2 Samuel 21 – A drought-induced famine hits for three years.  David learns from the Lord that it is because of the sin Saul incurred when he put the Gibeonites to death.

David goes to the Gibeonites to ask what he can do to expiate Saul’s guilt.  They ask that seven of Saul’s sons be handed over to them to be “impale[d] before the Lord at Gibeon on the mountain of the Lord” (21:6). The king cannot give them Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, so he turns over two of the sons…

2 Samuel 19 – When word gets out how the king is taking the death of his son, the day of victory turns into a day of mourning, and Joab is furious – rightfully so.  His men are made to feel ashamed instead of proud of their sacrifices.  Joab confronts him: “Today you have covered with shame the faces of all our officers who have saved your life today, and the lives of your sons and your daughters, and the lives of your wives and your concubines, for love of those who hate you and for…

2 Samuel 18 – David organizes his men into three groups: one under Joab, one under Abishai (Joab’s brother) and one under Ittai the Gittite (Gath was a city in Philistia on the Mediterranean).  David wants to go out with them, but they prevail upon him to remain in the city to send help if they need it.  As they go out David says to them, “Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.  And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom”…

2 Samuel 17 – Ahithophel (the wise advisor) advises Absalom to pursue David that night while he is weary and discouraged and take him down – kill him, but him alone. Don’t kill everyone. Bring the rest of David’s army back to him and let them live in peace. But then Absalom seeks the advice of Hushai, the spy of David’s who has infiltrated Absalom’s circle of friends. He tells Absalom that Ahithophel is giving him poor advice—that David would not be “weary and discouraged” or easy to…

2 Samuel 16 – Meanwhile, Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, meets him with food for his men.  His master has stayed behind in Jerusalem believing that the overthrow will result in the restoration of his father’s patrimony to him.  David then turns all he has previously granted to Mephibosheth to the servant Ziba.

There is incredible drama in this story. Mephibosheth is the lame son of David’s dearest childhood friend, Jonathan –…

2 Samuel 15 – Absalom steals the hearts of the people of Israel (15:6) by being available to them to give judgment on cases that affect them.  After four years of this, he asks his father if he may go to Hebron to offer a sacrifice there he promised to make while he was in Geshur.  Hebron was a holy site to Jews in that time, the place where Abraham and Sarah were buried, the place where David had been anointed king. The plan Absalom really has is to have the people proclaim…

2 Samuel 13 – Another drama unfolds – I remember the first time I read some of these stories when I was teaching Middle Schoolers (7^th graders) at Friends Academy. I could hardly believe I was reading the Bible! Some of the stories, I didn’t think 7^th graders should read. Old-fashioned me.

Anyway, David’s son, Absalom (his son by wife Maacah—3:3), had a sister named Tamar. His half-brother Amnon (by wife Ahinoam—1 S 25:43) is enamored of…

2 Samuel 12 – The Lord sends his prophet, Nathan, to afflict David.  Don't you wish every "ruler" had an honest prophet to keep him on the straight and narrow! Nathan tells David a story—about two men in a city, a poor one and a rich one, one with many sheep and one with only one.  When a traveler comes to the rich man requiring hospitality, the rich man is loath to sacrifice even one sheep to feed the man; so he takes the poor man’s one lamb and uses it.  David becomes…

2 Samuel 11 – In the spring, David sends his army to besiege Rabbah (Ammonite city east of the Jordan). But he remains behind in Jerusalem.  He sees a beautiful woman, Bathsheba, bathing on the roof of her house.  He sends someone “to inquire about the woman” (11:3), and it turns out she is the wife of Uriah the Hittite, who is off fighting with Joab. David sends for her and sleeps with her.  She gets pregnant and David has a problem on his hands.

