2 Samuel

No. 119 2 Samuel 23:24-39
Near the end of Second Samuel there is a roll of David's warriors, the men who fought with him from the outlaw years onward. The chapter names the elite three, then the mightier deeds, and this passage is the...
No. 146 2 Samuel 19:38-43
Absalom's revolt has collapsed, and David is coming back to Jerusalem. This passage is the return, and it goes wrong immediately.
No. 173 2 Samuel 17:21-29
Absalom has seized Jerusalem and David has fled. The whole revolt turns on one decision: whether Absalom follows the advice of Ahithophel, the best strategist of the age, to strike David immediately, or...
No. 352 2 Samuel 19:21-25
David is coming home. Absalom's rebellion has collapsed, David is being restored to his throne, and as he crosses back over the Jordan, the people who had turned against him come out to make their peace. Among...
No. 539 2 Samuel 19:1-7
David's rebellious son Absalom has been killed, and David is undone by grief, weeping and crying out, my son Absalom, my son, my son, covering his face and refusing to be consoled. It is genuine and...
No. 544 2 Samuel 14:18-22
Absalom, David's son, has murdered his brother and fled into exile, and the breach between him and his father has hardened. Joab, wanting Absalom brought back, does not go to David honestly and make the case....
No. 546 2 Samuel 10:1-5
When the king of Ammon dies, David remembers a past kindness the old king had shown him and decides to return it, sending envoys to comfort the dead king's son, Hanun, in his grief. It is a genuine act of...
No. 565 2 Samuel 13:1-5
This is the opening of one of the darkest episodes in David's family. Amnon, David's son, is consumed with desire for his half-sister Tamar, so obsessed that he makes himself sick over it. It is a sick and...
No. 588 2 Samuel 11:11-15
David has already committed adultery with Bathsheba and learned she is pregnant, and now he is frantically trying to cover it. He recalls her husband Uriah from the front, hoping Uriah will sleep with his wife...
No. 673 2 Samuel 10:15-19
This is from the stretch of Second Samuel that records David's wars at the height of his reign. It began when the Ammonites humiliated the envoys David had sent in friendship, then hired Aramean troops to back...
No. 724 2 Samuel 21:1-6
A famine has ground on for three years in David's reign, and when David finally asks God why, the answer reaches back into a past he had nothing to do with. It is for Saul and for his bloody house, God says,...
No. 859 2 Samuel 4:1-12
With Abner dead, Saul's son Ish-bosheth, David's last rival for the throne, loses his nerve, and two of his own officers see an opportunity. Rechab and Baanah slip into his house at noon, murder him as he...
No. 862 2 Samuel 12:13-18
Nathan the prophet has just cornered David with the truth about Bathsheba and her murdered husband, and David's response is immediate and without excuse: I have sinned against the LORD. There is no defense, no...
No. 866 2 Samuel 16:15-23
David has fled Jerusalem, and his son Absalom has walked in as king. This passage shows two counselors at work. Hushai, David's friend, arrives and greets Absalom with Long live the king, playing the double...
No. 877 2 Samuel 19:31-37
David is returning to Jerusalem after Absalom's revolt collapses. Barzillai, a wealthy old man of eighty who had supplied David with food during his exile at Mahanaim, comes down to escort him across the...
No. 925 2 Samuel 19:8-14
The rebellion is crushed, Absalom is dead, and David is a king in limbo, grieving in Mahanaim while the kingdom drifts. The northern tribes are arguing among themselves about bringing him back. David, instead...
No. 944 2 Samuel 5:13-19
David is now king over a united Israel and settled in Jerusalem, and two very different notes sound in these verses. First, the narrator mentions almost in passing that David took more concubines and wives in...
No. 969 2 Samuel 18:11-17
Absalom, David's rebel son, has been caught, his head tangled in the branches of an oak, hanging helpless while his mule runs off. A soldier reports it to Joab, David's ruthless commander, who is furious the...
No. 1076 2 Samuel 23:13-17
This is one of the loveliest stories among David's mighty men. David is holed up in the cave of Adullam, the Philistines garrisoned in his hometown Bethlehem, and he says aloud, almost to himself, a longing:...
