Say to Amasa, ‘Are you not my flesh and blood? ¹  God will punish me severely, ²  if from this time on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

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

But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to David’s aid, striking the Philistine down and killing him. Then David’s men took an oath saying, “You will not go out to battle with us again! You must not extinguish the lamp of Israel!”

My dynasty is approved by God, ¹  for he has made a perpetual covenant with me, arranged in all its particulars and secured. He always delivers me, and brings all I desire to fruition. ² 

But the king said to Araunah, “No, I insist on buying it from you! I will not offer to the Lord my God burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty pieces of silver. ¹ 

Asahel chased Abner, without turning to the right or to the left as he followed Abner.

Then Joab left David and sent messengers after Abner. They brought him back from the well of Sirah. (But David was not aware of it.)

All the people and all Israel realized on that day that the killing of Abner son of Ner was not done at the king’s instigation. ¹ 

Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great leader ¹  has fallen this day in Israel?

So David asked the Lord what he should do. ¹  This time ²  the Lord ³  said to him, “Don’t march straight up. Instead, circle around behind them and come against them opposite the trees. ⁴ 

So David was no longer willing to bring the ark of the Lord to be with him in the City of David. David left it in the house of Obed-Edom the Gittite.

I have not lived in a house from the time I brought the Israelites up from Egypt to the present day. Instead, I was traveling with them and living in a tent. ¹ 

So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger ¹  said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

But Uriah stayed at the door of the palace with all ¹  the servants of his lord. He did not go down to his house.

Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him, and got him drunk. But in the evening he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord; he did not go down to his own house.

Because he committed this cold-hearted crime, he must pay for the lamb four times over!” ¹ 

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!’

Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ¹  your sin. You are not going to die.

But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Am I able to bring him back? I will go to him, but he cannot return to me!’”

But she said to him, “No, my brother! Don’t humiliate me! This just isn’t done in Israel! Don’t do this foolish thing!