2 Samuel 11 Cross References - BSB

¹ In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. ² One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. ³ So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” ⁴ Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. (Now she had just purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned home. ⁵ And the woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” ⁶ At this, David sent orders to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing with the war. ⁸ Then he said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master’s servants; he did not go down to his house. ¹⁰ And David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” “Haven’t you just arrived from a journey?” David asked Uriah. “Why didn’t you go home?” ¹¹ Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!” ¹² “Stay here one more day,” David said to Uriah, “and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and he got Uriah drunk. And in the evening Uriah went out to lie down on his cot with his master’s servants, but he did not go home. ¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.” ¹⁶ So as Joab besieged the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he saw the strongest enemy soldiers. ¹⁷ And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died. ¹⁸ Joab sent to David a full account of the battle ¹⁹ and instructed the messenger, “When you have finished giving the king all the details of the battle, ²⁰ if the king’s anger flares, he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Did you not realize they would shoot from atop the wall? ²¹ Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’” ²² So the messenger set out and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to say. ²³ The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants were killed. And your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.” ²⁵ Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.” ²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. ²⁷ And when the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the LORD.

¹¹ (For only Og king of Bashan had remained of the remnant of the Rephaim. His bed of iron, nine cubits long and four cubits wide, is still in Rabbah of the Ammonites.)

²⁶ Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress. ²⁷ Then Joab sent messengers to David to say, “I have fought against Rabbah and have captured the water supply of the city. ²⁸ Now, therefore, assemble the rest of the troops, lay siege to the city, and capture it. Otherwise I will capture the city, and it will be named after me.”

²² Afterward, the prophet approached the king of Israel and said, “Go and strengthen your position, and take note what you must do, for in the spring the king of Aram will come up against you.”

²⁶ In the spring, Ben-hadad mobilized the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel.

¹ In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, Joab led out the army and ravaged the land of the Ammonites. He came to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. And Joab attacked Rabbah and demolished it.

¹⁰ In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar summoned Jehoiachin and brought him to Babylon, along with the articles of value from the house of the LORD. And he made Jehoiachin’s relative Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

²⁰ Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and another against Judah into fortified Jerusalem.

³ Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.

⁶ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom, she took the fruit and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.

² the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they took as wives whomever they chose.

² When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

⁶ So Potiphar left all that he owned in Joseph’s care; he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,

⁸ If you build a new house, you are to construct a railing around your roof, so that you do not bring bloodguilt on your house if someone falls from it.

²⁵ And after they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the roof of his house.

⁵ Now Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, set out and arrived at the house of Ish-bosheth in the heat of the day, while the king was taking his midday nap.

⁷ They had entered the house while Ish-bosheth was lying on his bed, and having stabbed and killed him, they beheaded him, took his head, and traveled all night by way of the Arabah.

¹ “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?

³⁷ Turn my eyes away from worthless things; revive me with Your word.

²⁵ Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

¹⁵ Laziness brings on deep sleep, and an idle soul will suffer hunger.

³³ A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ³⁴ and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

³⁰ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like that place, Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the host of heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”

²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the housetops.

⁴⁰ Then Jesus returned to the disciples and found them sleeping. “Were you not able to keep watch with Me for one hour?” He asked Peter. ⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

⁹ The next day at about the sixth hour, as the men were approaching the city on their journey, Peter went up on the roof to pray.

⁶ So then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain awake and sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night; and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray.

¹⁶ For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.

³⁹ and Uriah the Hittite. There were thirty-seven in all.

⁵ and these sons were born to him in Jerusalem: Shimea, Shobab, Nathan, and Solomon. These four were born to him by Bathsheba daughter of Ammiel.

⁴¹ Uriah the Hittite, Zabad son of Ahlai,

⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

⁶ For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. ⁷ All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.

¹⁴ But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed. ¹⁵ Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

⁷ and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.”

² “Say to the Israelites, ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be unclean for seven days, as she is during the days of her menstruation. ³ And on the eighth day the flesh of the boy’s foreskin is to be circumcised. ⁴ The woman shall continue in purification from her bleeding for thirty-three days. She must not touch anything sacred or go into the sanctuary until the days of her purification are complete. ⁵ If, however, she gives birth to a daughter, the woman will be unclean for two weeks as she is during her menstruation. Then she must continue in purification from her bleeding for sixty-six days.