No. 1128 2 Samuel 9:7-13
David, now secure on the throne, asks whether anyone is left of Saul's house to whom he can show kindness for the sake of his beloved friend Jonathan. There is one: Mephibosheth, Jonathan's son, crippled in...
No. 1186 2 Samuel 5:6-12
David captures the fortress of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, who had taunted that even the blind and lame could keep him out, and makes it his capital, the City of David. He settles in and builds, and Hiram of...
No. 1197 2 Samuel 18:28-33
The battle is over, and Absalom, David's rebel son who tried to seize the throne and kill him, is dead. Two runners bring the news. David's only question, twice, is not about the victory but about his son: is...
No. 1199 2 Samuel 1:11-16
An Amalekite comes to David claiming to have killed the wounded Saul at his own request, thinking to win David's favor by bringing news of his enemy's death, even carrying Saul's crown. Instead, David and his...
No. 1246 2 Samuel 12:19-23
The child born to David and Bathsheba has fallen deathly ill, and David has spent days on the ground, fasting and weeping and pleading with God for the child's life. When the baby dies, his servants are afraid...
No. 1291 2 Samuel 6:13-23
David is bringing the ark of God into Jerusalem with unrestrained joy, dancing before the LORD with all his might, wearing a simple linen ephod, leaping and shouting amid the sacrifices and trumpets. But his...
No. 1354 2 Samuel 13:6-11
This is the opening of a dark episode in David's family. Amnon, David's son, is consumed with desire for his half-sister Tamar, and on a friend's advice he sets a trap. He pretends to be sick and asks his...
No. 1381 2 Samuel 18:23-27
The battle in which Absalom's rebellion was crushed is over, and David sits waiting between the two gates of the city for news. A watchman on the roof sees a lone runner and calls down; if he is alone, David...
No. 1391 2 Samuel 22:1-16
This is David's song of thanksgiving, sung when the LORD had delivered him from all his enemies and from Saul. It opens with a torrent of names for God: the LORD is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my...
No. 1428 2 Samuel 2:8-14
After Saul's death the kingdom is divided: Abner, Saul's army commander, makes Saul's son Ishbosheth king over the northern tribes, while the house of Judah follows David in Hebron. The two sides meet at the...
No. 1431 2 Samuel 3:31-39
Abner, Saul's former commander who had come over to David's side, has been murdered by Joab out of revenge. David, who had no part in the killing and is grieved by it, leads the public mourning. He orders his...
No. 1484 2 Samuel 8:9-18
David's victories are recounted. The king of Hamath, hearing that David has defeated his enemy, sends gifts of silver, gold, and bronze; and David dedicates these, along with all the silver and gold he had...
No. 1503 2 Samuel 11:6-10
David has committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of his soldiers, and she is now pregnant. To cover it up, David summons Uriah home from the war, hoping he will sleep with his wife and think...
No. 1534 2 Samuel 8:1-8
This chapter summarizes a season of David's conquests. He subdues the Philistines, defeats Moab, strikes down Hadadezer of Zobah, and routs the Syrians who came to help him. He takes horsemen and footmen and...
No. 1579 2 Samuel 17:14-20
Absalom, in rebellion against his father David, must choose between two counselors. Ahithophel, whose advice was famously sound, urges an immediate pursuit of David. But Hushai, secretly loyal to David, gives...
No. 1650 2 Samuel 7:25-29
God has just made David an astonishing promise, that he will establish David's house and throne forever. David responds with a prayer, and its shape is worth noticing: he takes God's promise and prays it back...
No. 1665 2 Samuel 9:1-6
Now settled as king, David asks a question that could only come from a generous heart: is there anyone left of the house of Saul, to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan's sake? Saul's house had been David's...
No. 1732 2 Samuel 13:23-28
Two full years have passed since Amnon violated his half-sister Tamar, and her brother Absalom has said nothing, biding his time. Now Absalom holds a sheepshearing feast and invites all the king's sons,...
No. 1736 2 Samuel 16:1-8
As David flees Jerusalem during Absalom's revolt, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, meets him with donkeys and provisions. When David asks where Mephibosheth is, Ziba says his master has stayed behind, hoping...
No. 1751 2 Samuel 12:24-31
In the aftermath of David's grievous sin with Bathsheba and the death of the child born to them, the passage turns, quietly, toward grace. David comforts Bathsheba, now his wife; she bears another son, and...
