Daily Text and Bible Reading: Thursday, April 9 [Press play below]

9.1 David then said: “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I may show loyal love for the sake of Jonathan?”
9.2 Now there was a servant of the house of Saul named Ziba. So they called him to David, and the king asked him: “Are you Ziba?” He replied: “I am your servant.”
9.3 The king continued: “Is there anyone left of the house of Saul to whom I may extend God’s loyal love?” Ziba replied to the king: “There is still one son of Jonathan; he is crippled in both feet.”
9.4 The king asked him: “Where is he?” Ziba replied to the king: “He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel at Lo-debar.”
9.5 King David immediately sent for him and took him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel at Lo-debar.
9.6 When Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul came in to David, he at once fell facedown and prostrated himself. Then David said: “Mephibosheth!” to which he replied: “Here is your servant.”
9.7 David said to him: “Do not be afraid, for I will certainly show loyal love to you for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will return to you all the land of Saul your grandfather, and you will always dine at my table.”
9.8 At that he prostrated himself and said: “What is your servant, that you have turned your attention to a dead dog like me?”
9.9 The king now sent for Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him: “Everything that belonged to Saul and to all his house I give to the grandson of your master.
9.10 You will cultivate the land for him—you and your sons and your servants—and you will gather its produce to provide food for those who belong to the grandson of your master to eat. But Mephibosheth, the grandson of your master, will always dine at my table.” Now Ziba had 15 sons and 20 servants.
9.11 Then Ziba said to the king: “Your servant will do all that my lord the king commands his servant to do.” So Mephibosheth ate at David’s table like one of the sons of the king.
9.12 Now Mephibosheth also had a young son named Mica; and all those who lived in Ziba’s house became servants of Mephibosheth.
9.13 And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he always ate at the table of the king; and he was crippled in both feet.

10.1 Later the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun became king in his place.
10.2 At that David said: “I will show loyal love toward Hanun the son of Nahash as his father showed loyal love toward me.” So David sent his servants to offer him comfort over the loss of his father. But when David’s servants came into the land of the Ammonites,
10.3 the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord: “Do you think that David is honoring your father by sending comforters to you? Is it not to search through the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it that David has sent his servants to you?”
10.4 So Hanun took the servants of David and shaved off half their beards and cut their garments in half at their buttocks and sent them away.
10.5 When David was told, he at once sent men to meet them, because the men had been deeply humiliated; and the king told them: “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow back, and then return.”
10.6 In time the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, so the Ammonites sent and hired Syrians of Beth-rehob and Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers; and the king of Maacah, with 1,000 men; and from Ishtob, 12,000 men.
10.7 When David heard about it, he sent Joab and the entire army, including his mightiest warriors.
10.8 And the Ammonites went out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of the city gate while the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, along with Ishtob and Maacah, were by themselves in the open field.
10.9 When Joab saw that the battle charges were coming against him from the front and the rear, he chose some of the best troops in Israel and drew them up in battle formation to meet the Syrians.
10.10 He put the rest of the men under the command of his brother Abishai, in order to draw them up in battle formation to meet the Ammonites.
10.11 Then he said: “If the Syrians become too strong for me, then you must come to my rescue; but if the Ammonites become too strong for you, I will come to your rescue.
10.12 We must be strong and courageous for our people and for the cities of our God, and Jehovah will do what is good in his eyes.”
10.13 Then Joab and his men advanced to meet the Syrians in battle, and they fled from before him.
10.14 When the Ammonites saw that the Syrians had fled, they fled from Abishai and went into the city. After that Joab returned from the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
10.15 When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they regrouped.
10.16 So Hadadezer sent for the Syrians in the region of the River, and then they came to Helam, with Shobach the chief of the army of Hadadezer leading them.
10.17 When the report was made to David, he immediately gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians then drew up in battle formation to meet David and fought against him.
10.18 But the Syrians fled from Israel; and David killed 700 charioteers and 40,000 horsemen of the Syrians, and he struck down Shobach the chief of their army, who died there.
10.19 When all the kings, the servants of Hadadezer, saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they promptly made peace with Israel and became their subjects; and the Syrians were afraid to help the Ammonites anymore.

