After this, all the tribes of Israel rallied to David at Hebron; We are kith and kin of thine, they said.

It is not so long since Israel marched under thy orders, when Saul was still reigning; and the Lord has promised thee that thou shouldst be its shepherd and its captain.

And so the elders of Israel went to his court at Hebron; and there, at Hebron, in the Lord’s presence, David made a covenant with them, and they anointed him king of Israel.

He was thirty years old when his reign began, and it lasted forty years;

for seven and a half years over Juda only, with its capital at Hebron, then for thirty-three more years over Israel and Juda both, with its capital at Jerusalem.

When the king and his army marched on Jerusalem, to attack the Jebusites, that were native to the soil, they met him with the taunt, Thou must rid thyself of blind men and lame, before thou canst make thy way in here, meaning that David would never make his way in;

but take it he did, the Citadel of Sion that is called David’s Keep.

He had promised a reward to the conqueror of the Jebusites, to the man who should reach the gutters of the roofs, and clear them of the blind and lame (as he called them) that were David’s enemies. That was how the saying arose, No entry into the precincts for the blind and the lame.✻

And now he made his dwelling in the Citadel, and called it David’s Keep; he built walls round it, too, with Mello for their outer bastion.

So he went on, prospering and gaining in strength, and the Lord God of hosts was with him.

Hiram too, king of Tyre, sent messengers offering him cedar planks and carpenters, and stone-masons for the walls; and they built David’s house for him.

No doubt could David have that the Lord had ratified his sovereignty over Israel, and made him the king of a great people.

So, when he removed from Hebron to Jerusalem, he provided himself with fresh wives and concubines there, and more sons and daughters were born to him;

Jerusalem was the birth-place of Samua, Sobab, Nathan, Solomon,

Jebahar, Elisua, Nepheg,

Japhia, Elisama, Elioda and Eliphaleth.

When news reached the Philistines that David had been anointed as king of all Israel, they mustered their forces to hunt him down. David, hearing of it, withdrew into his stronghold,

while the Philistines came in and occupied the whole valley of Raphaim.

Thereupon David consulted the Lord; should he attack the Philistines? Would he be given the mastery? And he was bidden to go to the attack; the Philistines would be at his mercy.

So David marched out to Baal-Pharasim, and defeated them there; The Lord has parted the enemy’s ranks before me, he said, as easily as water parts this way and that; so the place came by its name, Baal-Pharasim, The Master of the Breach.

They left their idols behind them there, and these fell into the hands of David and his men.

But once more the Philistines came to the attack, and occupied the Raphaim valley;

and this time, when David asked whether he might attack them with good hope of mastering them, the answer was, Do not go to the attack, circumvent them and come upon them from the direction of the pear-trees yonder.

Wait till thou hearest, in the tops of the pear-trees, the sound of marching feet; then offer battle; it is a sign that the Lord will pass on before thee, to smite down the army of the Philistines.

So David did as the Lord had bidden him; and he drove the Philistines before him all the way from Gabaa to Gezer.