Episode 119: David becomes king of Israel

2 Samuel 4-5

Baanah and Rechab kill Ishbosheth

4 ¹ When Ishbosheth heard that Abner was dead, he was weakened and everyone in Israel was troubled.

⁵ One day at noon, two of Ishbosheth's officers, Baanah and Rechab, went to Ishbosheth's house while he was lying in bed.

⁶ While pretending to fetch wheat, they smote Ishbosheth under the fifth rib.

Ishbosheth's head is brought to David

⁷ Baanah and Rechab cut off Ishbosheth’s head and brought it to David.

⁸ When presenting the head, they said to him:

Here is the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who wanted to kill you.

God has avenged you today of Saul and his descendants.

David kills Rechab and Baanah, cuts off their hands and feet, and hangs their bodies over the pool

¹⁰ David said to them:

This reminds me of the time a nice young Amalekite came to report Saul's death, thinking that I'd be glad to hear it. I killed him for it.

¹¹ I'll do even worse to you, since you murdered a righteous man on his bed.

¹² Then David commanded his young men and they killed Rechab and Baanah, cut off their hands and feet, and hung their bodies over the pool in Hebron. They buried Ishbosheth's head in the sepulcher of Abner.

David becomes king of Israel

5 All the tribes of Israel came to Hebron to anoint David as king.

⁴ David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he was king for forty years.

David occupies Jerusalem, calling it "The City of David"

⁶ David and his men went to Jerusalem, but the Jebusites who lived there, said to him,

You won't be able to take this city, even the lame and the blind could stop you.

⁸ David said, "I hate lame and blind people. Whoever smites them will be my captain."

⁹ David took the city of Jerusalem, renaming it "The city of David."

¹⁰ He grew great, and God was with him.

David takes more wives and concubines

¹³ David took more wives and concubines, who bore him eleven more sons.

God helps David smite the Philistines (twice)

¹⁷ When the Philistines heard that David was king of Israel, they prepared for battle.

¹⁹ David asked God, "Should I attack the Philistines?"

“Yes, attack them,” God said, "I’ll deliver them into your hand."

^20-21 So David smote the Philistines and burned their religious images.

²² But the Philistines came back again.

²³ So David asked God what to do (again).

God said,

Don't attack, at least not directly. Come around from behind, over by the mulberry trees. Wait until you hear the sound of the Philistines from the tops of the trees. Then come down and smite them. I'll attack them from the front.

²⁵ David did as God commanded, and, with God's help, he smote the Philistines again.