![\"10.png\"](\"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/10.png\")
<\/a> <\/p>After Saul died, David didn\u2019t just sit around wondering what to do. The first thing he did was ask the Lord:<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, should I go up to one of the towns of Judah?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lord said, \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n
David asked again:<\/p>\n
\u201cThen where should I go?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lord said, \u201cGo to Hebron.\u201d<\/p>\n
David thought, \u201cAlright then, I\u2019ll do what God says.\u201d<\/p>\n
So David took his men, along with their families, and they all went up to Hebron.<\/p>\n
Before long, the men of Judah came to Hebron. There, they anointed David and made him king over the tribe of Judah.<\/p>\n
Then somebody came and told David:<\/p>\n
\u201cKing David, there\u2019s something you should know. The people of Jabesh Gilead buried Saul.\u201d<\/p>\n
David was deeply moved when he heard that.<\/p>\n
He immediately sent messengers to the people of Jabesh Gilead and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou treated Saul with great kindness. Even after he died, you gave him a proper burial. May the Lord bless you!<\/p>\n
Since you showed such loyalty, I won\u2019t forget what you\u2019ve done. I will also show kindness to you.<\/p>\n
Saul is gone now, but the people of Judah have anointed me as their king. So don\u2019t be afraid. As long as I have food on my table, you won\u2019t be forgotten!\u201d<\/p>\n
So on one side, David had become king over Judah.<\/p>\n
But on the other side, things were getting complicated.<\/p>\n
Saul\u2019s army commander was a man named Abner, the son of Ner.<\/p>\n
Abner took Saul\u2019s son Ish-Bosheth, crossed the Jordan River, and came to Mahanaim.<\/p>\n
Then Abner put Ish-Bosheth on the throne and said:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to be king over Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ish-Bosheth then ruled over Gilead, Asher, Jezreel, Ephraim, Benjamin, and the rest of Israel.<\/p>\n
Ish-Bosheth was forty years old when he became king, and he ruled for two years.<\/p>\n
But the people of Judah followed David.<\/p>\n
So now Israel basically had two kings.<\/p>\n
On one side was David, ruling over Judah.<\/p>\n
On the other side was Ish-Bosheth, ruling over the rest of Israel.<\/p>\n
David ruled over Judah from Hebron for seven years and six months.<\/p>\n
One day, Abner took the army of Israel and went from Mahanaim to Gibeon.<\/p>\n
David\u2019s men came out too, led by Joab, the son of Zeruiah.<\/p>\n
The two groups met beside the pool of Gibeon, with one army sitting on one side and the other army sitting on the other.<\/p>\n
Neither side wanted to back down.<\/p>\n
Then Abner suddenly said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy don\u2019t we let some of the young men come out and have a little contest?\u201d<\/p>\n
Joab said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright, let\u2019s do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
So each side sent out twelve young men.<\/p>\n
At first, everybody probably thought it was just going to be a little competition.<\/p>\n
But things got ugly real quick.<\/p>\n
Each man grabbed his opponent by the head and stabbed him in the side with his sword.<\/p>\n
All twelve men on each side fell dead.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why the place was called Helkath Hazzurim, meaning something like \u201cField of Swords.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, the whole thing turned into a serious battle.<\/p>\n
The fighting became fierce, and Abner and the men of Israel were defeated by David\u2019s men.<\/p>\n
Then Saul\u2019s son Asahel came running after Abner.<\/p>\n
Asahel was incredibly fast\u2014he could run like a wild deer.<\/p>\n
He locked onto Abner and chased him nonstop.<\/p>\n
Abner looked back and asked:<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you Asahel?\u201d<\/p>\n
Asahel answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abner told him:<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t chase me anymore. Go after somebody else. Grab one of the young men and take his armor. Just leave me alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Asahel wouldn\u2019t listen.<\/p>\n
He kept chasing Abner.<\/p>\n
Abner warned him again:<\/p>\n
\u201cStop chasing me! Don\u2019t make me kill you.<\/p>\n
If I kill you, how am I ever going to face your brother Joab?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Asahel still wouldn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n
Finally, Abner had no choice.<\/p>\n
He suddenly turned around and struck Asahel with the back end of his spear.<\/p>\n
The spear went into Asahel\u2019s stomach and came out the other side.<\/p>\n
Asahel fell down and died right there.<\/p>\n
When the soldiers arrived at the place where Asahel had fallen, they all stopped.<\/p>\n
But Joab and Abishai weren\u2019t ready to quit.<\/p>\n
They kept chasing Abner until the sun was going down.<\/p>\n
When they reached the hill near the wilderness, the men of Benjamin gathered together and formed a group behind Abner.<\/p>\n
Abner finally shouted to Joab:<\/p>\n
\u201cJoab! How long are we going to keep doing this?<\/p>\n
Are we really going to keep killing each other forever?<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t you realize this is only going to end in bitterness and pain?<\/p>\n
How long are you going to keep chasing your own brothers?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all Israelites. We\u2019re fighting our own people!\u201d<\/p>\n
Joab answered:<\/p>\n
\u201cI swear before the living God, if you hadn\u2019t said that, our men would have kept chasing their brothers until morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then Joab blew the trumpet.<\/p>\n
The fighting finally stopped.<\/p>\n
Abner and his men traveled through the night, crossed the Jordan River, went through Bithron, and finally returned to Mahanaim.<\/p>\n
Joab and his men also traveled all night and reached Hebron at dawn.<\/p>\n
When they counted their men, they discovered that nineteen of David\u2019s men, plus Asahel, were missing.<\/p>\n
But David\u2019s men had also killed 360 men from Benjamin and Abner\u2019s army.<\/p>\n
Later, they took Asahel\u2019s body and buried him in the tomb of his father in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n
Then Joab and his men returned to Hebron.<\/p>\n
And David continued to rule as king over Judah.<\/p>\n
But this was only the beginning.<\/p>\n
The struggle between David\u2019s house and Saul\u2019s house was just getting started.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sarah After Saul died, David didn\u2019t just sit around wondering what to do. The first thing he did was ask the Lord: \u201cGod, should I go up to one of the towns of Judah?\u201d The Lord said, \u201cYes.\u201d David asked again: \u201cThen where should I go?\u201d The Lord said, \u201cGo to Hebron.\u201d David thought, \u201cAlright […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible-reflection"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10139,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10138\/revisions\/10139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/faithloop.org\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}