The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁴ And Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel of Beth-ma′acah;^[a] and all the Bichrites^[b] assembled, and followed him in. ¹⁵ And all the men who were with Jo′ab came and besieged him in Abel of Beth-ma′acah; they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and they were battering the wall, to throw it down. ¹⁶ Then a wise woman called from the city, “Hear! Hear! Tell Jo′ab, ‘Come here, that I may speak to you.’” ¹⁷ And he came near her; and the woman said, “Are you Jo′ab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Listen to the words of your maidservant.” And he answered, “I am listening.” ¹⁸ Then she said, “They were wont to say in old time, ‘Let them but ask counsel at Abel’; and so they settled a matter. ¹⁹ I am one of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel; you seek to destroy a city which is a mother in Israel; why will you swallow up the heritage of the Lord?” ²⁰ Jo′ab answered, “Far be it from me, far be it, that I should swallow up or destroy! ²¹ That is not true. But a man of the hill country of E′phraim, called Sheba the son of Bichri, has lifted up his hand against King David; give up him alone, and I will withdraw from the city.” And the woman said to Jo′ab, “Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall.” ²² Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Jo′ab. So he blew the trumpet, and they dispersed from the city, every man to his home. And Jo′ab returned to Jerusalem to the king.

²³ Now Jo′ab was in command of all the army of Israel; and Benai′ah the son of Jehoi′ada was in command of the Cher′ethites and the Pel′ethites; ²⁴ and Ador′am was in charge of the forced labor; and Jehosh′aphat the son of Ahi′lud was the recorder; ²⁵ and Sheva was secretary; and Zadok and Abi′athar were priests; ²⁶ and Ira the Ja′irite was also David’s priest.

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gib′eonites to death.” ² So the king called the Gib′eonites.^[c] Now the Gib′eonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. ³ And David said to the Gib′eonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” ⁴ The Gib′eonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” ⁵ They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, ⁶ let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord.”^[d] And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephib′osheth, the son of Saul’s son Jonathan, because of the oath of the Lord which was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Ai′ah, whom she bore to Saul, Armo′ni and Mephib′osheth; and the five sons of Merab^[e] the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to A′dri-el the son of Barzil′lai the Meho′lathite; ⁹ and he gave them into the hands of the Gib′eonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰ Then Rizpah the daughter of Ai′ah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens; and she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹ When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Ai′ah, the concubine of Saul, had done, ¹² David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Ja′besh-gil′ead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilbo′a; ¹³ and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. ¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father; and they did all that the king commanded. And after that God heeded supplications for the land.

Exploits of David’s Men

¹⁵ The Philistines had war again with Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines; and David grew weary. ¹⁶ And Ish′bi-be′nob, one of the descendants of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of bronze, and who was girded with a new sword, thought to kill David. ¹⁷ But Abi′shai the son of Zeru′iah came to his aid, and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men adjured him, “You shall no more go out with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”

¹⁸ After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; then Sib′becai the Hu′shathite slew Saph, who was one of the descendants of the giants. ¹⁹ And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elha′nan the son of Ja′are-or′egim, the Bethlehemite, slew Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰ And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was descended from the giants. ²¹ And when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shim′e-i, David’s brother, slew him. ²² These four were descended from the giants in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

The Promise of the Holy Spirit

1 In the first book,^[a] O Theoph′ilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, ² until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. ³ To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. ⁴ And while staying^[b] with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me, ⁵ for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

The Ascension of Jesus

⁶ So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” ⁷ He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. ⁸ But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samar′ia and to the end of the earth.” ⁹ And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. ¹⁰ And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, ¹¹ and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”

Matthias Chosen to Replace Judas

¹² Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away; ¹³ and when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. ¹⁴ All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.^[c]

¹⁵ In those days Peter stood up among the brethren (the company of persons was in all about a hundred and twenty), and said, ¹⁶ “Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David, concerning Judas who was guide to those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷ For he was numbered among us, and was allotted his share in this ministry. ¹⁸ (Now this man bought a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong^[d] he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out. ¹⁹ And it became known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the field was called in their language Akel′dama, that is, Field of Blood.) ²⁰ For it is written in the book of Psalms,

and

²¹ So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²² beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.”^{[e] 23} And they put forward two, Joseph called Barsab′bas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthi′as. ²⁴ And they prayed and said, “Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show which one of these two thou hast chosen ²⁵ to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside, to go to his own place.” ²⁶ And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthi′as; and he was enrolled with the eleven apostles.

Assurance of God’s Protection

A Song of Ascents.