Now be courageous and prove to be valiant warriors, for your lord Saul is dead. The people of Judah have anointed me as king over them.”

All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation.

Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader has fallen this day in Israel?

When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the trees, act decisively. For at that moment the Lord is going before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.”

When they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and grabbed hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled.

I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent.

When the time comes for you to die, I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, and I will establish his kingdom.

King David went in, sat before the Lord, and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you should have brought me to this point?

Therefore you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you! There is no God besides you! What we have heard is true!

Then David asked, “Is anyone still left from the family of Saul, so that I may extend kindness to him for the sake of Jonathan?”

Mephibosheth was living in Jerusalem, for he was a regular guest at the king’s table. But both his feet were crippled.

Messengers told David what had happened, so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

When Joab saw that the battle would be fought on two fronts, he chose some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans.

When the Ammonites saw the Arameans flee, they fled before his brother Abishai and went into the city. Joab withdrew from fighting the Ammonites and returned to Jerusalem.

So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers were.

The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and attacked us in the field. But we forced them to retreat all the way to the door of the city gate.

Then David became very angry at this man. He said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die!

So now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own!’

Although you have acted in secret, I will do this thing before all Israel, and in broad daylight.’”

Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.”