The Daily Audio Bible

¹⁴ Sheba travelled through the land of all Israel's tribes. He arrived at Abel Beth Maakah.^[a] All the people of Bicri's clan also came to the city. They joined Sheba there. ¹⁵ Then Joab's soldiers arrived and they started to attack Abel Beth Maakah. They made their camp all around the city. They built heaps of earth against the city's walls. They started to dig holes through the walls to cause them to fall down. ¹⁶ Then a wise woman stood on the wall and she shouted to them, ‘Listen! Listen to me! Tell Joab to come near so that I can speak to him!’

¹⁷ So Joab went towards her. The woman asked him, ‘Are you Joab?’

He answered, ‘Yes, I am.’

She said to him, ‘Please listen to what I have to say.’

‘I am listening, so tell me,’ he replied.

¹⁸ Then she said, ‘A long time ago, people said, “If you want an answer to your problem, go to Abel city.” So that is what people did when they had problems. ¹⁹ The people of this city like to live in peace. We are faithful to our nation, Israel. Have you decided to destroy such an important city in Israel? Why do you want to destroy a city that belongs to the Lord?’

²⁰ Joab answered her, ‘That is stupid! I would never do that! I am not trying to destroy anything. ²¹ That is not what we want. But there is a man in your city whose name is Sheba. He is Bicri's son and he comes from the hill country of Ephraim. He has turned against King David. If you will give me this one man, I will go away from your city. I will not destroy it.’

The woman said to Joab, ‘Wait there! I will throw his head to you from the wall.’

²² Then the woman spoke to all the people in the city. She told them her wise advice. So they cut off Sheba's head and they threw it off the wall to Joab.

Then Joab made a loud noise with his trumpet. So his soldiers went away from the city. Each of them went to his own home. Joab returned to King David in Jerusalem.

David's officers

²³ Joab was the officer who led all Israel's army.

Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of the king's personal guards.^[b]

²⁴ Adoniram ruled over the men who had to work for the king.

Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat wrote a report of everything that the king did.

²⁵ Sheva was the royal secretary.

Zadok and Abiathar were the priests.

²⁶ Ira from Jair was David's special priest.

The Gibeonites punish Saul's descendants

21 While David was king, there was a famine in Israel for three years. So David asked the Lord what had caused this trouble. The Lord said, ‘Saul's family is guilty of murder, because Saul killed many of the Gibeonites.’

² The Gibeonites were not descendants of Israel. They were the only Amorite people who still lived. The Israelites had promised not to kill them.^[c] But Saul thought that he should kill them. He thought that this would help Israel and Judah to rule their land.

Now King David told the Gibeonites to come to speak with him. ³ He asked them, ‘What can I do to help you? How can I make things right between us? I want you to bring the Lord's blessing to his people again.’

⁴ The Gibeonites answered David, ‘We do not want Saul's family to give us money or gold. And it would not be right for us to kill anyone in Israel.’

So David asked them, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

⁵ They answered the king, ‘You know that Saul tried to destroy us. That man wanted to kill all of our family who were living in Israel. ⁶ So we want you to give us seven of his male descendants. Then we will kill them. We will hang their bodies at the place where people worship the Lord in Gibeah. That was Saul's town, the man that the Lord had chosen to be king.’

The king said, ‘I will give them to you.’

⁷ The king did not give Jonathan's son Mephibosheth to them. He was kind to Mephibosheth because of David's promise to Jonathan, Saul's son. David had made that promise in the Lord's name. ⁸ Instead, the king took Saul's two sons, Armoni and Mephibosheth. Aiah's daughter Rizpah was their mother. He also took the five sons of Saul's daughter Merab. Adriel, the son of Barzillai from Meholath, was their father. ⁹ He gave them to the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites hanged them on a hill where people worshipped the Lord. All seven of them died together. That happened at the time when the barley harvest was beginning.

¹⁰ Aiah's daughter, Rizpah, put sackcloth on a rock and she sat on it. She stayed there to watch her sons' bodies, from the harvest time until the heavy rain came. During that time, she stopped the birds from eating the bodies in the daytime. At night, she kept the wild animals away.

¹¹ They told David what Saul's slave wife, Rizpah, had done. ¹² Then David went to fetch the bones of Saul and Saul's son Jonathan from the people at Jabesh Gilead. Their men had secretly taken their bodies from the open place in Beth Shan. The Philistines had killed Saul on Gilboa mountain and they had hung their bodies there.^{[d] 13} Now David brought the bones of Saul and Jonathan back from Jabesh Gilead. He also picked up the bones of the seven men that the Gibeonites had killed.

¹⁴ People buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan in the grave of Saul's father, Kish. The grave was in Zela, in land that belonged to Benjamin's tribe. The king had told them everything that they should do. After they had done all these things, God answered their prayers for their country.