11.1 At the start of the year, at the time when kings go on campaigns, David sent Joab and his servants and the entire army of Israel to bring the Ammonites to ruin, and they besieged Rabbah, while David stayed in Jerusalem.
11.2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the rooftop of the king’s house. From the rooftop he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.
11.3 David sent someone to inquire about the woman, and he reported: “Is this not Bath-sheba the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”
11.4 Then David sent messengers to bring her. So she came in to him, and he lay down with her. (This happened while she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Afterward, she returned to her house.
11.5 The woman became pregnant, and she sent a message to David: “I am pregnant.”
11.6 At this David sent a message to Joab: “Send to me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David.
11.7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was getting along, how the troops were getting along, and how the war was going.
11.8 David then said to Uriah: “Go down to your house and relax.” When Uriah left the king’s house, the king’s courtesy gift was sent after him.
11.9 However, Uriah slept at the entrance of the king’s house with all the other servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his own house.
11.10 So David was told: “Uriah did not go down to his own house.” At that David said to Uriah: “Have you not just returned from a journey? Why did you not go down to your own house?”
11.11 Uriah replied to David: “The Ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in temporary shelters, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. So should I go into my own house to eat and drink and lie down with my wife? As surely as you live and are alive, I will not do this thing!”
11.12 Then David said to Uriah: “Stay here also today, and tomorrow I will send you away.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem on that day and the following day.
11.13 David then sent for him to come and eat and drink with him, and he got him drunk. But in the evening, he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of his lord, and he did not go down to his house.
11.14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
11.15 He wrote in the letter: “Put Uriah in the front lines where the fighting is fiercest. Then retreat from behind him, so that he will be struck down and die.”
11.16 Joab had been carefully watching the city, and he stationed Uriah where he knew there were mighty warriors.
11.17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of David’s servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite was among those who died.
11.18 Joab now reported to David all the news about the war.
11.19 He instructed the messenger: “When you finish speaking to the king about all the news of the war,
11.20 the king may become angry and say to you, ‘Why did you have to go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the top of the wall?
11.21 Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who threw an upper millstone on him from the top of the wall, causing his death at Thebez? Why did you have to go so close to the wall?’ Then say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.’”
11.22 So the messenger went and told David everything that Joab had sent him to tell.
11.23 Then the messenger told David: “Their men overpowered us, and they came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate.
11.24 And the archers were shooting at your servants from the top of the wall, and some of the servants of the king died; your servant Uriah the Hittite also died.”
11.25 At that David said to the messenger: “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Intensify your battle against the city and conquer it.’ And encourage him.”
11.26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah had died, she began to mourn her husband.
11.27 As soon as the mourning period was over, David sent for her and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But what David had done was very displeasing to Jehovah.

12.1 So Jehovah sent Nathan to David. He came in to him and said: “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor.
12.2 The rich man had very many sheep and cattle;
12.3 but the poor man had nothing but one small female lamb, which he had bought. He cared for it, and it grew up together with him and his sons. It would eat from the little food he had and drink from his cup and sleep in his arms. It became as a daughter to him.
12.4 Later a visitor came to the rich man, but he would not take any of his own sheep and cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
12.5 At this David grew very angry against the man, and he said to Nathan: “As surely as Jehovah is living, the man who did this deserves to die!
12.6 And he should pay for the lamb four times over, because he did this and showed no compassion.”
12.7 Then Nathan said to David: “You are the man! This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘I myself anointed you as king over Israel, and I rescued you from the hand of Saul.
12.8 I was willing to give you your master’s house and put your master’s wives in your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And as if that were not enough, I was willing to do much more for you.
12.9 Why did you despise the word of Jehovah by doing what is bad in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword! Then you took his wife as your wife after you killed him by the sword of the Ammonites.
12.10 Now a sword will never depart from your own house, because you despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your wife.’
12.11 This is what Jehovah says: ‘Here I am bringing against you calamity from within your own house; and before your own eyes, I will take your wives and give them to another man, and he will lie down with your wives in broad daylight.
12.12 Although you acted in secret, I will do this in front of all Israel and in broad daylight.’”
12.13 David then said to Nathan: “I have sinned against Jehovah.” Nathan replied to David: “Jehovah, in turn, forgives your sin. You will not die.
12.14 Nevertheless, because you have treated Jehovah with utter disrespect in this matter, the son just born to you will certainly die.”
12.15 Then Nathan went to his own house. And Jehovah struck the child whom Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became sick.
12.16 David pleaded with the true God in behalf of the boy. David went on a strict fast and would go in and spend the night lying on the ground.
12.17 So the elders of his house stood over him and tried to raise him up from the ground, but he refused and would not eat with them.
12.18 On the seventh day the child died, but David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. They said: “While the child was alive we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. So how can we tell him that the child has died? He may do something terrible.”
12.19 When David saw that his servants were whispering to one another, he discerned that the child had died. David said to his servants: “Has the child died?” They replied: “He has died.”
12.20 So David got up from the ground. He washed, rubbed himself with oil, changed his clothing, and went to the house of Jehovah and prostrated himself. Afterward, he went to his house and asked for food to be brought to him, and he ate.
12.21 His servants asked him: “Why have you acted in this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and kept weeping; but as soon as the child died, you got up and ate food.”
12.22 He replied: “While the child was alive, I fasted and kept weeping because I said to myself, ‘Who knows whether Jehovah may show me favor and let the child live?’
12.23 Now that he has died, why should I fast? Can I bring him back? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
12.24 Then David comforted his wife Bath-sheba. He went in to her and lay down with her. In time she bore a son, and he was named Solomon. And Jehovah loved him,
12.25 and he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah, for the sake of Jehovah.
12.26 Joab continued fighting against Rabbah of the Ammonites, and he captured the royal city.
12.27 So Joab sent messengers to David and said: “I have fought against Rabbah, and I have captured the city of waters.
12.28 Now gather the rest of the troops and encamp against the city and capture it. Otherwise, I will be the one to capture the city, and it will be credited to me.”
12.29 So David gathered all the troops and went to Rabbah and fought against it and captured it.
12.30 Then he took the crown of Malcam from its head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, along with precious stones, and it was placed on David’s head. He also took a vast amount of spoil from the city.
12.31 And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work at sawing stones, at working with sharp iron instruments and with iron axes, and at brickmaking. That was what he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Finally David and all the troops returned to Jerusalem.