However, Joshua son of Nun, your assistant, will go. Encourage him, because he will enable Israel to inherit the land.

Commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, because he will lead these people over and will enable them to inherit the land you will see.”

He is the one you should praise; he is your God, the one who has done these great and awesome things for you that you have seen.

Also the pig is ritually impure to you; though it has divided hooves, it does not chew the cud. You may not eat their meat or even touch their remains.

“This commandment I am giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote.

The Lord is indeed going before you – he will be with you; he will not fail you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”

Is this how you repay the Lord, you foolish, unwise people? Is he not your father, your creator? He has made you and established you.

That day they captured it and put the sword to all who lived there. That day they annihilated it just as they had done to Lachish.

When Ehud had left, Eglon’s servants came and saw the locked doors of the upper room. They said, “He must be relieving himself in the well-ventilated inner room.”

In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you in that day.”

So Jesse had him brought in. Now he was ruddy, with attractive eyes and a handsome appearance. The Lord said, “Go and anoint him. This is the one!”

The king asked him, “Where is he?” Ziba told the king, “He is at the house of Makir son of Ammiel in Lo Debar.

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

So the victory of that day was turned to mourning as far as all the people were concerned. For the people heard on that day, “The king is grieved over his son.”

But Barzillai was very old – eighty years old, in fact – and he had taken care of the king when he stayed in Mahanaim, for he was a very rich man.

The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for it had the most prominent of the high places. Solomon would offer up a thousand burnt sacrifices on the altar there.

When all the people saw this, they threw themselves down with their faces to the ground and said, “The Lord is the true God! The Lord is the true God!”

When Ben Hadad received this reply, he and the other kings were drinking in their quarters. He ordered his servants, “Get ready to attack!” So they got ready to attack the city.

Later Hezron had sexual relations with the daughter of Makir, the father of Gilead. (He had married her when he was sixty years old.) She bore him Segub.

Abishai the brother of Joab was head of the three elite warriors. He killed three hundred men with his spear and gained fame along with the three elite warriors.