Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David besought the face of Jehovah. And Jehovah answered, It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he had killed the Gibeonites.

Therefore David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Jehovah?

And they answered the king, As for the man who destroyed us and plotted against us, that we should be annihilated from remaining in any of the territories of Israel,

But the king spared Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath of Jehovah that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before Jehovah. So they fell, all seven together, and were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

And David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

And he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.

But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lusts and enticed.

Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the eyes of the sun.

But the king said, What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because Jehovah has said to him, Curse David. Who then shall say, Why have you done so?

But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry in your eyes because you sold me here; for God has sent me before you to preserve life.

As for you, you had devised evil against me; but God had planned it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

Now therefore, please, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If Jehovah has stirred you up against me, let Him accept an offering. But if it is the sons of men, may they be cursed before Jehovah, for they have driven me out this day from joining in the inheritance of Jehovah, saying, Go, serve other gods.

And Jehovah said, Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead? So one said this, and another was saying that.

And Jehovah said to him, In what way? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of falsehood in the mouth of all his prophets. And Jehovah said, You shall entice him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.

And if the prophet is induced to speak anything, I Jehovah have induced that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.

Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live;

to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,

But David did not take the number of those twenty years old and under, because Jehovah had said He would multiply Israel like the stars of the heavens.

Joab the son of Zeruiah began to count, but he did not finish, for wrath came upon Israel because of this; nor was the number recorded in the account of the chronicles of King David.