Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
The One Year Bible TLB (122 page)
The anger of the king is a messenger of death, and a wise man will appease it.
15
Many favors are showered on those who please the king.
June 2Then David sent Zadok and Abiathar the priests to say to the elders of Judah, “Why are you the last ones to reinstate the king? For all Israel is ready, and only you are holding out. Yet you are my own brothers, my own tribe, my own flesh and blood!”
13
And he told them to tell Amasa, “Since you are my nephew, may God strike me dead if I do not appoint you as commander-in-chief of my army in place of Joab.”
14
Then Amasa convinced all the leaders of Judah, and they responded as one man. They sent word to the king, “Return to us and bring back all those who are with you.”
15
So the king started back to Jerusalem. And when he arrived at the Jordan River, it seemed as if everyone in Judah had come to Gilgal to meet him and escort him across the river!
16
Then Shimei (the son of Gera the Benjaminite), the man from Bahurim, hurried across with the men of Judah to welcome King David.
17
A thousand men from the tribe of Benjamin were with him, including Ziba, the servant of Saul, and Ziba’s fifteen sons and twenty servants; they rushed down to the Jordan to arrive ahead of the king.
18
They all worked hard ferrying the king’s household and troops across, and helped them in every way they could.
As the king was crossing, Shimei fell down before him,
19
and pleaded, “My lord the king, please forgive me and forget the terrible thing I did when you left Jerusalem;
20
for I know very well how much I sinned. That is why I have come here today, the very first person in all the tribe of Joseph to greet you.”
21
Abishai asked, “Shall not Shimei die, for he cursed the Lord’s chosen king!”
22
“Don’t talk to me like that!” David exclaimed. “This is not a day for execution but for celebration! I am once more king of Israel!”
23
Then, turning to Shimei, he vowed, “Your life is spared.”
24-25
Now Mephibosheth, Saul’s grandson, arrived from Jerusalem to meet the king. He had not washed his feet or clothes nor trimmed his beard since the day the king left Jerusalem.
“Why didn’t you come with me, Mephibosheth?” the king asked him.
26
And he replied, “My lord, O king, my servant Ziba deceived me. I told him, ‘Saddle my donkey so that I can go with the king.’ For as you know I am lame.
27
But Ziba has slandered me by saying that I refused to come.
*
But I know that you are as an angel of God, so do what you think best.
28
I and all my relatives could expect only death from you, but instead you have honored me among all those who eat at your own table! So how can I complain?”
29
“All right,” David replied. “My decision is that you and Ziba will divide the land equally between you.”
30
“Give him all of it,” Mephibosheth said. “I am content just to have you back again!”
31-32
Barzillai, who had fed the king and his army during their exile in Mahanaim, arrived from Rogelim to conduct the king across the river. He was very old now, about eighty, and very wealthy.
33
“Come across with me and live in Jerusalem,” the king said to Barzillai. “I will take care of you there.”
34
“No,” he replied, “I am far too old for that.
35
I am eighty years old today, and life has lost its excitement.
*
Food and wine are no longer tasty, and entertainment is not much fun; I would only be a burden to my lord the king.
36
Just to go across the river with you is all the honor I need!
37
Then let me return again to die in my own city, where my father and mother are buried. But here is Chimham.
*
Let him go with you and receive whatever good things you want to give him.”
38
“Good,” the king agreed. “Chimham shall go with me, and I will do for him whatever I would have done for you.”
39
So all the people crossed the Jordan with the king; and after David had kissed and blessed Barzillai, he returned home.
40
The king then went on to Gilgal, taking Chimham with him. And most of Judah and half of Israel were there to greet him.
41
But the men of Israel complained to the king because only men from Judah had ferried him and his household across the Jordan.
42
“Why not?” the men of Judah replied. “The king is one of our own tribe. Why should this make you angry? We have charged him nothing—he hasn’t fed us or given us gifts!”
43
“But there are ten tribes in Israel,” the others replied, “so we have ten times as much right in the king as you do; why didn’t you invite the rest of us? And, remember, we were the first to speak of bringing him back to be our king again.”
The argument continued back and forth, and the men of Judah were very rough in their replies.
