David returns to Jerusalem · Concerning Cush the Benjamite · Psalms of David and of worship

2 Samuel 20–21 WEB

^20:1There happened to be there a wicked 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!” ²So 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. ³David 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. ⁴Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present.” ⁵So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together, but he stayed longer than the set time which had been appointed to him. ⁶David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.” ⁷Joab’s men went out after him with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. ⁸When 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 along it fell out. ⁹Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. ¹⁰But 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 Sheba the son of Bichri. ¹¹One of Joab’s young men stood by him, and said, “He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!” ¹²Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle 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. ¹³When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. ¹⁴He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, to Beth Maacah, and all the Berites. They were gathered together, and went also after him. ¹⁵They 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. ¹⁶Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come near here, that I may speak with you.’” ¹⁷He 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 servant.” He answered, “I’m listening.” ¹⁸Then she spoke, saying, “They used to say in old times, ‘They shall surely ask counsel at Abel,’ and so they settled a matter. ¹⁹I 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 LORD’s inheritance?” ²⁰Joab answered, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. ²¹The 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. Just deliver him, and I will depart from the city.” The woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” ²²Then 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. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. ²³Now Joab was over all the army of Israel, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites, ²⁴Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder, ²⁵Sheva was scribe, Zadok and Abiathar were priests, ²⁶and Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David.

^21:1There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. The LORD said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” ²The 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); ³and David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless the LORD’s inheritance?” ⁴The 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, “I will do for you whatever you say.” ⁵They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and who plotted against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, ⁶let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” The king said, “I will give them.” ⁷But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸But 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 Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. ⁹He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites; and they hanged them on the mountain before the LORD, 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. ¹⁰Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water 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. ¹¹David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. ¹²So 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; ¹³and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged. ¹⁴They 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 answered prayer for the land. ¹⁵The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint; ¹⁶and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought he would kill David. ¹⁷But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “Don’t go out with us to battle any more, so that you don’t quench the lamp of Israel.” ¹⁸After this, there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. ¹⁹There was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on every hand and six toes on every foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was born to the giant. ²¹When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. ²²These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Psalm 7 WEB

¹LORD, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me, ²lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver. ³LORD, my God, if I have done this, if there is iniquity in my hands, ⁴if I have rewarded evil to him who was at peace with me (yes, I have plundered him who without cause was my adversary), ⁵let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah. ⁶Arise, LORD, in your anger. Lift up yourself against the rage of my adversaries. Awake for me. You have commanded judgment. ⁷Let the congregation of the peoples surround you. Rule over them on high. ⁸The LORD administers judgment to the peoples. Judge me, LORD, according to my righteousness, and to my integrity that is in me. ⁹Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God. ¹⁰My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. ¹¹God is a righteous judge, yes, a God who has indignation every day. ¹²If a man doesn’t repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has bent and strung his bow. ¹³He has also prepared for himself the instruments of death. He makes ready his flaming arrows. ¹⁴Behold, he travails with iniquity. Yes, he has conceived mischief, and brought out falsehood. ¹⁵He has dug a hole, and has fallen into the pit which he made. ¹⁶The trouble he causes shall return to his own head. His violence shall come down on the crown of his own head. ¹⁷I will give thanks to the LORD according to his righteousness, and will sing praise to the name of the LORD Most High.

Psalm 65 WEB

¹Praise waits for you, God, in Zion. Vows shall be performed to you. ²You who hear prayer, all men will come to you. ³Sins overwhelmed me, but you atoned for our transgressions. ⁴Blessed is the one whom you choose and cause to come near, that he may live in your courts. We will be filled with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. ⁵By awesome deeds of righteousness, you answer us, God of our salvation. You who are the hope of all the ends of the earth, of those who are far away on the sea. ⁶By your power, you form the mountains, having armed yourself with strength. ⁷You still the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the turmoil of the nations. ⁸They also who dwell in faraway places are afraid at your wonders. You call the morning’s dawn and the evening with songs of joy. ⁹You visit the earth, and water it. You greatly enrich it. The river of God is full of water. You provide them grain, for so you have ordained it. ¹⁰You drench its furrows. You level its ridges. You soften it with showers. You bless it with a crop. ¹¹You crown the year with your bounty. Your carts overflow with abundance. ¹²The wilderness grasslands overflow. The hills are clothed with gladness. ¹³The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.