2 Samuel 7-12

II Samuel 7

¹Now when the king was living in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from war on every side;

²The king said to Nathan the prophet, See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God is housed inside the curtains of a tent.

³And Nathan said to the king, Go and do whatever is in your heart; for the Lord is with you.

⁴Now that night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying,

⁵Go and say to my servant David, The Lord says, Are you to be the builder of a house, a living-place for me?

⁶For from the day when I took the children of Israel up out of Egypt till this day, I have had no house, but have gone from place to place in a tent.

⁷In all the places where I went with all the children of Israel, did I ever say to any of the judges of Israel, to whom I gave the care of my people Israel, Why have you not made me a house of cedar?

⁸Then say these words to my servant David, The Lord of armies says, I took you from the fields, from keeping the sheep, so that you might be a ruler over my people, over my people Israel:

⁹And I have been with you wherever you went, cutting off before you all those who were against you; and I will make your name great, like the name of the greatest ones of the earth.

¹⁰And I will make a resting-place for my people Israel, planting them there, so that they may be living in the place which is theirs, and never again be moved; and never again will they be troubled by evil men as they were at the first,

¹¹From the time when I put judges over my people Israel; and I will give you peace from all who are against you. And the Lord says to you that he will make you the head of a line of kings.

¹²And when the time comes for you to go to rest with your fathers, I will put in your place your seed after you, the offspring of your body, and I will make his kingdom strong.

¹³He will be the builder of a house for my name, and I will make the seat of his authority certain for ever.

¹⁴I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son: if he does wrong, I will give him punishment with the rod of men and with the blows of the children of men;

¹⁵But my mercy will not be taken away from him, as I took it from him who was before you.

¹⁶And your family and your kingdom will keep their place before me for ever: the seat of your authority will never be overturned.

¹⁷So Nathan gave David an account of all these words and this vision.

¹⁸Then David the king went in and took his seat before the Lord, and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my family, that you have been my guide till now?

¹⁹And this was only a small thing to you, O Lord God; but your words have even been about the far-off future of your servant's family, O Lord God!

²⁰What more may David say to you? for you have knowledge of your servant, O Lord God.

²¹Because of your word and from your heart, you have done all this great work, and let your servant see it.

²²Truly you are great, O Lord God: there is no one like you and no other God but you, as is clear from everything which has come to our ears.

²³And what other nation in the earth, like your people Israel, did a god go out to take for himself, to be his people, and to make a name for himself, and to do great and strange things for them, driving out a nation and its gods from before his people?

²⁴But you took and made strong for yourself your people Israel, to be your people for ever; and you, Lord, became their God.

²⁵And now, O Lord God, may the word which you have said about your servant and about his family, be made certain for ever, and may you do as you have said!

²⁶And let your name be made great for ever, and let men say, The Lord of armies is God over Israel: and let the family of David your servant be made strong before you!

²⁷For you, O Lord of armies, the God of Israel, have clearly said to your servant, I will make you the head of a family of kings: and so it has come into your servant's heart to make this prayer to you.

²⁸And now, O Lord God, you are God and your words are true and you have said you will give your servant this good thing;

²⁹So may it be your pleasure to give your blessing to the family of your servant, so that it may go on for ever before you: (for you, O Lord God, have said it,) and may your blessing be on your servant's family line for ever!

II Samuel 8

¹And it came about after this that David made an attack on the Philistines and overcame them; and David took the authority of the mother-town from the hands of the Philistines.

²And he overcame the Moabites, and he had them measured with a line when they were stretched out on the earth; marking out two lines for death and one full line for life. So the Moabites became servants to David and gave him offerings.

³And David overcame Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, when he went to make his power seen by the River.

⁴And David took from him one thousand, seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand footmen: and David had the leg-muscles of the horses cut, only keeping enough of them for a hundred war-carriages.

⁵And when the Aramaeans of Damascus came to the help of Hadadezer, king of Zobah, David put to the sword twenty-two thousand of the Aramaeans.

⁶And David put armed forces in Aram of Damascus: and the Aramaeans became servants to David and gave him offerings. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went.

⁷And David took their gold body-covers from the servants of Hadadezer and took them to Jerusalem.

