Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 180
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IMMERSE
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KINGDOMS
2S
| 20:18–21:7
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 Bicri
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 Jehoi
ada was captain of the king’s bodyguard. Adon iram was in charge of forced
labor. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the royal historian. Sheva was the
court secretary. Zadok and Abiathar were the priests. And Ira, a descendant of Jair, 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 Dav id