Yet another battle occurred in Gath. On that occasion there was a large man ¹  who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in all! He too was a descendant of Rapha.

He also killed an impressive-looking Egyptian. ¹  The Egyptian wielded a spear, while Benaiah attacked ²  him with a club. He grabbed the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear.

He said: “The Lord is my high ridge, ¹  my stronghold, ²  my deliverer.

You widen my path; ¹  my feet ²  do not slip.

When David later heard about this, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the Lord of the shed blood of Abner son of Ner!

In Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem ¹  he reigned for thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

May his blood whirl over ¹  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ²  May the males of Joab’s house ³  never cease to have ⁴  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁵  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

Now Saul’s son ¹  had two men who were in charge of raiding units; one was named Baanah and the other Recab. They were sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, who was a Benjaminite. (Beeroth is regarded as belonging to Benjamin,

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. ¹ 

Joab son of Zeruiah and the servants of David also went out and confronted them at the pool of Gibeon. One group stationed themselves on one side of the pool, and the other group on the other side of the pool.

As the ark of the Lord entered the City of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked out the window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him. ¹ 

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 

The Benjaminites formed their ranks ¹  behind Abner and were like a single army, standing at the top of a certain hill.

But David’s soldiers had slaughtered the Benjaminites and Abner’s men – in all, 360 men had died!

For the sake of your promise and according to your purpose ¹  you have done this great thing in order to reveal it to your servant. ² 

The Arameans of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah, but David killed 22,000 of the Arameans.

David took the golden shields that belonged to Hadadezer’s servants and brought them to Jerusalem. ¹ 

Now Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica. All the members of Ziba’s household were Mephibosheth’s servants.

So the messenger departed. When he arrived, he informed David of all the news that Joab had sent with him.

So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and remained there.