After the death of Saul, ¹  when David had returned from defeating the Amalekites, ²  he stayed at Ziklag ³  for two days.

They went through all the land and after nine months and twenty days came back to Jerusalem. ¹ 

Then the king said to Amasa, “Call the men of Judah together for me in three days, ¹  and you be present here with them too.”

In those days Ahithophel’s advice was considered as valuable as a prophetic revelation. ¹  Both David and Absalom highly regarded the advice of Ahithophel. ² 

Barzillai replied to the king, “How many days do I have left to my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem?

He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them ¹  died ²  together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning ³  of the barley harvest.

Gad went to David and told him, “Shall seven ¹  years of famine come upon your land? Or shall you flee for three months from your enemy with him in hot pursuit? Or shall there be three days of plague in your land? Now decide ²  what I should tell the one who sent me.”

When the time comes for you to die, ¹  I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, ²  and I will establish his kingdom.

During David’s reign there was a famine for three consecutive years. So David inquired of the Lord. ¹  The Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloodstained family, ²  because he murdered the Gibeonites.”

So Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman. He told her, “Pretend to be in mourning ¹  and put on garments for mourning. Don’t anoint yourself with oil. Instead, act like a woman who has been mourning for the dead for some time. ² 

She said, “In the past they would always say, ‘Let them inquire in Abel,’ and that is how they settled things.

So the Lord sent a plague through Israel from the morning until the completion of the appointed time. Seventy thousand men died from Dan to Beer Sheba.

David was king in Hebron over the people of Judah for seven and a half years. ¹ 

But Absalom fled and went to King Talmai son of Ammihud of Geshur. And David ¹  grieved over his son every day.

So Amasa went out to call Judah together. But in doing so he took longer than the time that the king had allotted him.

When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. ¹  She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord. ² 

(Now she was wearing a long robe, ¹  for this is what the king’s virgin daughters used to wear.) So Amnon’s ²  attendant removed her and bolted the door ³  behind her.