20:
1
Then a hothead whose name was Sheba (son of Bichri, a Benjaminite) blew a trumpet and yelled, “We want nothing to do with David. Come on, you men of Israel, let’s get out of here. He’s not our king!”
2
So all except Judah and Benjamin turned around and deserted David and followed Sheba! But the men of Judah stayed with their king, accompanying him from the Jordan to Jerusalem.
3
When he arrived at his palace in Jerusalem, the king instructed that his ten wives he had left to keep house should be placed in seclusion. Their needs were to be cared for, he said, but he would no longer sleep with them as his wives. So they remained in virtual widowhood until their deaths.
4
Then the king instructed Amasa to mobilize the army of Judah within three days and to report back at that time.
5
So Amasa went out to notify the troops, but it took him longer than the three days he had been given.
6
Then David said to Abishai, “That fellow Sheba is going to hurt us more than Absalom did. Quick, take my bodyguard and chase after him before he gets into a fortified city where we can’t reach him.”
7
So Abishai and Joab set out after Sheba with an elite guard from Joab’s army and the king’s own bodyguard.
8-10
As they arrived at the great stone in Gibeon, they came face-to-face with Amasa. Joab was wearing his uniform with a dagger strapped to his side. As he stepped forward to greet Amasa, he stealthily slipped the dagger from its sheath. “I’m glad to see you, my brother,” Joab said, and took him by the beard with his right hand as though to kiss him. Amasa didn’t notice the dagger in his left hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach with it, so that his bowels gushed out onto the ground. He did not need to strike again, and he died there. Joab and his brother, Abishai, left him lying there and continued after Sheba.
11
One of Joab’s young officers shouted to Amasa’s troops, “If you are for David, come and follow Joab.”
12
But Amasa lay in his blood in the middle of the road, and when Joab’s young officers saw that a crowd was gathering around to stare at him, they dragged him off the road into a field and threw a garment over him.
13
With the body out of the way, everyone went on with Joab to capture Sheba.
Later Jesus appeared again to the disciples beside the Lake of Galilee. This is how it happened:
2
A group of us were there—Simon Peter, Thomas, “The Twin,” Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, my brother James and I
*
and two other disciples.
3
Simon Peter said, “I’m going fishing.”
“We’ll come too,” we all said. We did, but caught nothing all night.
4
At dawn we saw a man standing on the beach but couldn’t see who he was.
5
He called,
“Any fish, boys?”
*
“No,” we replied.
6
Then he said,
“Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get plenty of them!”
So we did, and couldn’t draw in the net because of the weight of the fish, there were so many!
7
Then I
*
said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” At that, Simon Peter put on his tunic (for he was stripped to the waist) and jumped into the water and swam ashore.
8
The rest of us stayed in the boat and pulled the loaded net to the beach, about 300 feet away.
9
When we got there, we saw that a fire was kindled and fish were frying over it, and there was bread.
10
“Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught,”
Jesus said.
11
So Simon Peter went out and dragged the net ashore. By his count there were 153 large fish; and yet the net hadn’t torn.
12
“Now come and have some breakfast!”
Jesus said; and none of us dared ask him if he really was the Lord, for we were quite sure of it.
13
Then Jesus went around serving us the bread and fish.
14
This was the third time Jesus had appeared to us since his return from the dead.
15
After breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others?”
*
“Yes,” Peter replied, “you know I am your friend.”
“Then feed my lambs,”
Jesus told him.
16
Jesus repeated the question:
“Simon, son of John, do you
really
love me?”
“Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I am your friend.”
“Then take care of my sheep,”
Jesus said.
17
Once more he asked him,
“Simon, son of John, are you even my friend?”
Peter was grieved at the way Jesus asked the question this third time. “Lord, you know my heart;
*
you know I am,” he said.
Jesus said,
“Then feed my little sheep.
18
When you were young, you were able to do as you liked and go wherever you wanted to; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands and others will direct you and take you where you don’t want to go.”
19
Jesus said this to let him know what kind of death he would die to glorify God. Then Jesus told him,
“Follow me.”
20
Peter turned around and saw the disciple Jesus loved following, the one who had leaned around at supper that time to ask Jesus, “Master, which of us will betray you?”
21
Peter asked Jesus, “What about him, Lord? What sort of death will he die?”
