August 25, 2019

2 SAMUEL 3:28 – 4:7

3:28 Then afterward, when David heard of it, he said, I and my kingdom are innocent of the bloodshed of Abner the son of Ner before Jehovah forever.
3:29 May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not fail from the house of Joab one who has an issue or who is a leper or who leans on a staff or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!
3:30 So Joab and Abishai his brother slew Abner because he had killed their brother Asahel at Gibeon in the battle.
3:31 And David said to Joab and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and gird yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn over Abner. And King David followed the bier.
3:32 And they buried Abner in Hebron. And the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept.
3:33 And the king lamented for Abner and said,
Should Abner die / As a fool dies?
3:34 Your hands were not bound, / Nor were your feet put into fetters. / As a man falls before wicked men, you fell. / And all the people wept over him again.
3:35 And all the people came to make David eat food while it was still day; but David swore, saying, God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun goes down!
3:36 And all the people took note of it, and it pleased them; as everything that the king did pleased all the people.
3:37 And all the people and all Israel understood that day that it was not of the king to put Abner the son of Ner to death.
3:38 And the king said to his servants, Do you not know that a prince and a great man has fallen this day in Israel?
3:39 And today I am weak, even though anointed king; and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are too difficult for me. May Jehovah reward the evildoer according to his evil!

4:1 Now when Saul’s son Ish-bosheth heard that Abner had died in Hebron, he lost courage, and all Israel was dismayed.
4:2 And Saul’s son had two men, the captains of bands. The name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the second Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin; for Beeroth is also considered to belong to Benjamin.
4:3 And the Beerothites fled to Gittaim and have been sojourners there until this day.
4:4 Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who had crippled feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel. And his nurse took him up and fled. And as she hurried to flee, he fell and was made lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.
4:5 And the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and around the time of the heat of the day they came into the house of Ish-bosheth, while he was taking his noonday rest.
4:6 And they came into the midst of the house, as though they were taking wheat. And they stabbed him in the stomach. And Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped.
4:7 Now they had come into the house as he lay on his bed in his bedchamber, and they struck him and killed him and beheaded him. And they took his head and traveled by the way of the Arabah all night.