Now David achieved success in all he did, ¹  for the Lord was with him.

¹  Then the leaders of the Philistines would march out, and as often as they did so, David achieved more success than all of Saul’s servants. His name was held in high esteem.

When Saul saw how very successful he was, he was afraid of him.

I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ¹  I bowed down ²  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ³ 

You are witnesses, and so is God, as to how holy and righteous and blameless our conduct was toward you who believe.

On every mission on which Saul sent him, David achieved success. So Saul appointed him over the men of war. This pleased not only all the army, but also Saul’s servants. ¹ 

He was so wicked he worshiped the disgusting idols, ¹  just like the Amorites ²  whom the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.)

As surely as I live, declares the sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never behaved as wickedly as you and your daughters have behaved.

They invade like lumberjacks swinging their axes in a thick forest. ¹ 

We have sinned like ¹  our ancestors; ²  we have done wrong, we have done evil.

And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. ¹ 

He did what the Lord approved, just as his father Amaziah had done. ¹ 

“But they – our ancestors ¹  – behaved presumptuously; they rebelled ²  and did not obey your commandments.

then he reveals ¹  to them what they have done, ²  and their transgressions, that they were behaving proudly.

In the womb he attacked his brother; in his manly vigor he struggled ¹  with God.

¹  although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became ²  little children ³  among you. Like a nursing mother caring for her own children,

For you know yourselves how you must imitate us, because we did not behave without discipline ¹  among you,

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods, for in the thing in which they dealt proudly against them he has destroyed them.” ¹ 

Absalom acted this way toward everyone in Israel who came to the king for justice. In this way Absalom won the loyalty ¹  of the citizens ²  of Israel.

The Lord humiliated ¹  Judah because of King Ahaz of Israel, ²  for he encouraged Judah to sin and was very ³  unfaithful to the Lord.