Wars against the Philistines

¹⁵ Now the Philistines had started to attack the Israelites again. David went with his soldiers to fight against the Philistines. He became very tired. ¹⁶ A descendant of Rapha who was called Ishbi-Benob said that he would kill David. He had a bronze spear that weighed 3½ kilograms and he had a new sword. ¹⁷ But Zeruiah's son Abishai saved David. Abishai knocked down the Philistine and he killed him. So David's men said very strongly, ‘Our king, you must never again come out with us to fight a battle. You are like Israel's light. We do not want your life to finish.’^[e]

¹⁸ Some time after that, the Israelites fought a battle against the Philistines at Gob. In that battle, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, a descendant of Rapha.

¹⁹ In another battle against the Philistines at Gob, Elhanan, the son of Jaare-Oregim from Bethlehem, killed Goliath from Gath. Goliath's spear was very thick and heavy, like a big tree.

²⁰ There was another battle at Gath. Another descendant of Rapha fought against the Israelites there. He was a very large man. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. ²¹ He shouted to insult the Israelite soldiers. So Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimeah, killed him.

²² Those four Philistines were descendants of Rapha and they lived in Gath. David and his soldiers killed all of them.^[f]

Jesus speaks to his apostles and he goes up to heaven

1 Jesus did many things when he was living on earth. He also taught people many things. I told you about all these things in the first book that I wrote for you, Theophilus.^{[a] 2} Those are the things that Jesus did before God took him up into heaven. Jesus had chosen some men to be his apostles. With the power of the Holy Spirit he told them what they must do. ³ After Jesus died on the cross, he became alive again. During the 40 days after that, he showed himself many times to his apostles. He showed himself in different ways. Then they could be really sure that he was alive again. During this time, Jesus spoke to his apostles about the kingdom of God.^[b]

⁴ One time, when Jesus and his apostles were together, he said to them, ‘Do not leave Jerusalem yet. You must wait there until you receive my Father's gift. My Father promised to give it to you. I have already told you about it. ⁵ John baptized people with water, but after a few days God will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’

⁶ While Jesus' apostles were together with him, they asked him, ‘Lord, at this time will you now give the kingdom back to us, the people of Israel?’

⁷ Jesus replied, ‘My Father decides when things will happen in the world. You do not need to know the day or the time when this will happen. ⁸ But the Holy Spirit will come to you, and he will give you power. The Holy Spirit will make your spirit strong. Then you will tell other people everywhere in the world about me. You will do that in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria and in places far away.’

⁹ When Jesus had finished speaking to his apostles, God took him up to heaven. The apostles watched Jesus while he went up. Then a cloud hid him and they could not see him any more.

¹⁰ The apostles were still looking carefully up into the sky when suddenly two men appeared.^[c] They were wearing white clothes and they stood near the apostles.

¹¹ The men said to the apostles, ‘You men from Galilee, you should not still be standing here and looking up into the sky. God has taken Jesus into heaven. You saw the way that Jesus went up to heaven. One day, he himself will return in the same way.’

The apostles choose Matthias

¹² Then the apostles left the Mount of Olives.^[d] They returned to Jerusalem. This was a walk of about 1 kilometre. ¹³ When the apostles arrived back in Jerusalem, they went to their room. The room where they were staying was upstairs. Those apostles were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas; Bartholomew and Matthew; also James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, the son of James.^[e]

¹⁴ All these apostles often met together to pray. Mary who was Jesus' mother, other women and Jesus' brothers also met with them. ¹⁵ One day, about 120 people who believed in Jesus were meeting together. Peter stood up and he said to them, ¹⁶ ‘My friends, long ago, the Holy Spirit gave King David a message to speak from God.^[f] He spoke about the things that Judas would do. Judas was the one who showed the soldiers how to catch Jesus. These things had to happen in the way that David wrote in the Bible long ago.^{[g] 17} Judas belonged to our group of disciples. Jesus chose him to work together with us.’

¹⁸ Judas received some money for the bad thing that he did. He bought a field with that money. But he fell down in that field and he died. His body broke open and the inside parts of his body poured out. ¹⁹ All the people who lived in Jerusalem heard about his death. So they called that field ‘Akeldama’ in their own language. ‘Akeldama’ means ‘The Field of Blood’.^[h]

²⁰ Peter then said, ‘This is what King David wrote in the book of Psalms:

²¹ Peter then said, ‘Because of this, we must choose another man instead of Judas. That man must have been one of our group all the time that the Lord Jesus was with us. ²² That is, from the time when John was baptizing people until the time when Jesus went up to heaven. He must be someone who saw Jesus become alive again after he died, as we did.’

²³ So the apostles agreed the names of two men. One of them was Joseph. People also called him Barsabbas and sometimes people called him Justus. The other man was called Matthias. ²⁴ Then the whole group prayed, ‘Lord, you know what everybody is really like. Please show us which man you have chosen. ²⁵ Which of these two men do you want to be an apostle instead of Judas? Judas left his work as an apostle. He has now gone to the place where he belongs.’

²⁶ Then the group used lots to choose the name of one man. It happened that they chose Matthias. So Matthias now became the 12th apostle, together with the other 11 men.

A song to sing as we climb.

Only God can keep me safe^[a]