This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to bring disaster on you ¹  from inside your own household! ²  Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. ³  He will have sexual relations with ⁴  your wives in broad daylight! ⁵ 

The man replied to Joab, “Even if ¹  I were receiving ²  a thousand pieces of silver, ³  I would not strike ⁴  the king’s son! In our very presence ⁵  the king gave this order to you and Abishai and Ittai, ‘Protect the young man Absalom for my sake.’ ⁶ 

The Lord thundered ¹  from the sky; the sovereign One ²  shouted loudly. ³ 

The Lord was so furious with Uzzah, ¹  he ²  killed him on the spot ³  for his negligence. ⁴  He died right there beside the ark of God.

David was angry because the Lord attacked ¹  Uzzah; so he called that place Perez Uzzah, ²  which remains its name to this very day.

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?”

His wife then took the covering and spread it over the top of the well and scattered some grain over it. No one was aware of what she had done.

So David and all the people who were with him got up and crossed the Jordan River. ¹  By dawn there was not one person left who had not crossed the Jordan.

¹ David sang ²  to the Lord the words of this song when ³  the Lord rescued him from the power ⁴  of all his enemies, including Saul. ⁵ 

He took the crown of their king ¹  from his head – it was gold, weighed about seventy-five pounds, ²  and held a precious stone – and it was placed on David’s head. He also took from the city a great deal of plunder.

Certainly we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground that cannot be gathered up again. But God does not take away life; instead he devises ways for the banished to be restored. ¹ 

So Joab and Abishai chased Abner. At sunset they came to the hill of Ammah near Giah on the way to the wilderness of Gibeon.

Act now! For the Lord has said to David, ‘By the hand of my servant David I will save ¹  my people Israel from ²  the Philistines and from all their enemies.’”

I was with you wherever you went, and I defeated ¹  all your enemies before you. Now I will make you as famous as the great men of the earth. ² 

Messengers ¹  told David what had happened, ²  so he summoned them, for the men were thoroughly humiliated. The king said, “Stay in Jericho ³  until your beards have grown again; then you may come back.”

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. ¹  From the roof he saw a woman bathing. Now this woman was very attractive. ² 

David asked him, “Where are you coming from?” He replied, “I have escaped from the camp of Israel.”

Then Abner turned and asked, “Is that you, Asahel?” He replied, “Yes it is!”

David defeated King Hadadezer son of Rehob of Zobah when he came to reestablish ¹  his authority ²  over the Euphrates ³  River.

When David heard the news, he sent Joab and the entire army to meet them. ¹