26 And Ira also the Jairite was 13a chief ruler about David.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Gibeonites are avenged by famine, and by the death of seven of Saul's sons. 10 Rizpah's kindness unto the dead. 12 David burieth the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the sepulchre of Kish. 15 Four battles against the Philistines, wherein four giants are slain. [B. c. 1021.]

THEN there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David 'inquired of the LORD. And the LORD answered, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites.

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

3 Wherefore David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? and wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the LORD?

b

And the Gibeonites said unto him, 2 We have no silver nor gold of Saul, nor of use; neither for us shalt thou kill any in Israel. And he said, What ye shall at will I do for you.

And they answered the king, The man consumed us, and that 'devised against hat we should be destroyed from reing in any of the coasts of Israel, Let seven men of his sons be delivered us, and we will hang them up unto the › in Gibeah of Saul, whom the LORD choose. And the king said, I will give

6

But the king took the two sons of h the daughter of Aiah, whom she into Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; the five sons of Michal the daughter al, whom she brought up for Adriel of Barzillai the Meholathite: And he delivered them into the hands he Gibeonites, and they hanged them in hil before the LORD: and they fell all together, and were put to death in Gays of harvest, in the first days, in the ing of barley harvest.

☛ And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah sackcloth, and spread it for her upon rock, from the beginning of harvest I water dropped upon them out of heaand suffered neither the birds of the to rest on them by day, nor the beasts he field by night.

I And it was told David what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, the concubine of I had done.

2 And David went and took the bones aul and the bones of Jonathan his son a the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had en them from the street of Beth-shan,

Four giants are slain.

where the 'Philistines had hanged them, when the Philistines had slain Saul in Gilboa:

13 And he brought up from thence the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son; and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged.

14 And the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son buried they in the country of Benjamin in "Zelah, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that "God was entreated for the land.

15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David waxed faint.