3 The war between Saul’s house and David’s house was long and drawn out. David kept getting stronger, while Saul’s house kept getting weaker.

David’s family

² David’s sons were born in Hebron. His oldest son was Amnon, by Ahinoam from Jezreel; ³ the second was Chileab, by Abigail, Nabal’s widow from Carmel; the third was Absalom, by^[a] Maacah, who was the daughter of Geshur’s King Talmai; ⁴ the fourth was Adonijah, by Haggith; the fifth was Shephatiah, by Abital; ⁵ and the sixth was Ithream, by David’s wife Eglah. These are David’s sons that were born in Hebron.

Joab kills Abner

⁶ Throughout the war between Saul’s house and David’s house, Abner was gaining power in Saul’s house. ⁷ Now Saul had a secondary wife named Rizpah, Aiah’s daughter. Ishbosheth^[b] said to Abner, “Why have you had sex with my father’s secondary wife?”

⁸ Abner got very angry over what Ishbosheth had said.

“Am I some sort of dog’s head?”^[c] Abner asked. “I’ve been nothing but loyal to the house of your father Saul and to his brothers and his friends. I haven’t handed you over to David, but today you accuse me of doing something wrong with this woman. ⁹ May God deal harshly with me, Abner, and worse still if I don’t do for David exactly what the Lord swore to him— ¹⁰ removing the kingdom from Saul’s house and securing David’s throne over Israel and over Judah, from Dan all the way to Beer-sheba!”

¹¹ Ishbosheth couldn’t say a single word in reply to Abner because he was afraid of him.

¹² Abner sent messengers to represent him to David and to say, “Who will own the land?^[d] Make a covenant with me, then I’ll help bring all Israel over to your side.”

¹³ “Good!” David replied. “I will make a covenant with you, but on one condition: don’t show yourself in my presence unless you bring Saul’s daughter Michal when you come to see me.”

¹⁴ Then David sent messengers to Saul’s son Ishbosheth. “Give me my wife Michal,” he demanded. “I became engaged to her at the cost of one hundred Philistine foreskins.”

¹⁵ Ishbosheth then sent for Michal and took her from her husband Paltiel, Laish’s son. ¹⁶ Her husband went with her all the way to Bahurim, crying as he followed her.

“Go home!” Abner told him. So he went home.

¹⁷ Abner then sent word to Israel’s elders. “You’ve wanted David to be your king for some time now,” he said. ¹⁸ “It’s time to act because the Lord has said about David: I will rescue my people Israel from the power of the Philistines and all their enemies through my servant David.”

¹⁹ Abner also spoke directly to the Benjaminites. He then went to inform David in person at Hebron regarding everything that all Israel and the house of Benjamin were willing to do.

²⁰ When Abner, along with twenty others, reached David at Hebron, David threw a celebration for Abner and his men. ²¹ Then Abner said to David, “Please let me get going so I can assemble all Israel for my master the king. Then they can make a covenant with you, and you will rule over everything your heart^[e] desires.” At that, David sent Abner off in peace.

²² Right then, David’s soldiers and Joab returned from a raid, bringing a great deal of loot with them. Abner was no longer with David in Hebron because David had sent him off in peace. ²³ When Joab and all the troops with him returned, Joab was told that Abner, Ner’s son, had come to the king and that David had sent him off in peace.

²⁴ Joab went to the king and asked, “What have you done? Abner came to you here! Why did you send him off? Now he’s gotten away! ²⁵ Don’t you know the evil ways of Abner, Ner’s son?^[f] He came to trick you, to find out where you come and go, and to learn everything you do!”

²⁶ Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well at Sirah, but David didn’t know anything of this. ²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab took him aside next to^[g] the gate to speak with him in private. But instead Joab stabbed Abner in the stomach, and he died for shedding the blood of Asahel, Joab’s brother.

²⁸ When David heard about this later, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord concerning the shedding of the blood of Abner, Ner’s son. ²⁹ May it fall upon the head of Joab and his entire family tree! May Joab’s family never be without someone with a discharge or a skin disease,^[h] someone who uses a crutch,^[i] someone who dies by the sword, or someone who is hungry!”

³⁰ So that is how Joab and his brother Abishai murdered Abner, because he killed their brother Asahel in the battle at Gibeon.

³¹ Then David ordered Joab and all the troops who were with him, “Tear your clothes and put on funeral clothes! Mourn for Abner!” King David himself walked behind the body. ³² They buried Abner in Hebron. The king wept loudly at Abner’s grave. All the troops cried too. ³³ Then the king sang this funeral song^[j] for Abner:

³⁵ Then all the soldiers came to urge David to eat something while it was still day, but David swore, “May God deal harshly with me and worse still if I eat bread or anything else before the sun goes down.” ³⁶ All the troops took notice of this and were pleased by it. Indeed, everything that the king did pleased them. ³⁷ So on that day all the troops and all Israel knew that it wasn’t the king’s idea to kill Abner, Ner’s son.

