Introduction

Second Shmuel (commonly, but wrongly known as ‘Samuel’) is the continuation of First Shmuel—the two parts together are considered a single ‘book’ in the Jewish Bible—it’s only split into two because it was too long to fit on a single scroll.

This the story of David’s reign: firstly he ruled what became known as ‘Yehudah’ (Judah) in the south east (chapters 1–4), and eventually, the entire nation, including the much larger area of Yisrael (called ‘Israel’ in older translations) in the north east (Chapter 5–24). This document explains how David dealt with his enemies within the country, as well as battling with other nations in order to widen and strengthen his kingdom. David’s faith and respect of God is demonstrated here, as well as his love for the people. However, despite that, he was also fierce and he was quite capable of disobeying God to get what he wanted. But God sees everything and seen his prophet Natan (Nathan) with a parable to show David his selfishness. David asked for forgiven for his sin and accepted the punishment that God gave him.

The times of peace and prosperity through the latter parts of David’s rule were planted in the minds of the Hebrew people, and in the future when they faced difficulties, they would long for another king like David—a son (better ‘a descendant’) of David who would love God like him.

This is still an early look into the unpolished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.