¹⁹ When a woman has a discharge consisting of blood from her body, she will be unclean due to her menstruation for seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean until evening. ²⁰ Anything on which she lies or sits during her menstruation will be unclean, ²¹ and anyone who touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening. ²² Whoever touches any furniture on which she was sitting must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening. ²³ And whether it is a bed or furniture on which she was sitting, whoever touches it will be unclean until evening. ²⁴ If a man lies with her and her menstrual flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will become unclean. ²⁵ When a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days at a time other than her menstrual period, or if it continues beyond her period, she will be unclean all the days of her unclean discharge, just as she is during the days of her menstruation. ²⁶ Any bed on which she lies or any furniture on which she sits during the days of her discharge will be unclean, like her bed during her menstrual period. ²⁷ Anyone who touches these things will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening. ²⁸ When a woman is cleansed of her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. ²⁹ On the eighth day she is to take two turtledoves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ³⁰ The priest is to sacrifice one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her before the LORD for her unclean discharge. ³¹ You must keep the children of Israel separate from their uncleanness, so that they do not die by defiling My tabernacle, which is among them. ³² This is the law of him who has a discharge, of the man who has an emission of semen whereby he is unclean, ³³ of a woman in her menstrual period, of any male or female who has a discharge, and of a man who lies with an unclean woman.’”

¹⁹ You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door, ¹⁰ then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her. ¹¹ For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

¹⁸ When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.

¹ For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet came to him after his adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion; according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. ² Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. ³ For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. ⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge. ⁵ Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me. ⁶ Surely You desire truth in the inmost being; You teach me wisdom in the inmost place. ⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. ⁹ Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. ¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹ Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. ¹³ Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. ¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. ¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. ¹⁶ For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. ¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. ¹⁸ In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

²⁰ This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

²² If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

³⁴ For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.

⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you refuse to do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.”

¹⁸ “What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹ Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again. ²⁰ Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. ²¹ He asked the men of that place, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?” “No shrine prostitute has been here,” they answered. ²² So Hirah returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, ‘No shrine prostitute has been here.’” ²³ “Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.”

³⁰ “I have sinned,” Saul replied. “Please honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel. Come back with me, so that I may worship the LORD your God.”

¹² Though evil is sweet in his mouth and he conceals it under his tongue, ¹³ though he cannot bear to let it go and keeps it in his mouth, ¹⁴ yet in his stomach his food sours into the venom of cobras within him.

¹³ He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

¹³ Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

⁷⁰ But he denied it before them all: “I do not know what you are talking about.”

⁷² And again he denied it with an oath: “I do not know the man!”

⁷⁴ At that he began to curse and swear to them, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a rooster crowed.

⁶ “Is he well?” Jacob inquired. “Yes,” they answered, “and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep.”

¹⁴ Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem,

²² Then David left his supplies in the care of the quartermaster and ran to the battle line. When he arrived, he asked his brothers how they were doing.

⁴ Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.

² and said, “My lords, please turn aside into the house of your servant; wash your feet and spend the night. Then you can rise early and go on your way.” “No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”

²⁴ And the steward took the men into Joseph’s house, gave them water to wash their feet, and provided food for their donkeys.

³⁴ When the portions were served to them from Joseph’s table, Benjamin’s portion was five times larger than any of the others. So they feasted and drank freely with Joseph.

² They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

²¹ would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

²¹ His speech is smooth as butter, but war is in his heart. His words are softer than oil, yet they are swords unsheathed.

¹⁵ Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”

⁴⁴ And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.

² There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, and nothing hidden that will not be made known.

¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight; everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.

¹² He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success. ¹³ He catches the wise in their craftiness, and sweeps away the plans of the cunning. ¹⁴ They encounter darkness by day and grope at noon as in the night.

³⁰ There is no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel that can prevail against the LORD.

²⁶ “Please, my lord,” said Hannah, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.

⁴ So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

¹⁸ Then Saul said to Ahijah, “Bring the ark of God.” (For at that time it was with the Israelites.)

⁵⁵ As Saul had watched David going out to confront the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” “As surely as you live, O king,” Abner replied, “I do not know.”

³ But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

²⁶ Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.

² he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.”

⁶ For I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt until this day, but I have moved about with a tent as My dwelling.

¹⁹ So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say.

⁶ And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.”

¹² On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth. ¹³ But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ¹⁴ The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

²⁴ A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for a disciple to be like his teacher, and a servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

¹⁴ So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.

²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. ²⁷ No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

³ Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. ⁴ A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.

¹² if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He will also deny us;

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

³⁷ Moreover, you will leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not prosper by their help.”

³² Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.” ³³ So that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the firstborn went in and slept with her father; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up. ³⁴ The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let us get him drunk with wine again tonight so you can go in and sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” ³⁵ So again that night they got their father drunk with wine, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him; he was not aware when she lay down or when she got up.

²¹ “What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”

¹ Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

¹⁵ Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!

⁸ Then Jezebel wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles who lived with Naboth in his city. ⁹ In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹⁰ But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹³ Keep Your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless and cleansed of great transgression.

² Your tongue devises destruction like a sharpened razor, O worker of deceit.

⁹ Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.