⁸And from Tebah and Berothai, towns of Hadadezer, King David took a great store of brass.

⁹And when Tou, king of Hamath, had news that David had overcome all the army of Hadadezer,

¹⁰He sent his son Hadoram to David, with words of peace and blessing, because he had overcome Hadadezer in the fight, for Hadadezer had wars with Tou; and Hadoram took with him vessels of silver and gold and brass:

¹¹These King David made holy to the Lord, together with the silver and gold which he had taken from the nations he had overcome —

¹²The nations of Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon and the Philistines and the Amalekites and the goods he had taken from Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah.

¹³And David got great honour for himself, when he came back, by the destruction of Edom in the valley of Salt, to the number of eighteen thousand men.

¹⁴And he put armed forces in Edom; all through Edom he had armed forces stationed, and all the Edomites became servants to David. And the Lord made David overcome wherever he went.

¹⁵And David was king over all Israel, judging and giving right decisions for all his people.

¹⁶And Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the army; and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was keeper of the records;

¹⁷And Zadok and Abiathar, the son of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, were priests; and Seraiah was the scribe;

¹⁸And Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and David's sons were priests.

II Samuel 9

¹And David said, Is there still anyone of Saul's family living, so that I may be a friend to him, because of Jonathan?

²Now there was of Saul's people a servant named Ziba, and they sent him to David; and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said, I am.

³And the king said, Is there anyone of Saul's family still living, to whom I may be a friend in God's name? And Ziba said, There is a son of Jonathan, whose feet are damaged.

⁴And the king said to him, Where is he? And Ziba said to the king, He is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar.

⁵Then King David sent, and had him taken from Lo-debar, from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel.

⁶And Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, came to David, and falling down on his face, gave him honour. And David said, Mephibosheth. And answering he said, Your servant is here.

⁷And David said to him, Have no fear: for truly I will be good to you, because of your father Jonathan, and I will give back to you all the land which was Saul's; and you will have a place at my table at all times.

⁸And he went down on his face before the king, and said, What is your servant, for you to take note of a dead dog such as I am?

⁹Then the king sent for Ziba, Saul's servant, and said to him, All the property of Saul and of his family I have given to your master's son.

¹⁰And you and your sons and your servants are to take care of the land for him, and get in the fruit of it, so that your master's son may have food: but Mephibosheth, your master's son, will have a place at my table at all times. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.

¹¹Then Ziba said to the king, Every order which you have given to your servant will be done. As for Mephibosheth, he had a place at David's table, like one of the king's sons.

¹²And Mephibosheth had a young son named Mica. And all the people living in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth.

¹³So Mephibosheth went on living in Jerusalem; for he took all his meals at the king's table; and he had not the use of his feet.

II Samuel 10

¹Now after this, death came to the king of the children of Ammon, and Hanun, his son, became king in his place.

²And David said, I will be a friend to Hanun, the son of Nahash, as his father was a friend to me. So David sent his servants, to give him words of comfort on account of his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon.

³But the chiefs of the children of Ammon said to Hanun their lord, Does it seem to you that David is honouring your father by sending comforters to you? has he not sent his servants to go through the town and make secret observation of it, and overcome it?

⁴So Hanun took David's servants, and after cutting off half the hair on their chins, and cutting off the skirts of their robes up to the middle, he sent them away.

⁵When David had news of it, he sent men out with the purpose of meeting them on their way, for the men were greatly shamed: and the king said, Go to Jericho till your hair is long again, and then come back.

⁶And when the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves hated by David, they sent to the Aramaeans of Beth-rehob and Zobah, and got for payment twenty thousand footmen, and they got from the king of Maacah a thousand men, and from Tob twelve thousand.

⁷And hearing of this, David sent Joab and all the army and the best fighting-men.

⁸And the children of Ammon came out and put their forces in position at the way into the town: and the Aramaeans of Zobah and of Rehob, with the men of Tob and Maacah, were by themselves in the field.

⁹Now when Joab saw that their forces were in position against him in front and at his back, he took the best of the men of Israel and put them in line against the Aramaeans;

¹⁰And the rest of the people he put in position against the children of Ammon, with Abishai, his brother, at their head.

