On the third day a man arrived from the camp of Saul with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. ¹  When he approached David, the man ²  threw himself to the ground. ³ 

David inquired, “How were things going? ¹  Tell me!” He replied, “The people fled from the battle and many of them ²  fell dead. ³  Even Saul and his son Jonathan are dead!”

So I stood over him and put him to death, since I knew that he couldn’t live in such a condition. ¹  Then I took the crown which was on his head and the ²  bracelet which was on his arm. I have brought them here to my lord.” ³ 

They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

May his blood whirl over ¹  the head of Joab and the entire house of his father! ²  May the males of Joab’s house ³  never cease to have ⁴  someone with a running sore or a skin disease or one who works at the spindle ⁵  or one who falls by the sword or one who lacks food!”

Now Saul’s son Jonathan had a son who was crippled in both feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan arrived from Jezreel. His nurse picked him up and fled, but in her haste to get away, he fell and was injured. ¹  Mephibosheth was his name.

She replied, “In that case, ¹  let the king invoke the name of ²  the Lord your God so that the avenger of blood may not kill! Then they will not destroy my son!” He replied, “As surely as the Lord lives, not a single hair of your son’s head ³  will fall to the ground.”

Then Joab bowed down with his face toward the ground and thanked ¹  the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord the king, because the king has granted the request of your ²  servant!”

At this very moment he is hiding out in one of the caves or in some other similar place. If it should turn out that he attacks our troops first, ¹  whoever hears about it will say, ‘Absalom’s army has been slaughtered!’

We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive – not one of them!

They crossed at the ford in order to help the king’s household cross and to do whatever he thought appropriate. Now after he had crossed the Jordan, Shimei son of Gera threw himself down before the king.

When they were near the big rock that is in Gibeon, Amasa came to them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire and had a dagger in its sheath belted to his waist. When he advanced, it fell out. ¹ 

So Joab’s men ¹  came and laid siege against him in Abel of Beth Maacah. They prepared a siege ramp outside the city which stood against its outer rampart. As all of Joab’s soldiers were trying to break through ²  the wall so that it would collapse,

He turned them over to the Gibeonites, and they executed them on a hill before the Lord. The seven of them ¹  died ²  together; they were put to death during harvest time – during the first days of the beginning ³  of the barley harvest.

“The Lord is worthy of praise because he has made Israel his people secure ¹  just as he promised! Not one of all the faithful promises he made through his servant Moses is left unfulfilled! ² 

Muster an army like the one you lost, with the same number of horses and chariots. ¹  Then we will fight them in the plains; we will certainly overpower them.” He approved their plan and did as they advised. ² 

The remaining 27,000 ran to Aphek and went into the city, but the wall fell on them. ¹  Now Ben Hadad ran into the city and hid in an inner room. ² 

Ahaziah fell through a window lattice in his upper chamber in Samaria ¹  and was injured. He sent messengers with these orders, ²  “Go, ask ³  Baal Zebub, ⁴  the god of Ekron, if I will survive this injury.”

He took the cloak that had fallen off Elijah, ¹  hit the water with it, and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” When he hit the water, it divided and Elisha crossed over.

You will defeat every fortified city and every important ¹  city. You must chop down ²  every productive ³  tree, stop up all the springs, and cover all the cultivated land with stones.” ⁴