David sends word to…

2 Samuel 10 – Nahash’s (the Ammonite and David’s loyal friend) son Hanun succeeds him and David plans to remain loyal to him. But the Ammonite princes doubt David’s intent when he sends his messengers to meet with Hanun. They think he has sent them as spies.  As a result, Hanun seizes them and humiliates them by shaving off half their beards and cutting their garments.  David is furious.…

2 Samuel 7 – Having consolidated the kingdom and had a great house built for himself, David conceives the idea of building God a dwelling place too.  He asks his “in-house” prophet, Nathan about it, and at first Nathan says fine; but at night Nathan receives a definitive word from the Lord that this is not His will.  These wonderful passages follow:

“Are you the one to build me a house to live in?  I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the…

2 Samuel 4 – Ishbaal [Ishbosheth] is alone now.  When he hears of Abner’s death “his courage failed” (4:1).  Two men described as captains of raiding bands associated with his side (Baanah and Rechab) come and kill him (4:7). They cut off his head and bring it to David—hoping, I presume, to get on his good side.  But David does to them what he did to the Amalekite who came to him, claiming to have killed Saul. He kills them, cuts off their hands and feet and hangs their bodies by the…

2 Samuel 3 – A long war ensues between the house of Saul and the house of David.  David has six sons during the seven years he spends in Hebron: Amnon, Ahinoam’son; Ahinoam was his first wife; Chileah, his son by Abigail; Absalom, Maacah’s son – Maach’s father was king of Geshur, located in the Golan Heights; Adonijah, Haggith’s son; Shephatiah, Abital’s son and Ithream, son of Eglah.

Saul’s son Ishbaal (or Ishbosheth—to avoid use of the word…

2 Samuel 2 – The Lord tells David to go into Judah, to the town of Hebron, a very important city to the south and west of the Dead Sea.  He goes with two of his wives—Ahinoam of Jezreel (his first wife) and Abigail of Carmel (formerly wife of Nabal – see 1 Samuel 25).  There David is anointed king over the house of Judah. The tradition of 2 Samuel is different from the account in 1 Samuel 16:1, where Samuel goes out in search of the shepherd boy whom God…

2 Samuel - I know it might seem to make more sense to start the books of Samuel with 1 Samuel, but I am following Year Two of my scripture plan. I love both books. The story of the transition from the era of "judges" to that of the "kings" is fascinating. We are skipping over Saul's time to the rise of David. The second book of Samuel centers on David's consolidation of power and the later weakening of his rule over the kingdom and his own family. 

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Ruth 4 – Boaz consults with the man and with ten elders.  He puts the matter to the man as if Naomi were selling land that belonged to her husband, and asks the next of kin if he is interested.  The man says he is, but when he learns that with the land comes Ruth, he yields his “rights” to Boaz. The deal here is that if the man were to take Ruth and she were to have a son by him, the son would legally be Elimelech’s heir—Ruth’s husband’s father’s, and the land would then go to him. …

Ruth 3 – Naomi wishes to find some better situation for Ruth.  She instructs her to go down to Boaz when he is done eating and drinking, “uncover his feet and lie down” there. What she is doing is offering herself for the purpose of giving Boaz the opportunity of providing his close relative—the deceased Elimelech—with a lawful heir. He is “next of kin” or “one with the right to redeem.” He wakes in the middle of the night, finds her there and is duly impressed with her virtue. He…

Ruth 2 – Boaz is a relative of Elimelech and a rich man as well. Ruth goes to glean in his fields behind the reapers. Women with no man to whom they were attached had to glean like the poor, taking the remnants of the harvested grain. Boaz inquires about her and learns she has been gleaning for long hours. He talks to her, tells her to stay in his fields, that he has instructed his people not to bother her.  Ruth prostrates herself before him and asks why he is being kind.  He tells…

Ruth (Background Information) – This book, one of only two in the Bible named for a woman character, has no known author. It was ascribed to Samuel and is set in the period of the judges – sometime between the 14^th to the 11^th century BC.

Ruth 1 – When the judges rules, there was a famine, Elimelech (a man from Bethlehem whose name meant “my god is king”) and his wife, Naomi (“my fair one”), went to Moab [east side of the Dead Sea]…

Baruch 6:1-39  (thought to be a Letter of Jeremiah) – Jeremiah tells them what to expect in exile.  He asks them to beware of becoming like the foreigners or “of letting fear for [their] gods possess you when you see the multitude before and behind them worshiping them.  But say in your heart,’ It is you, O Lord, whom we must worship.’ For my angel is with you, and he is watching over your lives.” (6:5-6) They are false gods; they “cannot speak” (6:8). No one should be…