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11-12 Then 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.[a] 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.[b] 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.[c] 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 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.
21 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[a] 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?”[b]
“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[c] 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?”[d]
“Yes,” Peter replied, “you know I am your friend.”
“Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him.
16 Jesus repeated the question:
“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;[e] 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?”[f]
22 Jesus replied, “If I want him to live[g]
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!
120 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.[a]
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.
16 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.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.