Why have you shown contempt for the word of the <sc>Lordsc> by doing evil in my<n id="1" /> sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and you have taken his wife as your own!<n id="2" /> You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

<p class="poetry">From the blood of the slain, from the fat of warriors,p> <p class="poetry">the bow of Jonathan was not turned away.p> <p class="poetry">The sword of Saul never returned<n id="1" /> empty.p>

As they grappled with one another, each one stabbed his opponent with his sword and they fell dead together.<n id="1" /> So that place is called the Field of Flints;<n id="2" /> it is in Gibeon.p>

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!&#8217;

The battle there was spread out over the whole area, and the forest consumed more soldiers than the sword devoured that day.p>

They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then Abner called out to Joab, &#8220;Must the sword devour forever? Don&#8217;t you realize that this will turn bitter in the end? When will you tell the people to turn aside from pursuing their brothers?&#8221;

May his blood whirl over<n id="1" /> the head of Joab and the entire house of his father!<n id="2" /> May the males of Joab&#8217;s house<n id="3" /> never cease to have<n id="4" /> someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle<n id="5" /> or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!&#8221;p>

David said to the messenger, &#8220;Tell Joab, &#8216;Don&#8217;t let this thing upset you.<n id="1" /> There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down.<n id="2" /> Press the battle against the city and conquer<n id="3" /> it.&#8217; Encourage him with these words.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Come on!<n id="2" /> Let&#8217;s escape!<n id="3" /> Otherwise no one will be delivered from Absalom! Go immediately, or else he will quickly overtake us and bring<n id="4" /> disaster on us and kill the city&#8217;s residents with the sword.&#8221;<n id="5" />

<p class="bodytext">When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out.<n id="1" />p>

Amasa did not protect himself from the knife in Joab&#8217;s other hand, and Joab<n id="1" /> stabbed him in the abdomen, causing Amasa&#8217;s<n id="2" /> intestines to spill out on the ground. There was no need to stab him again; the first blow was fatal.<n id="3" /> Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bicri.p>

he stood his ground<n id="1" /> and fought the Philistines until his hand grew so tired that it<n id="2" /> seemed stuck to his sword. The <sc>Lordsc> gave a great victory on that day. When the army returned to him, the only thing left to do was to plunder the corpses.p>

<p class="bodytext">Joab reported the number of warriors<n id="1" /> to the king. In Israel there were 800,000 sword-wielding warriors, and in Judah there were 500,000 soldiers.p>