11 Then all Yisrael assembled around David at Hevron, saying, “Look, we’re your flesh and bone relatives. 2 In the recent past, even when Shaul was king, you were the one who took Yisrael out and the one who brought us back in. Plus your God Yahweh told you, ‘You yourself will shepherd my people, Yisrael, and you yourself will become leader of my Israeli people.’ ” 3 So all the Israeli elders went to the king at Hevron, and David made a solemn agreement with them at Hevron in front of Yahweh. Then they anointed David as king over Yisrael according to Yahweh’s message that was given through the prophet Shemuel (Samuel).

4 Then David and all Yisrael went to Yerushalem (Jerusalem, which was also known as Yevus because the Yevusites were living there).[ref] 5 The inhabitants inside Yevus said to David, “You won’t be entering this place.” But David captured what became known as the Zion stronghold, that is, the city of David. 6 He had said, “Whoever strikes down the Yevusites first will become my army commander.” Tseruyah’s son Yoav went up over the wall first, and he became head of the army. 7 David started living in that stronghold, so then they called it the city of David. 8 He built the city up all around, from the terrace to the surrounding walls, and Yoav restored the rest of the city. 9 So David became more powerful because army commander Yahweh helped him.

5 Then the leaders of all of Yisrael’s tribes came to David at Hebron and said to him, “Listen, we’re all close relations. 2 In the past when Sha’ul was our king, you were the one who actually showed leadership of the people. Yahweh has already told you that you will shepherd Yisrael and become our king.” 3 So with Yahweh as their witness, all the Israeli elders made a formal agreement with David, and they anointed him as king over all Yisrael. 4 David was thirty years old when he became their king and he reigned for a total of forty years:[ref] 5 seven and a half years in Hebron as king of Yehudah, then thirty-three years in Yerushalem as king over all Yisrael and Yehudah.

6 The king and his men battled against the Yebusites who lived in and around Yerushalem, but Yebusites mocked David, “You’ll never break in here—even blind and crippled men could keep you out,” because they thought that David couldn’t get in.[ref] 7 But David did capture that Tsiyyon stronghold that then became known as David’s city.

8 He’d told his men that day, “Anyone wanting to strike the Yebusites should use the water tunnel to reach the lame people and the blind people—the ones who are hated by David.” (That’s why they say that blind and crippled people shouldn’t enter the house.[fn])

9 So David lived in that stronghold and called it ‘David’s city’—expanding it on all sides. 10 David continued to grow more powerful because Yahweh the commander God was with him.