One Year Bible.

Joab Reproves David

¹Then it was reported to Joab, “The king is weeping and mourning over Absalom.” ²And that day’s victory was turned into mourning for all the people, because on that day they were told, “The king is grieving over his son.”

³So they returned to the city quietly that day, as people steal away in humiliation after fleeing a battle. ⁴But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁵Then Joab went into the house and said to the king, “Today you have disgraced all your servants who have saved your life and the lives of your sons and daughters, of your wives, and of your concubines. ⁶You love those who hate you and hate those who love you! For you have made it clear today that the commanders and soldiers mean nothing to you. I know today that if Absalom were alive and all of us were dead, it would have pleased you!

⁷Now therefore get up! Go out and speak comfort to your servants, for I swear by the LORD that if you do not go out, not a man will remain with you tonight. This will be worse for you than all the adversity that has befallen you from your youth until now!”

David Restored as King

⁸So the king got up and sat in the gate, and all the people were told: “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” So they all came before the king.

Meanwhile, the Israelites had fled, each man to his home. ⁹And all the people throughout the tribes of Israel were arguing, “The king rescued us from the hand of our enemies and delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, but now he has fled the land because of Absalom. ¹⁰But Absalom, the man we anointed over us, has died in battle. So why do you say nothing about restoring the king?”

¹¹Then King David sent this message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests: “Say to the elders of Judah, ‘Why should you be the last to restore the king to his palace, since the talk of all Israel has reached the king at his quarters? ¹²You are my brothers, my own flesh and blood. So why should you be the last to restore the king?’ ¹³And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

¹⁴So he swayed the hearts of all the men of Judah as though they were one man, and they sent word to the king: “Return, you and all your servants.”

¹⁵So the king returned, and when he arrived at the Jordan, the men of Judah came to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the Jordan.

Shimei Pardoned

¹⁶Then Shimei son of Gera, a Benjamite from Bahurim, hurried down with the men of Judah to meet King David, ¹⁷along with a thousand men of Benjamin, as well as Ziba the steward of the house of Saul and his fifteen sons and twenty servants.

They rushed down to the Jordan before the king ¹⁸and crossed at the ford to carry over the king’s household and to do what was good in his sight.

When Shimei son of Gera crossed the Jordan, he fell down before the king ¹⁹and said, “My lord, do not hold me guilty, and do not remember your servant’s wrongdoing on the day my lord the king left Jerusalem. May the king not take it to heart. ²⁰For your servant knows that I have sinned, so here I am today as the first of all the house of Joseph to come down to meet my lord the king.”

²¹But Abishai son of Zeruiah said, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed the LORD’s anointed?”

²²And David replied, “Sons of Zeruiah, what have I to do with you, that you should be my adversaries today? Should any man be put to death in Israel today? Am I not indeed aware that today I am king over Israel?”

²³So the king said to Shimei, “You shall not die.” And the king swore an oath to him.

Mephibosheth Excused

²⁴Then Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, went down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache or washed his clothes from the day the king had left until the day he returned safely. ²⁵And he came from Jerusalem to meet the king, who asked him, “Mephibosheth, why did you not go with me?”

²⁶“My lord the king,” he replied, “because I am lame, I said, ‘I will have my donkey saddled so that I may ride on it and go with the king.’ But my servant Ziba deceived me, ²⁷and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king.

Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes. ²⁸For all the house of my grandfather deserves death from my lord the king, yet you have set your servant among those who eat at your table. What further right, then, do I have to keep appealing to the king?”

²⁹The king replied, “Why say any more? I hereby declare that you and Ziba are to divide the land.”

³⁰And Mephibosheth said to the king, “Instead, since my lord the king has safely come to his own house, let Ziba take it all!”

David’s Kindness to Barzillai

³¹Now Barzillai the Gileadite had come down from Rogelim to cross the Jordan with the king and send him on his way from there. ³²Barzillai was quite old, eighty years of age, and since he was a very wealthy man, he had provided for the king while he stayed in Mahanaim.

³³The king said to Barzillai, “Cross over with me, and I will provide for you at my side in Jerusalem.”

³⁴But Barzillai replied, “How many years of my life remain, that I should go up to Jerusalem with the king? ³⁵I am now eighty years old. Can I discern what is good and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or drinks? Can I still hear the voice of singing men and women? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

³⁶Your servant will go with the king only a short distance past the Jordan; why should the king repay me with such a reward? ³⁷Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the tomb of my father and mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king, and do for him what is good in your sight.”

³⁸The king replied, “Chimham will cross over with me, and I will do for him what is good in your sight, and I will do for you whatever you desire of me.”

³⁹So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned home.

⁴⁰Then the king crossed over to Gilgal, and Chimham crossed over with him. All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel escorted the king.

Contention over the King

⁴¹Soon all the men of Israel came to the king and asked, “Why did our brothers, the men of Judah, take you away secretly and bring the king and his household across the Jordan, together with all of David’s men?”

⁴²And all the men of Judah replied to the men of Israel, “We did this because the king is our relative. Why does this anger you? Have we ever eaten at the king’s expense or received anything for ourselves?”

⁴³“We have ten shares in the king,” answered the men of Israel, “so we have more claim to David than you. Why then do you despise us? Were we not the first to speak of restoring our king?”

But the men of Judah spoke more fiercely than the men of Israel.

Sheba’s Rebellion

¹Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted:

“We have no share in David,

no inheritance in Jesse’s son.

Every man to his tent,

O Israel!”

²So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem.

³When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to take care of the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows.

⁴Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.”

⁵So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him.

⁶And 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.”

⁷So Joab’s men, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri. ⁸And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them.

Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath. ⁹“Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him.

¹⁰Amasa 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.

¹¹One of Joab’s young men stood near Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” ¹²But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the road, and when the man saw that all the troops were stopping there, he dragged the body off the road into a field and threw a garment over it. ¹³As soon as Amasa’s body was removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri.

¹⁴Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him.

¹⁵And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city.

As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it, ¹⁶a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.”

¹⁷When he had come near to her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?”

“I am,” he replied.

“Listen to the words of your servant,” she said.

“I am listening,” he answered.

¹⁸Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled. ¹⁹I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?”

²⁰“Far be it!” Joab declared. “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! ²¹That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.”

“Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.”

²²Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem.

²³Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; ²⁴Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; ²⁵Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; ²⁶and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.

Paul and the False Apostles

¹I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness, but you are already doing that. ²I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

³I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ. ⁴For if someone comes and proclaims a Jesus other than the One we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the One you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you put up with it very easily.

⁵I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles.” ⁶Although I am not a polished speaker, I am certainly not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every way possible.

⁷Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? ⁸I robbed other churches by accepting their support in order to serve you. ⁹And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so. ¹⁰As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!

¹²But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which they boast. ¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their actions.

Paul’s Suffering and Service

¹⁶I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷In this confident boasting of mine, I am not speaking as the Lord would, but as a fool. ¹⁸Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast. ¹⁹For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise. ²⁰In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or exalts himself or strikes you in the face. ²¹To my shame I concede that we were too weak for that!

Speaking as a fool, however, I can match what anyone else dares to boast about. ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death. ²⁴Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea.

²⁶In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers, ²⁷in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.

²⁸Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not burn with grief?

³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. ³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying. ³²In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me. ³³But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.