You are my brothers &#8211; my very own flesh and blood!<n id="1" /> Why should you delay any further in bringing the king back?&#8217;

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

When David was told what Rizpah daughter of Aiah, Saul&#8217;s concubine, had done,

When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, the son of David&#8217;s brother Shimeah, killed him.

These four were the descendants of Rapha who lived in Gath; they were killed<n id="1" /> by David and his soldiers.<n id="2" />p>

But he made a stand in the middle of that area. He defended<n id="1" /> it and defeated the Philistines; the <sc>Lordsc> gave them a great victory.p>

The men of Judah came and there they anointed David as king over the people<n id="1" /> of Judah.p> <p class="bodytext">David was told,<n id="2" /> &#8220;The people<n id="3" /> of Jabesh Gilead are the ones who buried Saul.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">David sent messengers to Ish-bosheth son of Saul with this demand:<n id="1" /> &#8220;Give me my wife Michal whom I acquired<n id="2" /> for a hundred Philistine foreskins.&#8221;

Abner said to David, &#8220;Let me leave so that I may go and gather all Israel to my lord the king so that they may make an agreement<n id="1" /> with you. Then you will rule over all that you desire.&#8221; So David sent Abner away, and he left in peace.p>

<p class="bodytext">They had entered<n id="1" /> the house while Ish-bosheth<n id="2" /> was resting on his bed in his bedroom. They mortally wounded him<n id="3" /> and then cut off his head.<n id="4" /> Taking his head,<n id="5" /> they traveled on the way of the Arabah all that night.

<p class="bodytext">David replied to Recab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, &#8220;As surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives, who has delivered my life from all adversity,

Surely when wicked men have killed an innocent man as he slept<n id="1" /> in his own house, should I not now require his blood from your hands and remove<n id="2" /> you from the earth?&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">So David issued orders to the soldiers and they put them to death. Then they cut off their hands and feet and hung them<n id="1" /> near the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ish-bosheth<n id="2" /> and buried it in the tomb of Abner<n id="3" /> in Hebron.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">When the Philistines heard that David had been designated<n id="1" /> king over Israel, they all<n id="2" /> went up to search for David. When David heard about it, he went down to the fortress.

They loaded the ark of God on a new cart and carried it from the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were guiding the new cart.

David was told,<n id="1" /> &#8220;The <sc>Lordsc> has blessed the family of Obed-Edom and everything he owns because of the ark of God.&#8221; So David went and joyfully brought the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom to the City of David.

When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer<n id="1" /> saw they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subjects of Israel.<n id="2" /> The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">In the spring of the year, at the time when kings<n id="1" /> normally conduct wars,<n id="2" /> David sent out Joab with his officers<n id="3" /> and the entire Israelite army.<n id="4" /> They defeated the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem.<n id="5" />

I gave you your master&#8217;s house, and put your master&#8217;s wives into your arms.<n id="1" /> I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all that somehow seems insignificant, I would have given you so much more as well!

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.