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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
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.