No. 1820 2 Samuel 13:12-16
This is a passage of great pain. Tamar pleads with her half-brother Amnon not to violate her: no, my brother, do not force me; such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this outrage. Where would I carry my...
No. 1943 2 Samuel 2:15-19
In the strife between the house of Saul and the house of David, a fierce battle is fought at Gibeon. Among David's men are the three sons of Zeruiah, one of whom, Asahel, is as swift of foot as a wild gazelle....
No. 1945 2 Samuel 24:10-14
After David sinfully numbers the people, his conscience smites him, and he confesses: I have sinned greatly; I have done very foolishly; put away the iniquity of your servant. God, through the prophet Gad,...
No. 2029 2 Samuel 1:1-5
After Saul's death, a man comes to David from the battle, his clothes torn and earth on his head, the signs of mourning and defeat. He falls before David, and David asks him what has happened. The people have...
No. 2122 2 Samuel 15:19-30
As Absalom's rebellion drives David from Jerusalem, the king flees in grief, weeping as he climbs the Mount of Olives, barefoot and with his head covered. The priests bring the ark of God to go with him, but...
No. 2151 2 Samuel 13:17-22
After a grievous wrong is done to Tamar, she is left desolate. She tears her royal robe, puts ashes on her head, and goes away crying aloud. Her brother Absalom tells her to keep quiet and not take it to...
No. 2222 2 Samuel 21:15-22
In another war with the Philistines, David, once the young giant-slayer, goes down to fight, but now he grows faint and weary. A Philistine giant, seeing his weakness, thinks to kill him. But Abishai comes to...
No. 2281 2 Samuel 17:1-5
As Absalom's rebellion drives David into flight, the shrewd counselor Ahithophel gives Absalom advice that would have destroyed David. Let me pursue David tonight, he says, while he is weary and exhausted; I...
No. 2290 2 Samuel 24:1-9
David gives an order that troubles even his hardened commander Joab: go through all the tribes and count the fighting men, that I may know their number. Joab objects, asking why the king delights in this...
No. 2295 2 Samuel 23:1-7
In the last words of David, the aged king reflects on his life and his hope. He speaks of the righteous ruler, who is like the light of morning at sunrise. But when he turns to the ground of his own...
No. 2296 2 Samuel 7:17-24
When the prophet Nathan brings David God's astonishing promise, that God will establish David's house and kingdom forever, David goes in and sits before the LORD, and prays. But his prayer does not begin with...
No. 2316 2 Samuel 13:29-39
After Absalom murders his brother Amnon in revenge and flees to a distant land, David is left to grieve. He mourns bitterly, first at the false report that all his sons were dead, then over the real loss of...
No. 2347 2 Samuel 19:15-20
Second Samuel catches David returning to Jerusalem after Absalom's revolt collapses. On the road comes Shimei, the same man who had cursed David and thrown stones at him when the king fled in disgrace. Now...
No. 2377 2 Samuel 5:20-25
Second Samuel gives two Philistine battles back to back. In the first, David inquires, is told to go up, and wins, declaring that the LORD broke through his enemies like a flood of water. Then the Philistines...
No. 2402 2 Samuel 12:7-12
The prophet Nathan has just told David a story about a rich man who stole a poor man's one beloved lamb, and David has flared with anger at the villain. Then Nathan turns the knife: you are the man. He...
No. 2413 2 Samuel 23:8-12
The record of David's warriors preserves a few vivid stands. Eleazar fought the Philistines until his hand cramped and froze to the sword. And Shammah, when the army fled from a Philistine raid, planted...
No. 2418 2 Samuel 20:18-26
Joab is besieging the town of Abel, hunting a rebel named Sheba who has taken refuge there, and the whole city is about to be destroyed for harboring one man. Then a wise woman calls down from the wall. She...
No. 2447 2 Samuel 5:1-5
At last all the tribes of Israel come to David at Hebron and make him king. We are your own flesh and blood, they say, and the LORD promised you would shepherd his people. He is anointed king over all Israel,...
No. 2450 2 Samuel 14:11-17
A wise woman from Tekoa, coached by Joab, comes to David with an invented story to move him toward reconciling with his exiled son Absalom. In the middle of her plea she says something truer than the scheme it...