*
22
Jesus replied,
“If I want him to live
*
until I return, what is that to you?
You
follow me.”
23
So the rumor spread among the brotherhood that that disciple wouldn’t die! But that isn’t what Jesus said at all! He only said,
“If I want him to live until I come, what is that to you?”
24
I am that disciple!
I saw these events and have recorded them here. And we all know that my account of these things is accurate.
25
And I suppose that if all the other events in Jesus’ life were written, the whole world could hardly contain the books!
In my troubles I pled with God to help me and he did!
2
Deliver me, O Lord, from liars.
3
O lying tongue, what shall be your fate?
4
You shall be pierced with sharp arrows and burned with glowing coals.
*
5-6
My troubles pile high among these haters of the Lord, these men of Meshech and Kedar. I am tired of being here among these men who hate peace.
7
I am for peace, but they are for war, and my voice goes unheeded in their councils.
How much better is wisdom than gold, and understanding than silver!
17
The path of the godly leads away from evil; he who follows that path is safe.
June 3Meanwhile Sheba had traveled across Israel to mobilize his own clan of Bichri at the city of Abel in Beth-maacah.
15
When Joab’s forces arrived, they besieged Abel and built a mound to the top of the city wall and began battering it down.
16
But a wise woman in the city called out to Joab, “Listen to me, Joab. Come over here so I can talk to you.”
17
As he approached, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?”
And he replied, “I am.”
18
So she told him, “There used to be a saying, ‘If you want to settle an argument, ask advice at Abel.’ For we always give wise counsel.
19
You are destroying an ancient, peace-loving city, loyal to Israel. Should you destroy what is the Lord’s?”
20
And Joab replied, “That isn’t it at all.
21
All I want is a man named Sheba from the hill country of Ephraim, who has revolted against King David. If you will deliver him to me, we will leave the city in peace.”
“All right,” the woman replied, “we will throw his head over the wall to you.”
22
Then the woman went to the people with her wise advice, and they cut off Sheba’s head and threw it out to Joab. And he blew the trumpet and called his troops back from the attack, and they returned to the king at Jerusalem.
23
Joab was commander-in-chief of the army, and Benaiah was in charge of the king’s bodyguard.
*
24
Adoram was in charge of the forced labor battalions, and Jehoshaphat was the historian who kept the records.
25
Sheva was the secretary, and Zadok and Abiathar were the chief priests.
26
Ira the Jairite was David’s personal chaplain.
21:
1
There was a famine during David’s reign that lasted year after year for three years, and David spent much time in prayer about it. Then the Lord said, “The famine is because of the guilt of Saul and his family, for they murdered the Gibeonites.”
2
So King David summoned the Gibeonites. They were not part of Israel but were what was left of the nation of the Amorites. Israel had sworn not to kill them; but Saul, in his nationalistic zeal, had tried to wipe them out.
3
David asked them, “What can I do for you to rid ourselves of this guilt and to induce you to ask God to bless us?”
4
“Well, money won’t do it,” the Gibeonites replied, “and we don’t want to see Israelites executed in revenge.”
“What can I do, then?” David asked. “Just tell me and I will do it for you.”
5-6
“Well, then,” they replied, “give us seven of Saul’s sons—the sons of the man who did his best to destroy us. We will hang them before the Lord in Gibeon, the city of King Saul.”
“All right,” the king said, “I will do it.”
7
He spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, who was Saul’s grandson, because of the oath between himself and Jonathan.
8
But he gave them Saul’s two sons Armoni and Mephibosheth, whose mother was Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah. He also gave them the five adopted sons of Michal that she brought up for Saul’s daughter Merab, the wife of Adriel.
9
The men of Gibeon impaled them in the mountain before the Lord. So all seven of them died together at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10
Then Rizpah, the mother of two of the men,
*
spread sackcloth upon a rock and stayed there through the entire harvest season to prevent the vultures from tearing at their bodies during the day and the wild animals from eating them at night.
11
When David learned what she had done,
12-14
he arranged for the men’s bones to be buried in the grave of Saul’s father, Kish. At the same time he sent a request to the men of Jabesh-gilead, asking them to bring him the bones of Saul and Jonathan. They had stolen their bodies from the public square at Beth-shan where the Philistines had impaled them after they had died in battle on Mount Gilboa. So their bones were brought to him. Then at last God answered prayer and ended the famine.