¹¹And he said, If the Aramaeans are stronger and get the better of me, then you are to come to my help; but if the children of Ammon get the better of you, I will come to your help.

¹²Take heart, and let us be strong for our people and for the towns of our God, and may the Lord do what seems good to him.

¹³Then Joab and the people with him went forward to the fight against the Aramaeans, and they went in flight before him.

¹⁴And when the children of Ammon saw the flight of the Aramaeans, they themselves went in flight from Abishai, and came into the town. So Joab went back from fighting the children of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

¹⁵And when the Aramaeans saw that Israel had overcome them, they got themselves together.

¹⁶And Hadadezer sent for the Aramaeans who were on the other side of the River: and they came to Helam, with Shobach, the captain of Hadadezer's army, at their head.

¹⁷And word of this was given to David: and he got all Israel together and went over Jordan and came to Helam. And the Aramaeans put their forces in position against David, and made an attack on him.

¹⁸And the Aramaeans went in flight before Israel; and David put to the sword the men of seven hundred Aramaean war-carriages and forty thousand footmen, and Shobach, the captain of the army, was wounded, and came to his death there.

¹⁹And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they were overcome by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became their servants. So the Aramaeans, in fear, gave no more help to the children of Ammon.

II Samuel 11

¹Now in the spring, at the time when kings go out to war, David sent Joab and his servants and all Israel with him; and they made waste the land of the children of Ammon, and took up their position before Rabbah, shutting it in. But David was still at Jerusalem.

²Now one evening, David got up from his bed, and while he was walking on the roof of the king's house, he saw from there a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

³And David sent to get knowledge who the woman was. And one said, Is this not Bath-sheba, the daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite?

⁴And David sent and took her; and she came to him, and he took her to his bed: (for she had been made clean;) then she went back to her house.

⁵And the woman became with child; and she sent word to David that she was with child.

⁶And David sent to Joab saying, Send Uriah the Hittite to me. And Joab sent Uriah to David.

⁷And when Uriah came to him, David put questions to him about how Joab and the people were, and how the war was going.

⁸And David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and let your feet be washed. And Uriah went away from the king's house, and an offering from the king was sent after him.

⁹But Uriah took his rest at the door of the king's house, with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰And when word was given to David that Uriah had not gone down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? why did you not go down to your house?

¹¹And Uriah said to David, Israel and Judah with the ark are living in tents, and my lord Joab and the other servants of my lord are sleeping in the open field; and am I to go to my house and take food and drink, and go to bed with my wife? By the living Lord, and by the life of your soul, I will not do such a thing.

¹²And David said to Uriah, Be here today, and after that I will let you go. So Uriah was in Jerusalem that day and the day after.

¹³And when David sent for him, he took meat and drink with him, and David made him the worse for drink: and when evening came, he went to rest on his bed with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

¹⁴Now in the morning, David gave Uriah a letter to take to Joab.

¹⁵And in the letter he said, Take care to put Uriah in the very front of the line, where the fighting is most violent, and go back from him, so that he may be overcome and put to death.

¹⁶So while Joab was watching the town, he put Uriah in the place where it was clear to him the best fighters were.

¹⁷And the men of the town went out and had a fight with Joab: and a number of David's men came to their death in the fight, and with them Uriah the Hittite.

¹⁸Then Joab sent David news of everything which had taken place in the war:

¹⁹And he gave orders to the man who took the news, saying, After you have given the king all the news about the war,

²⁰If the king is angry and says, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall?

²¹Who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall? Then say to him, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is among the dead.

²²So the man went, and came to David, and gave him all the news which Joab had sent him to give; then David was angry with Joab and said, Why did you go so near the town for the fight? was it not certain that their archers would be on the wall? who put Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal, to death? did not a woman send a great stone down on him from the wall, putting him to death at Thebez? why did you go so near the wall?

²³And the man said to David, Truly the men got the better of us, and came out against us into the open country, but we sent them back to the very doors of the town.

²⁴And the archers sent their arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's servants are dead, and among them is your servant Uriah the Hittite.

²⁵Then David said to the man, Go and say to Joab, Do not let this be a grief to you; for one man may come to his death by the sword like another: put up an even stronger fight against the town, and take it: and do you put heart into him.

