When David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan and David became bound together in close friendship. Jonathan loved David as much as he did his own life.

David took all the flocks and herds and drove them in front of the rest of the animals. People were saying, “This is David’s plunder!”

So the Tekoan woman went to the king. She bowed down with her face to the ground in deference to him and said, “Please help me, O king!”

Zadok and Abiathar the priests will be there with you. Everything you hear in the king’s palace you must tell Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

Later there was another battle with the Philistines, this time in Gob. On that occasion Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the descendants of Rapha.

David was thirsty and said, “How I wish someone would give me some water to drink from the cistern in Bethlehem near the gate!”

(At that time King Rezin of Syria recovered Elat for Syria; he drove the Judahites from there. Syrians arrived in Elat and live there to this very day.)

They were worshiping the Lord and at the same time serving their own gods in accordance with the practices of the nations from which they had been deported.

He burned down the Lord’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.

They also lived in all the settlements that surrounded these towns as far as Baal. These were their settlements; they kept genealogical records.

Azariah son of Hilkiah, son of Meshullam, son of Zadok, son of Meraioth, son of Ahitub the leader in God’s temple;

Some of them were in charge of the equipment and articles of the sanctuary, as well as the flour, wine, olive oil, incense, and spices.

David was thirsty and said, “How I wish someone would give me some water to drink from the cistern in Bethlehem near the city gate!”

There were those who said, “With our sons and daughters, we are many. We must obtain grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

There were 150 Jews and officials who dined with me routinely, in addition to those who came to us from the nations all around us.

Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, supervisor in the temple of God,

He entreats God, and God delights in him, he sees God’s face with rejoicing, and God restores to him his righteousness.

But it will not go well with the wicked, nor will they prolong their days like a shadow, because they do not stand in fear before God.

Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. There is no end to the making of many books, and much study is exhausting to the body.

“Who is this who appears like the dawn? Beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awe-inspiring as the stars in procession?”