15
Once when the Philistines were at war with Israel, and David and his men were in the thick of the battle, David became weak and exhausted.
16
Ishbi-benob, a giant whose speartip weighed more than twelve pounds and who was sporting a new suit of armor, closed in on David and was about to kill him.
17
But Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, came to his rescue and killed the Philistine. After that David’s men declared, “You are not going out to battle again! Why should we risk snuffing out the light of Israel?”
18
Later, during a war with the Philistines at Gob, Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, another giant.
19
At still another time and at the same place, Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite,
*
whose spear handle was as huge as a weaver’s beam!
20-21
And once when the Philistines and the Israelis were fighting at Gath, a giant with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot defied Israel, and David’s nephew Jonathan—the son of David’s brother Shimei—killed him.
22
These four were from the tribe of giants in Gath and were killed by David’s troops.
Dear friend who loves God:
In my first letter
*
I told you about Jesus’ life and teachings and how he returned to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit.
3
During the forty days after his crucifixion he appeared to the apostles from time to time, actually alive, and proved to them in many ways that it was really he himself they were seeing. And on these occasions he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.
4
In one of these meetings he told them not to leave Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came upon them in fulfillment of the Father’s promise, a matter he had previously discussed with them.
5
“John baptized you with water,”
*
he reminded them,
“but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit in just a few days.”
6
And another time when he appeared to them, they asked him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel from Rome
*
now and restore us as an independent nation?”
7
“The Father sets those dates,”
he replied,
“and they are not for you to know.
8
But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power to testify about me with great effect, to the people in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth, about my death and resurrection.”
9
It was not long afterwards that he rose into the sky and disappeared into a cloud, leaving them staring after him.
10
As they were straining their eyes for another glimpse, suddenly two white-robed men were standing there among them,
11
and said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here staring at the sky? Jesus has gone away to heaven, and some day, just as he went, he will return!”
12
They were at the Mount of Olives when this happened, so now they walked the half mile back to Jerusalem
13
and held a prayer meeting in an upstairs room of the house where they were staying.
Here is the list of those who were present at the meeting: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (also called “The Zealot”), Judas (son of James), and the brothers of Jesus.
14
Several women, including Jesus’ mother, were also there.
15
This prayer meeting went on for several days. During this time, on a day when about 120 people were present, Peter stood up and addressed them as follows:
16
“Brothers, it was necessary for the Scriptures to come true concerning Judas, who betrayed Jesus by guiding the mob to him, for this was predicted long ago by the Holy Spirit, speaking through King David.
17
Judas was one of us, chosen to be an apostle just as we were.
18
He bought a field with the money he received for his treachery and falling headlong there, he burst open, spilling out his bowels.
19
The news of his death spread rapidly among all the people of Jerusalem, and they named the place ‘The Field of Blood.’
20
King David’s prediction of this appears in the Book of Psalms, where he says, ‘Let his home become desolate with no one living in it.’ And again, ‘Let his work be given to someone else to do.’
21-22
“So now we must choose someone else to take Judas’ place and to join us as witnesses of Jesus’ resurrection. Let us select someone who has been with us constantly from our first association with the Lord—from the time he was baptized by John until the day he was taken from us into heaven.”
23
The assembly nominated two men: Joseph Justus (also called Barsabbas) and Matthias.
24-25
Then they all prayed for the right man to be chosen. “O Lord,” they said, “you know every heart; show us which of these men you have chosen as an apostle to replace Judas the traitor, who has gone on to his proper place.”
26
Then they drew straws,
*
and in this manner Matthias was chosen and became an apostle with the other eleven.
Shall I look to the mountain gods for help?
2
No! My help is from Jehovah who made the mountains! And the heavens too!
3-4
He will never let me stumble, slip, or fall. For he is always watching, never sleeping.
5
Jehovah himself is caring for you! He is your defender.
*
6
He protects you day and night.
7
He keeps you from all evil and preserves your life.
8
He keeps his eye upon you as you come and go and always guards you.
Pride goes before destruction and haughtiness before a fall.