No. 2479 2 Samuel 11:22-27
The messenger brings David the news he arranged for: the fighting was fierce, and among the dead is Uriah the Hittite. David sends back a chillingly casual word for Joab: do not let this trouble you, the sword...
No. 2492 2 Samuel 15:7-13
Absalom launches his rebellion under a cloak of piety. He asks his father David for leave to go to Hebron and pay a vow he says he made to the LORD, and David, suspecting nothing, sends him off in peace. But...
No. 2652 2 Samuel 15:14-18
As Absalom's rebellion gathers, David flees Jerusalem with his household to avoid a bloodbath. It is a low moment, a king driven from his own city by his own son. And as the loyalists file past him out of the...
No. 2737 2 Samuel 15:1-6
Absalom, David's son, begins his rebellion not with an army but with charm. He gets himself a chariot, horses, and fifty runners, then rises early to stand by the road to the city gate, where people come...
No. 2755 2 Samuel 3:22-30
Abner, once Saul's commander, has just made peace with David and left Hebron in good faith. Then Joab, David's hard-edged general, comes back from a raid and hears of it, and he is enraged. He sends messengers...
No. 2801 2 Samuel 3:17-21
Abner, who had been the strength behind Saul's house, now turns the northern tribes toward David. He reminds the elders that they had long wanted David as king, and that God himself had promised to save Israel...
No. 2826 2 Samuel 16:9-14
David is fleeing Jerusalem during his son Absalom's revolt, at the lowest point of his life, when a man named Shimei walks along the ridge above him, cursing, hurling stones and dust. Abishai has had enough:...
No. 2875 2 Samuel 15:31-37
As David flees Jerusalem during Absalom's revolt, word reaches him that his trusted counselor Ahithophel has joined the conspiracy. David prays a short, desperate prayer: LORD, please turn the counsel of...
No. 2922 2 Samuel 18:1-5
David organizes his forces to meet Absalom's rebellion, dividing them under Joab, Abishai, and Ittai. He wants to march out with them himself, but the men insist he stay behind, for one king is worth ten...
No. 2935 2 Samuel 2:20-26
In the war between the house of David and the house of Saul, the fast-footed Asahel chases the commander Abner. Twice Abner warns him to turn aside, unwilling to kill the brother of Joab, but Asahel refuses,...
No. 2940 2 Samuel 1:17-27
David composes a lament over Saul and Jonathan, its refrain returning again and again to grief over the fallen. He calls Israel to weep, forbids the news to be told in the Philistine cities, praises Saul and...
No. 2993 2 Samuel 10:6-14
The Ammonites, having insulted David's envoys, hire Syrian mercenaries and prepare for war. David sends Joab and the army. Joab finds himself caught, with the enemy arrayed both before and behind, so he splits...
No. 3017 2 Samuel 20:1-6
A troublemaker named Sheba, a worthless fellow, blows a trumpet and calls Israel away from David: we have no portion in David, no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents! And just like that,...
No. 3018 2 Samuel 6:6-12
As the ark is carried toward Jerusalem on a cart, the oxen stumble, and Uzzah reaches out to steady it. The anger of the LORD is kindled, and God strikes him down beside the ark. David is both angry and...
No. 3165 2 Samuel 2:1-7
After Saul's death, with the throne opening to him, David does not simply seize it. He inquires of the LORD: shall I go up to one of the cities of Judah? Where? God says Hebron, and there the men of Judah...
No. 3177 2 Samuel 3:1-5
There was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David, and the summary of it is a single line: David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker. Meanwhile sons...
No. 3214 2 Samuel 1:6-10
A young Amalekite comes to David with news of Saul's death, claiming he came upon the wounded king on Mount Gilboa, and that Saul, in his anguish, begged to be killed, and he did it, taking the crown and...
No. 3261 2 Samuel 14:1-5
Joab perceives that King David's heart still yearns for his exiled son Absalom. So he arranges a kind of living parable: he brings a wise woman from Tekoa, dresses her as a long-grieving widow, and puts words...
No. 3281 2 Samuel 20:12-17
Two images sit side by side. Amasa lies murdered in the middle of the road, and the passing troops keep halting at the sight until someone drags his body aside and covers it. And then, as Joab besieges the...
