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UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV
2 SAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24
2 Sometime after that, David asked Yahweh, “Should I return to Judah and live in one of the cities there?” Yahweh replied, “Yes, return to Judah.” Then David asked, “To which city should I go?” Yahweh replied, “You should go to Hebron.”
2 So David went to Hebron. He brought his two wives with him. They were Ahinoam, who was from the city of Jezreel, and Abigail, who was from the city of Carmel. She had been married to Nabal before he died. 3 David also brought the men who had been with him, together with their families. They all settled in the city of Hebron and in the surrounding towns and villages. 4 Then the men who were the leaders of the tribe of Judah came to Hebron. One of them poured olive oil on David’s head to show they were appointing him to be the king of the tribe of Judah. Someone told David how soldiers from the city of Jabesh in the region of Gilead had recaptured Saul’s body from the wall of Beth Shan and how the people of that city had buried his body honorably.
5 So David sent messengers to the people who lived in that city. He told the messengers to tell them, “I hope that Yahweh will do good things for you because you buried Saul’s body honorably. By doing that, you treated Saul with the loyalty that he deserved as your king. 6 So this is what I hope will happen. I hope that Yahweh will be just as loyal to you all the time. And I will personally do good things for you because of the good way you treated Saul. 7 Now this is what I hope you will do. Even though Saul, who was your king, has died, do not become discouraged. Instead, continue to fight bravely against the Philistines. The people of the tribe of Judah have appointed me to be their king, and I will lead their army to come and help you as soon as I can.”
8 But instead, Abner son of Ner, who had been Saul’s army commander, brought Ishbosheth son of Saul across the Jordan River to the city of Mahanaim. 9 So that Ishbosheth could rule over it, Abner steadily reconquered the territory that the Philistines had captured from the Israelites. Ishbosheth first ruled the region of Gilead east of the Jordan River, which the Philistines had not captured. Abner then reconquered the territory west of the Jordan River and north of the Valley of Jezreel, where the people of tribes such as Asher lived. Abner then reconquered the Valley of Jezreel itself. He then reconquered the territory west of the Jordan River and south of the Valley of Jezreel, where the people of tribes such as Ephraim lived. Abner was able to reconquer that territory all the way south to the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. That made Ishbosheth the king of all the territory that would later be the northern kingdom of Israelafter it divided from the southern kingdom of Judah.
10 Ishbosheth son of Saul was 40 years old when he started to rule over the Israelite people. He ruled them for two years. But David was the king of the people of the tribe of Judah. 11 David ruled them for seven and a half years while he was living in Hebron.
12 One day Abner son of Ner led some soldiers from the army of Isbosheth son of Saul across the Jordan River from Mahanaim to the city of Gibeon. 13 Joab son of Zeruiah led a group of David’s soldiers from Hebron to Gibeon. They found Abner and his soldiers near the large pool of water there. Joab had his soldiers stay on one side of the pool and sit down. Abner had his soldiers sit down on the other side.
14 Then Abner said to Joab, “Let us have some of our soldiers fight each other while the rest of us watch!” Joab replied, “Yes, let us do that!”
15 So Abner chose 12 men from his own tribe of Benjamin to fight on behalf of Ishbosheth son of Saul. They went over to the other side of the pool and fought against 12 soldiers whom Joab chose to fight on behalf of David. 16 Each soldier grabbed the man he was fighting against by the hair. That enabled him to thrust his dagger into that man’s side. The result was that these 24 soldiers all killed each other. That is why people now call the place near Gibeon where they fought Helkath Hazzurim.
17 Then the two whole groups of soldiers started fighting each other. It was a very fierce battle. But as they fought, David’s soldiers defeated Abner and the soldiers from the other tribes of Israel.
18 Joab, Abishai, and Asahel, Zeruiah’s three sons, were in that battle. Asahel was able to run very fast, the way wild gazelles run very fast. 19 When Abner fled from the battle, Asahel chased him. No matter which way Abner went to try to escape, Asahel kept following him. 20 Abner looked behind him to see who was chasing him. He called out, “Is that you, Asahel?” Asahel answered, “Yes, it is!”
21 Abner shouted back, “Chase somebody else! Try to catch one of the younger soldiers and defeat him and take his armor.” But Asahel would not stop chasing Abner.
22 So Abner shouted at him again, “Stop chasing me! Do not make me fight you, because I would kill you. Then I could never again have a peaceful relationship with your brother Joab, because he would want to get revenge against me.”
23 But Asahel refused to stop chasing Abner. So Abner let Asahel nearly catch him, then he suddenly stopped and swung the butt end of his spear into Asahel’s stomach as he was still running fast toward him. The force was so great that the end of the spear went right through Asahel’s stomach and came out his back. Asahel was wounded so badly that he fell down and died right there. When other soldiers came to the place where Asahel’s dead body was lying in the roadway, they all stopped and stood there.
24 But when Joab and Abishai saw what had happened, they ran off in pursuit of Abner. At sunset they came to the hill of Ammah, which is near the town of Giah along the road that leads into the desolate area near Gibeon. 25 The soldiers who had come with Abner were from the tribe of Benjamin. He had regrouped them into a line of battle on the top of that hill.
26 Then Abner called out to Joab, “We should not continue this deadly battle any longer! You must realize that if we continue fighting, many people will suffer great harm. We are all Israelites, so please tell your soldiers right now to stop chasing us!”
27 Joab replied, “Even if you had not said that, I would certainly have told my soldiers tonight to stop chasing their fellow Israelites. I swear by God that this is true.”
28 Then Joab blew a long, loud note on a ram’s horn to signal that his soldiers should stop fighting. So all his men stopped where they were and no longer pursued the soldiers from the other tribes of Israel. That was the end of that battle.
29 That night Abner led his soldiers back through the Jordan River valley. They crossed the river and marched all the next morning. Then they finally arrived back at Mahanaim.
30 After his soldiers stopped chasing Abner, Joab gathered them all together. He counted them, and he found out that besides Asahel, 19 of them had died in the battle. 31 But David’s soldiers had killed 360 soldiers from the tribe of Benjamin and among the soldiers from other tribes who had come to Gibeon with Abner. 32 Some of Joab’s soldiers carried Asahel’s body from the battlefield to the town of Bethlehem and buried it in the same tomb where people had buried his father. Then Joab and his soldiers marched all through the night, and at dawn they arrived back home at Hebron.
2 SAM C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C17 C18 C19 C20 C21 C22 C23 C24