Old/New Testament
Chapter 9
David and Meribbaal.[a] 1 David inquired: “Is there anyone belonging to the family of Saul who is still alive, to whom I may show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 2 Now Saul’s family had a servant whose name was Ziba, and he was summoned to appear before David. The king asked him: “Are you Ziba?” He replied: “I am at your service.”
3 The king then asked: “Is there anyone from Saul’s family still alive to whom I may show God’s kindness?” “There is a son of Jonathan who still remains,” Ziba said to the king. “His feet are crippled.” 4 Then the king inquired: “Where is he?” Ziba answered: “He is living in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar.”
5 Then King David sent for him and had him brought from the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, at Lo-debar. 6 When Meribbaal, the son of Jonathan and the grandson of Saul, entered David’s presence, he fell on his face and did obeisance. David said: “Meribbaal!” He replied: “I am your servant.”
7 David then said to him: “Do not be afraid. I intend to show you great kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I shall restore to you all the lands that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you yourself shall always eat at my table.” 8 Meribbaal again prostrated himself and said: “Of what importance is your servant that you should look with kindness upon a dead dog like me?”
9 Then David summoned Saul’s servant Ziba and said to him: “I am turning over to your master’s grandson everything that belonged to Saul and to his family. 10 You and your sons and your servants shall cultivate the land for him and bring in the harvest to provide for your master’s family to eat. However, Meribbaal, your master’s grandson, shall always eat at my table.”
Ziba, who had fifteen sons and twenty servants, 11 said to the king: “Your servant shall do everything that my lord the king has commanded him.” Therefore, Meribbaal ate at the king’s table like one of the king’s sons.
12 Meribbaal had a young son whose name was Mica. All the members of Ziba’s household became servants of Meribbaal. 13 However, Meribbaal lived in Jerusalem because he always ate at the king’s table, for he was crippled in both feet.
Chapter 10
Insult of the Ammonites. 1 Sometime afterward the king of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun succeeded him as king. 2 David thought: “I will show Hanun, the son of Nahash, the same loyalty that his father showed to me.” Then David sent a delegation to console him at the loss of his father.
When David’s envoys entered the country of the Ammonites, 3 the Ammonite princes said to their lord Hanun: “Do you truly believe that David means to honor your father just because he has sent envoys to express their condolences to you? Is it not far more likely that he has sent them to be spies so that they may explore and reconnoiter the city and thus be better prepared to overthrow it?”
4 Thereupon Hanun seized David’s envoys, shaved off half of their beards, cut away the lower half of their garments up to their hips, and then sent them away.[b] 5 When David was informed about how they had been treated, he sent messengers to meet them, for they were greatly humiliated, and to instruct them: “Remain in Jericho until your beards have grown again, and then return.”
Ammonites Defeated. 6 When the Ammonites realized that they had greatly offended David, they sent envoys to hire the Arameans of Beth-rehob and the Arameans of Zobah to come to their support, twenty thousand foot soldiers in number, as well as one thousand men from the king of Maacah, and twelve thousand men from Tob.
7 When David learned about this, he sent out Joab with his entire force of trained warriors. 8 The Ammonites then came forth and drew up in battle formation at the entrance of their city gate, while the Arameans of Zobah and Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah stayed some distance away in the open country.
9 When Joab perceived that he would be attacked both from the front and from the rear, he chose the best of the troops of Israel and arrayed them against the Arameans. 10 He put the rest of his forces in charge of his brother Abishai and arrayed them against the Ammonites.
11 Then Joab said: “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you must come to my aid. However, if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come to help you. 12 Be brave! Let us fight courageously for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God. The Lord will do what he judges to be best.”
13 Then Joab and the soldiers with him moved forward into battle against the Arameans and put them to flight. 14 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they likewise fled when they were confronted by Abishai and withdrew into the city. Then Joab ceased his attack against the Ammonites and withdrew to Jerusalem.
15 Arameans Defeated. When the Arameans realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered their forces together. 16 Hadadezer sent messengers to summon other Arameans who lived beyond the Euphrates, and they came to Helam, with Shobach, the commander of the army of Hadadezer, at their head.
17 When David was informed of this, he assembled all of the forces of Israel, crossed the Jordan, and advanced to Helam. The Arameans then drew up in battle formation against David and fought with him. 18 However, they were compelled to flee from the Israelite forces. David’s men killed seven hundred Arameans in chariots and forty thousand foot soldiers. In addition, Sho-bach, the general of their army, was seriously wounded, and he died on the battlefield.