No. 3289 2 Samuel 14:6-10
The wise woman of Tekoa lays her invented case before David: her two sons quarreled in the field, one killed the other, and now the whole family demands the survivor's life to avenge his brother. But that, she...
No. 3369 2 Samuel 18:6-10
The rebellion of Absalom ends in a great and terrible battle in the forest of Ephraim, where twenty thousand fall, and the wild forest itself claims more lives than the sword. And Absalom, riding to escape, is...
No. 3389 2 Samuel 20:7-11
Joab murders Amasa, his rival for command of the army, in a sickening act of treachery. He greets him warmly, is it well with you, my brother?, takes his beard with his right hand as if to kiss him, and with...
No. 3419 2 Samuel 3:11-16
Amid the political maneuvering as Abner brings the northern kingdom over to David, a small human tragedy plays out. David demands the return of Michal, Saul's daughter, once his wife, and she is taken from her...
No. 3434 2 Samuel 23:18-23
These verses record the exploits of David's warriors, Abishai and Benaiah, men of extraordinary courage. Benaiah struck down a formidable Egyptian armed with a spear, going against him with only a staff,...
No. 3437 2 Samuel 14:23-33
Absalom is brought back from exile, but David keeps him at arm's length: let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face. Absalom is home but not restored, near but still shut out. He lives two...
No. 3587 2 Samuel 22:33-51
This is part of David's great song of thanksgiving for God's deliverance, and it overflows with credit given wholly to God. God is my strong fortress; you arm me with strength for the battle; you gave me the...
No. 3715 2 Samuel 24:15-25
After David's sinful census, a plague ravages Israel, and David, seeing the angel of destruction, cries out with a shepherd's heart: I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they...
No. 3717 2 Samuel 18:18-22
A poignant note is set beside the account of the battle: Absalom, in his lifetime, had set up a pillar to keep his name in memory, saying, I have no son to carry on my name. He built a monument to himself,...
No. 3753 2 Samuel 21:7-14
This is a grim episode, the execution of seven of Saul's descendants to answer an old bloodguilt, and we read it soberly, not dwelling on its horror. Out of the darkness shines one figure: Rizpah, a mother,...
No. 3839 2 Samuel 17:6-13
Absalom, in rebellion against his father David, must choose between two pieces of advice. Ahithophel counsels a swift strike that would likely have destroyed David; but Hushai, secretly loyal to David, gives...
No. 3978 2 Samuel 6:1-5
David sets out to bring the ark of God up to Jerusalem, and the scene is one of overflowing joy: David and all Israel celebrate before the LORD with all their strength, with songs and harps and tambourines and...
No. 4056 2 Samuel 11:16-21
This passage records the grim outworking of David's sin. Having committed adultery with Bathsheba and failed to cover it up, David sends orders to his commander Joab to have her husband Uriah placed where the...
No. 4070 2 Samuel 3:6-10
This passage shows a piece of raw palace politics. Abner, the commander who had propped up the house of Saul against David, is accused by the weak king Ishbosheth of impropriety, and in a fit of wounded pride...
No. 4077 2 Samuel 12:1-6
The prophet Nathan comes to David after his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, and instead of accusing him directly, he tells a story: a rich man with many flocks, to feed a guest, seized and...
No. 4081 2 Samuel 11:1-5
The account of David's great sin opens with a telling detail: it was spring, the time when kings go out to battle, and David sent his army out to war, but David remained at Jerusalem. He was idle, at ease, off...
No. 4174 2 Samuel 22:17-32
In David's great song of deliverance, he piles up images for the God who rescued him. God reached down from on high and drew him out of many waters; he delivered him from an enemy too strong for him; he...
No. 4191 2 Samuel 7:1-16
Now settled in his own house of cedar, King David is troubled by a thought: he lives in a fine palace while the ark of God dwells in a tent. He resolves to build God a house, a temple worthy of him. But God...
No. 4199 2 Samuel 2:27-32
This passage records the sad end of a battle, not against a foreign enemy, but between the followers of David and the followers of Saul's house, Israelite against Israelite, brother against brother. Men die on...
No. 4267 2 Samuel 19:26-30
Mephibosheth, Saul's grandson whom David had shown great kindness, comes to David after the king's return from exile. He has been slandered and stands to lose his property, but his response reveals where his...