Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
Day 200 and 7
He was very old, eighty years of age, and very wealthy.
He was the one who had provided food for the king during his stay in Mahanaim.
Come across with me and live in Jerusalem, the king said to Barzillai.
I will take care of you there.
No, he replied.
I am far too old to go with the king to Jerusalem.
I am eighty years old today, and I can no longer enjoy anything.
Food and wine are no longer tasty, and I cannot hear the singers as they sing.
I would only be a burden to my Lord the King.
Just to go across the Jordan River with the King is all the honor I need.
Then let me return again to die in my own town, where my
father and mother are buried.
But here is your servant, my son, Kim Ham.
Let him go with my lord, the king, and receive whatever you want to give him.
Good, the king agreed.
Kim Ham will go with me, and I will help him in any way you would like, and
I will do for you anything you want.
So all the people crossed the Jordan with the king.
After David had blessed Barzillai and kissed him, Barzillai
returned to his own home.
The king then crossed over to Gilgal, taking Kimham with him.
All the troops of Judah and half the troops of Israel
escorted the king on his way.
But all the men of Israel complained to the king, The men of Judah stole
the king and didn't give us the honor of helping take you, your household,
and all your men across the Jordan.
The men of Judah replied, The king is one of our own kinsmen.
Why should this make you angry?
We haven't eaten any of the king's food or received any special favors, but there are
ten tribes in Israel, the others replied.
So we have ten times as much right to the king as you do.
What right do you have to treat us with such contempt?
Weren't we the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again?
The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah spoke even
more harshly than the men of Israel.
There happened to be a troublemaker there named Sheba son of Bikri,
a man from the tribe of Benjamin.
Sheba blew a ram's horn and began to chant, Down with the dynasty of David.
We have no interest in the son of Jesse.
Come on, you men of Israel, back to your homes.
So all the men of Israel deserted David and followed Sheba son of Bikri.
But the men of Judah stayed with their king and escorted him from
the Jordan River to Jerusalem.
When David came to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines
he had left to look after the palace and placed them in seclusion.
Their needs were provided for, but he no longer slept with them, so each of
them lived like a widow until she died.
Then the king told Amasa, mobilize the army of Judah within three
days and report back at that time.
So Amasa went out to notify Judah.
But it took him longer than the time he had been given.
Then David said to Abishai, Sheba son of Bichri is going to
hurt us more than Absalom did.
Quick, take my troops and chase after him, before he gets to a fortified
town where we can't reach him.
So Abishai and Joab, together with the king's bodyguard and
all the mighty warriors, set out from Jerusalem to go after Sheba.
As they arrived at the Great Stone in Gibeon, Emesa met them.
Joab was wearing his military tunic with a dagger strapped to his belt.
As he stepped forward to greet Emesa, he slipped the dagger from its sheath.
How are you, my cousin?
Joab said, and took him by the beard with his right hand as though to kiss him.
Amasa didn't notice the dagger in his left hand, and Joab stabbed him
in the stomach with it so that his insides gushed out onto the ground.
Joab did not need to strike again, and Amasa soon died.
Joab and his brother Abishai left him lying there and continued after Sheba.
One of Joab's young men shouted to Amasa's troops, If you are for Joab and David.
Come and follow Joab.
But Amasa lay in his blood in the middle of the road, and Joab's men saw that
everyone was stopping to stare at him.
So he pulled him off the road into a field and threw a cloak over him.
With Amasa's body out of the way, everyone went on with Joab
to capture Sheba son of Bichri.
Meanwhile, Sheba traveled through all the tribes of Israel and eventually
came to the town of Abel Bethmeica.
All the members of his own clan, the Bicrites, assembled for battle
and followed him into the town.
When Joab's forces arrived, they attacked Abel Bethmeica.
They built a siege ramp against the town's fortifications and
began battering down the wall.
But a wise woman in the town called out to Joab.
Listen to me, Joab.
Come over here so I can talk to you.
As he approached, the woman asked, Are you Joab?
I am, he replied.
So she said.
Listen carefully to your servant.
I'm listening, he said.
Then she continued, There used to be a saying, If you want to settle an
argument, ask advice at the town of Abel.
I am one who is peace loving and faithful in Israel.
But you are destroying an important town in Israel.
Why do you want to devour what belongs to the Lord?
And Joab replied, Believe me, I don't want to devour or destroy your town.
That's not my purpose.
All I want is a man named Sheba son of Bichri from the hill country of Ephraim,
who has revolted against King David.
If you hand over this one man to me, I will leave the town in peace.
All right, the woman replied.
We will throw his head over the wall to you.
Then the woman went to all the people with her wise advice.
And they cut off Sheba's head and threw it out to Joab.
So he blew the ram's horn and called his troops back from the attack.
They all returned to their homes, and Joab returned to the king at Jerusalem.
Now Joab was the commander of the army of Israel.
Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was captain of the king's bodyguard.
Adoniram was in charge of forced labor.
Jehoshaphat, son of Ahilad, was the royal historian.
Sheba was the court secretary.
Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.
And Ira, a descendant of Jeor, was David's personal priest.
There was a famine during David's reign that lasted for three years,
so David asked the Lord about it.
And the Lord said, The famine has come because Saul and his family are
guilty of murdering the Gibeonites.
So the king summoned the Gibeonites.
They were not part of Israel, but were all that was left of
the nation of the Amorites.
The people of Israel had sworn not to kill them, but Saul, in his zeal for Israel
and Judah, had tried to wipe them out.
David asked them, What can I do for you?
How can I make amends so that you will bless the Lord's people again?
Well, money can't settle this matter between us and the family of Saul.
The Gibeonites replied, Neither can we demand the life of anyone in Israel.
What can I do then?
David asked.
Just tell me, and I will do it for you.
Then they replied, It was Saul who planned to destroy us, to keep us from having any
place at all in the territory of Israel.
So let seven of Saul's sons be handed over to us, and we will
execute them before the Lord at Gibeon, on the mountain of the Lord.
All right, the king said.
I will do it.
The king spared Jonathan's son, Mephibosheth, who was Saul's grandson,
because of the oath David and Jonathan had sworn before the Lord.
But he gave them Saul's two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose
mother was Rizpah, daughter of Eiyah.
He also gave them the five sons of Saul's daughter, Merab, the wife of
Adriel, son of Barzillai, from Meholah.
The men of Gibeon executed them on the mountain before the Lord.
So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Then Rizpah, daughter of Ayah, the mother of two of the men,
spread burlap on a rock and stayed there the entire harvest season.
She prevented the scavenger birds from tearing at their bodies during the day.
And stopped wild animals from eating them at night.
When David learned what Rizpah, Saul's concubine, had done, he went to the
people of Jabesh Gilead and retrieved the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan.
When the Philistines had killed Saul and Jonathan on Mount Gilboa, The people
of Jabesh Gilead stole their bodies from the public square of Beth Sham,
where the Philistines had hung them.
So David obtained the bones of Saul and Jonathan, as well as the bones of
the men the Gibeonites had executed.
Then the king ordered that they bury the bones in the tomb of
Kish, Saul's father, at the town of Zila in the land of Benjamin.
After that, God ended the famine in the land.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.