¹ Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people. ² If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people. ³ “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land. For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD. ⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

³ Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together. ⁴ The best of them is like a brier; the most upright is sharper than a hedge of thorns. The day for your watchmen has come, the day of your visitation. Now is the time of their confusion. ⁵ Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

¹⁷ Then Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will give her to you in marriage. Only be valiant for me and fight the LORD’s battles.” But Saul was thinking, “I need not raise my hand against him; let the hand of the Philistines be against him.”

²¹ “I will give her to David,” Saul thought, “so that she may be a snare to him, and the hand of the Philistines may be against him.” So Saul said to David, “For a second time now you can be my son-in-law.”

²⁵ Saul replied, “Say to David, ‘The king desires no other dowry but a hundred Philistine foreskins as revenge on his enemies.’” But Saul intended to cause David’s death at the hands of the Philistines.

¹⁷ And when the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died.

⁹ Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.

⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.

¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness.

¹³ Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.

¹⁷ Then the king ordered the guards at his side, “Turn and kill the priests of the LORD, because they too sided with David. For they knew he was fleeing, but they did not tell me.” But the king’s servants would not lift a hand to strike the priests of the LORD. ¹⁸ So the king ordered Doeg, “You turn and strike down the priests!” And Doeg the Edomite turned and struck down the priests himself. On that day he killed eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod. ¹⁹ He also put to the sword Nob, the city of the priests, with its men and women, children and infants, oxen, donkeys, and sheep.

²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.

²¹ Who was the one to strike Abimelech son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who dropped an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If so, then you are to say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead as well.’”

⁹ “Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him. ¹⁰ Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri.

⁵ Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet.

³¹ And the king replied, “Do just as he says. Strike him down and bury him, and so remove from me and from the house of my father the innocent blood that Joab shed. ³² The LORD will bring his bloodshed back upon his own head, for without the knowledge of my father David he struck down two men more righteous and better than he when he put to the sword Abner son of Ner, commander of Israel’s army, and Amasa son of Jether, commander of Judah’s army. ³³ Their blood will come back upon the heads of Joab and his descendants forever; but for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the LORD forever.” ³⁴ So Benaiah son of Jehoiada went up, struck down Joab, and killed him. He was buried at his own home in the wilderness.

¹² They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹³ And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. ¹⁴ Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

⁶ Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city.

¹² If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials will be wicked.

¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.

²⁹ But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.

³² So on that day Gideon was called Jerubbaal, that is to say, “Let Baal contend with him,” because he had torn down Baal’s altar.

¹ Early in the morning Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the men with him camped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them in the valley near the hill of Moreh.

⁵⁰ Then Abimelech went to Thebez, encamped against it, and captured it. ⁵¹ But there was a strong tower inside the city, and all the men, women, and leaders of the city fled there. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof of the tower. ⁵² When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he approached its entrance to set it on fire. ⁵³ But a woman dropped an upper millstone on Abimelech’s head, crushing his skull. ⁵⁴ He quickly called his armor-bearer, saying, “Draw your sword and kill me, lest they say of me, ‘A woman killed him.’” So Abimelech’s armor-bearer ran his sword through him, and he died.

³⁴ Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. As a man falls before the wicked, so also you fell.” And all the people wept over him even more.

⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me the reproach of fools.

¹⁰ They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!”

⁵¹ Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵² So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous.

⁸ O Lord, what can I say, now that Israel has turned its back and run from its enemies? ⁹ When the Canaanites and all who live in the land hear about this, they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth. Then what will You do for Your great name?”

⁹ but keep watching it. If it goes up the road to its homeland, toward Beth-shemesh, it is the LORD who has brought on us this great disaster. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that punished us and that it happened by chance.”

²⁶ Meanwhile, Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal fortress.

¹ So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate. ² It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow. ³ This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

¹¹ I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all. ¹² For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.

⁴¹ Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart, “The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob.”

³¹ Then David ordered Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David himself walked behind the funeral bier.

² So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time.

¹⁰ What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well.

²⁹ then the man who lay with her must pay the young woman’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she must become his wife because he has violated her. He must not divorce her as long as he lives.

² And sons were born to David in Hebron: His firstborn was Amnon, by Ahinoam of Jezreel; ³ his second was Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; his third was Absalom, the son of Maacah daughter of King Talmai of Geshur; ⁴ his fourth was Adonijah, the son of Haggith; his fifth was Shephatiah, the son of Abital; ⁵ and his sixth was Ithream, by David’s wife Eglah. These sons were born to David in Hebron.

¹³ After he had arrived from Hebron, David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him. ¹⁴ These are the names of the children born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, ¹⁵ Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, ¹⁶ Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.

⁷ This command was also evil in the sight of God; so He struck Israel.

⁶ You destroy those who tell lies; the LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit.

⁴ Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge. ⁵ Surely I was brought forth in iniquity; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.