19 When all of the kings who were vassals of Hadadezer realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they sued for peace with the Israelites and became their subjects. As a result, the Arameans were afraid to give any further help to the Ammonites.
Chapter 11
David’s Son. 1 With the onset of spring, the time of year when kings go off to war, David sent forth Joab along with his officers and the entire Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. However, David himself remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening, when David arose from his couch and walked about on the roof of his palace, he saw from the roof a woman bathing. She was very beautiful. 3 David made inquiries about the woman, and he was told: “That is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
4 David sent messengers to fetch her, and when she came to him, he had relations with her, just after she had purified herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned home. 5 The woman conceived, and she sent a message to David: “I am pregnant.”
6 Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite,” and Joab did so. 7 When Uriah returned, David asked him how Joab and the troops were faring and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah: “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” Uriah departed from the king’s palace, and a gift from the king was sent to his house.
9 However, Uriah did not return to his house, but rather he slept at the palace gate with all the king’s bodyguard. 10 Upon receiving the report that Uriah had not returned home, David said to him: “You have just arrived from a journey. Why didn’t you go down to your house?”
11 Uriah replied: “The Ark and Israel and Judah are lodged in tents, and my master Joab and your majesty’s soldiers are encamped in the open fields. How then can I feel comfortable to go to my house, to eat and to drink and to sleep with my wife? As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I shall do no such thing.”
12 Then David said to Uriah: “Remain here for one more day. Tomorrow I will send you back.” Therefore, Uriah remained that day in Jerusalem. 13 On the following day David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him and caused him to become drunk. In the evening he went outside to lie down and fall asleep with the king’s servants, but he did not go down to his house.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it to him in the care of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote: “Assign Uriah up front where the fighting is fierce, and then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and die.”
16 As Joab was besieging the city, he stationed Uriah where he knew the enemy had deployed its most valiant warriors. 17 When the men of the city came forth and fought against Joab, some of the soldiers of David fell. Uriah the Hittite was also slain.
18 Then Joab sent David a full account of the battle, 19 and he instructed the messenger: “When you have finished telling the king all the details about the fighting, 20 his anger may be aroused and he may say to you: ‘Why did you go so close to the city to fight? Were you not aware that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Do you recall who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubbaal? Was it not a woman who dropped down a millstone on him from the wall, resulting in his death at Thebez? Why did you go so close to the wall?’ Then say to him: ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.’ ”
22 Therefore, the messenger set off, and on his arrival he relayed to David everything that Joab had instructed him to say. 23 He told David: “Their men initially gained an advantage over us, and they came forth to fight against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then their archers shot down at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s servants died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite was also slain.”
25 David then said to the messenger: “This is what you are to say to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter cause you any distress, for the sword devours now one and now another. Press your attack against the city and destroy it.’ That message should encourage him.”[c]
26 When the wife of Uriah was told that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 Then, when the period of mourning was over, David sent for her and brought her to live in his palace. She became his wife and bore him a son. However, the Lord was greatly displeased at what David had done.
11 The Parable of the Lost (or Prodigal) Son.[a] Then he said: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that I will inherit.’ And so the father divided the property between them.
13 “A few days later the younger son gathered together everything he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissolute living. 14 When he had spent it all, a severe famine afflicted that country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to one of the local inhabitants who sent him to his farm to feed the pigs.[b] 16 He would have willingly filled his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “Then he came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more food than they can consume, while here I am, dying of hunger. 18 I will depart from this place and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me like one of your hired workers.” ’
20 “So he set out for his father’s house. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to him, threw his arms around him, and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the finest robe we have and put it on him. Place a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Then bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us celebrate with a feast. 24 For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life. He was lost, and now he has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
25 “Now the elder son had been out in the fields, and as he returned and drew near the house, he could hear the sounds of music and dancing. 26 He summoned one of the servants and inquired what all this meant. 27 The servant replied, ‘Your brother has come home, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ 28 The elder son then became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him, 29 but he said to his father in reply, ‘All these years I have worked like a slave for you, and I never once disobeyed your orders. Even so, you have never even given me a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours returns after wasting his inheritance from you on prostitutes, you kill the fatted calf for him.’
31 “Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are with me always, and everything I have is yours. 32 But it was only right that we should celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and now he has been found.’ ”
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