²⁶And when the wife of Uriah had news that her husband was dead, she gave herself up to weeping for him.

²⁷And when the days of weeping were past, David sent for her, and took her into his house, and she became his wife and gave him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with the thing David had done.

II Samuel 12

¹And the Lord sent Nathan to David. And Nathan came to him and said, There were two men in the same town: one a man of great wealth, and the other a poor man.

²The man of wealth had great numbers of flocks and herds;

³But the poor man had only one little she-lamb, which he had got and taken care of: from its birth it had been with him like one of his children; his meat was its food, and from his cup it took its drink, resting in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.

⁴Now a traveller came to the house of the man of wealth, but he would not take anything from his flock or his herd to make a meal for the traveller who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and made it ready for the man who had come.

⁵And David was full of wrath against that man; and he said to Nathan, By the living Lord, death is the right punishment for the man who has done this:

⁶And he will have to give back four times the value of the lamb, because he has done this and because he had no pity.

⁷And Nathan said to David, You are that man. The Lord God of Israel says, I made you king over Israel, putting holy oil on you, and I kept you safe from the hands of Saul;

⁸I gave you your master's daughter and your master's wives for yourself, and I gave you the daughters of Israel and Judah; and if that had not been enough, I would have given you such and such things.

⁹Why then have you had no respect for the word of the Lord, doing what is evil in his eyes? You have put Uriah the Hittite to death with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife; you have put him to death with the sword of the children of Ammon.

¹⁰So now the sword will never be turned away from your family; because you have had no respect for me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

¹¹The Lord says, From those of your family I will send evil against you, and before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to your neighbour, and he will take your wives to his bed by the light of this sun.

¹²You did it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel and in the light of the sun.

¹³And David said to Nathan, Great is my sin against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has put away your sin; death will not come on you.

¹⁴But still, because you have had no respect for the Lord, death will certainly overtake the child who has newly come to birth.

¹⁵Then Nathan went back to his house. And the hand of the Lord was on David's son, the child of Uriah's wife, and it became very ill.

¹⁶So David made prayer to God for the child; and he took no food day after day, and went in and, stretching himself out on the earth, was there all night.

¹⁷And the chief men of his house got up and went to his side to make him get up from the earth, but he would not; and he would not take food with them.

¹⁸And then on the seventh day the child's death took place. And David's servants were in fear of giving him the news of the child's death: for they said, Truly, while the child was still living he gave no attention when we said anything to him: what will he do to himself if we give him word that the child is dead?

¹⁹But when David saw that his servants were talking together quietly, he was certain that the child was dead: and he said to his servants, Is the child dead? and they said, He is.

²⁰Then David got up from the earth, and after washing and rubbing himself with oil and changing his clothing, he went into the house of the Lord and gave worship: then he went back to his house, and at his order they put food before him and he had a meal.

²¹Then his servants said to him, Why have you been acting in this way? you were weeping and going without food while the child was still living; but when the child was dead, you got up and had a meal.

²²And he said, While the child was still living I went without food and gave myself up to weeping: for I said, Who is able to say that the Lord will not have mercy on me and give the child life?

²³But now that the child is dead there is no reason for me to go without food; am I able to make him come back to life? I will go to him, but he will never come back to me.

²⁴And David gave comfort to his wife Bath-sheba, and he went in to her and had connection with her: and she had a son to whom she gave the name Solomon. And he was dear to the Lord.

²⁵And he sent word by Nathan the prophet, who gave him the name Jedidiah, by the word of the Lord.

²⁶Now Joab was fighting against Rabbah, in the land of the children of Ammon, and he took the water-town.

²⁷And Joab sent men to David, saying, I have made war against Rabbah and have taken the water-town.

²⁸So now, get the rest of the people together, and put them in position against the town and take it, for if I take it, it will be named after my name.

²⁹Then David got all the people together and went to Rabbah and made war on it and took it.

³⁰And he took the crown of Milcom from his head; the weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it were stones of great price; and it was put on David's head. And he took a great store of goods from the town.

³¹And he took the people out of the town and put them to work with wood-cutting instruments, and iron grain-crushers, and iron axes, and at brick-making: this he did to all the towns of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people went back to Jerusalem.