³⁸ The king told his soldiers, “Don’t you know that a prince and a great man in Israel has fallen today? ³⁹ And today, though I am the anointed king, I am weak. These men, Zeruiah’s sons, are too strong for me.^[k] May the Lord repay the one who does evil according to the evil they did!”

Ishbosheth murdered

4 When Ishbosheth,^[l] Saul’s son, heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost his courage,^[m] and all Israel was alarmed. ² Saul’s son had two men who led the raiding parties—one was named Baanah and the other Rechab. Both were sons of Rimmon, a Benjaminite from Beeroth. (Beeroth was considered part of Benjamin. ³ The people of Beeroth had fled to Gittaim and even now live there as immigrants.)

⁴ Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a boy whose feet were crippled. He was only 5 years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and so his nurse snatched him up and fled. But as she hurried to get away, he fell and was injured. His name was Mephibosheth.^[n]

⁵ Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, set out and reached Ishbosheth’s house at the heat of the day, right when he was lying down, taking an afternoon rest. ⁶ They went straight into his house, as if getting wheat,^[o] and they stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped. ⁷ They had entered the house while Ishbosheth was lying on the bed in his bedroom. After they stabbed him and killed him, they cut off his head, took it, and traveled all night through the wilderness.

⁸ They brought Ishbosheth’s head to David at Hebron. “Here is the head of Ishbosheth,” they told the king, “the son of Saul your enemy, who wanted you dead. Today the Lord has avenged our master^[p] the king on Saul and his descendants.”

⁹ David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon from Beeroth, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has rescued me^[q] from all kinds of trouble,” he told them, ¹⁰ “when someone told me Saul was dead back in Ziklag, thinking he was bringing good news, I grabbed him and killed him. That was the reward I gave him for his news! ¹¹ What do you think I’ll do when evil people kill a righteous person in his own house on his own bed? Why shouldn’t I demand his blood from your hands and rid the earth of you both?”

¹² So David gave the order to his servants, and they killed Rechab and Baanah, cutting off their hands and feet and hanging them up by the pool at Hebron. But they took Ishbosheth’s head and buried it in the grave of Abner at Hebron.

David becomes king of Israel and Judah

5 All the Israelite tribes came to David at Hebron and said, “Listen: We are your very own flesh and bone. ² In the past, when Saul ruled over us, you were the one who led Israel out to war and back. What’s more, the Lord told you, You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be Israel’s leader.

³ So all the Israelite elders came to the king at Hebron. King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel.

⁴ David was 30 years old when he became king, and he ruled for forty years. ⁵ He ruled over Judah for seven and a half years in Hebron. He ruled thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is captured

⁶ The king and his troops marched on Jerusalem against the Jebusites, who inhabited the territory. The Jebusites said to David, “You’ll never get us in here! Even the blind and the lame will beat you back!” “David will never enter here,” they said to each other.^{[r] 7} But David did capture the fortress of Zion—which became David’s City. ⁸ “On that day,” David said, “whoever attacks the Jebusites should strike the windpipe because David hates the lame and the blind.”^[s] That is why people say, “The blind and the lame will not enter the temple.”^{[t] 9} David occupied the fortress, so it was renamed David’s City. David built a city around it from the earthen terraces^[u] inward.^{[v] 10} David grew increasingly powerful, and the Lord of heavenly forces was with him.

¹¹ Tyre’s King Hiram sent messengers to David with cedar logs, bricklayers, and carpenters to build David a palace. ¹² Then David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that his kingship was held in great honor for the sake of his people Israel. ¹³ After he left Hebron, David married more secondary wives in Jerusalem and fathered more sons and daughters. ¹⁴ The names of his children in Jerusalem were as follows: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ¹⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, ¹⁶ Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

David defeats the Philistines

¹⁷ When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, they all marched up to find him, but David heard of it and went down to the fortress. ¹⁸ The Philistines arrived and spread out over the Rephaim Valley. ¹⁹ David asked the Lord, “Should I attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?”

“Attack them,” the Lord replied, “because I will definitely hand the Philistines over to you.”

²⁰ So David arrived at Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. He said, “The Lord has burst out against my enemies, the way water bursts out!” That is why that place is called Baal-perazim.^{[w] 21} The Philistines left their divine images behind, and David and his men carried them off.

²² Once again the Philistines came up and spread out across the Rephaim Valley. ²³ When David asked the Lord, God replied, “Don’t attack them directly. Circle around behind them and come at them from in front of the balsam trees. ²⁴ As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, then attack, for God has attacked in front of you to defeat the Philistine army.” ²⁵ David followed God’s orders exactly, and they defeated the Philistine army from Gibeon all the way to Gezer.