David goes to Hebron and rules over the Judah tribe
1Then David asked the Lord: ‘Must I go to one of the towns of Judah?’ And the Lord said to him: ‘Yes, you must go.’ David said: ‘Where must I go?’ And the Lord said: ‘To Hebron.’
2David then went to Hebron with his 2 wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail of Carmel, the widow of Nabal. 3All the men who were with David also took their families with them and they went to live in the towns near Hebron. 4The leaders of Judah came and they anointed David in Hebron to be king of the Judah tribe.
They told David that the men of Jabesh-Gilead had buried Saul. 5Then David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead to say to them: ‘I pray that God will be good to you because you did what you had to do and you buried King Saul. 6And now I pray that God will show his love to you and that He will be good to you. I will also be good to you because you did this good thing. 7Your King Saul is dead. Now you must be strong and be ready to go to war. There is one more thing: The Judah tribe has anointed me to be their king.’
8Abner, son of Ner, was the chief of Saul's army. He took Ish-Bosheth, the son of Saul, to the town of Mahanaim 9and he made Ish-Bosheth king of the people of Gilead, Ashuri, Jezreel, Ephraim and Benjamin. Then Ish-Bosheth was king of all the other tribes of Israel. 10Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul, was 40 years old when he became king_of_Israel and he was king for 2 years. At that time David was the king of only the Judah tribe. 11He was king of the Judah tribe in Hebron for 7 years and 6 months.
War_between David's men and the men of Ish-Bosheth
12Abner, son of Ner, and the servants of Ish-Bosheth, son of Saul, went from the town of Mahanaim to the town of Gibeon. 13Joab, son of Zeruiah, and David's servants also went there and they met Abner and his servants at the pool of Gibeon. Abner and the servants of Ish-Bosheth went to one side of the pool and they sat down, and Joab and David's men sat down on the other side of the pool. 14Then Abner said to Joab: ‘Let some of the young men from each side fight against each other here in front of us.’
Joab said: ‘Yes, let them do it.’ 15Then 12 men of Benjamin and Ish-Bosheth and 12 men of David got up and they came forward. 16Each young man grabbed the head of the young man in front of him and killed him with his sword and they died together. That is why the name of that place in Gibeon is Sword-field.
17Then they started fighting. There was a very bad war on that day. The men of David defeated the men of Abner and Israel. 18There were 3 sons of Zeruiah. They were Joab, Abishai and Asahel. Asahel could run very fast, as fast as a gazelle. 19He followed_and_chased Abner and he did not stop or turn away. 20Abner looked back and asked: ‘Is it you, Asahel?’ Asahel said: ‘Yes, it is I.’ 21Then Abner said to Asahel: ‘Turn away from me and chase one of the young men and fight him, then you can take his weapons and clothes.’ But Asahel did not want to turn away from Abner. 22Abner said again: ‘You must turn away from me. I do not want to kill you because then it will not be easy for me to look into your brother Joab's face again.’
23But Asahel did not want to turn away and so Abner pierced him with the back of his spear in his stomach. The spear came out of Asahel's back and he fell and died. Everyone who came to the place where Asahel fell and died stood still. 24But Joab and Abishai kept on chasing Abner. The sun went down when they came to the hill of Ammah, near Giah on the way to the Gibeon Desert. 25The men of Benjamin came to Abner and they stood on top of the hill, ready to fight. 26But Abner shouted to Joab: ‘Must we keep on killing each other? You know that everything will get worse if we keep on fighting. When will you tell your men to stop chasing their brothers?’
27Joab said: ‘If you had not spoken, as sure as God lives, the men would have kept on chasing their brothers until the morning.’
28Joab then blew the ram's-horn and all the men stopped. They no longer chased the Israelite men or kept on fighting. 29Abner and his men walked through Arabah that night. They went over the Jordan River and the next afternoon they came to the town of Mahanaim. 30After Joab stopped chasing Abner, he called all his men together. 19 of David's men were not there, and Asahel was also not there. 31But David's men had killed 360 of Abner's men. 32They picked up Asahel and buried him in his father's tomb at Bethlehem. Joab and his men walked all night and they came to Hebron when the sun came up.
