¹All the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, “Look, we are your bone and your flesh.

²Also in times past, when Saul was king over us, you were the one who led out and brought in Israel; and Yahweh said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will be ruler over Israel.’”

³All the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David cut a covenant with them at Hebron before the face of Yahweh; and they anointed David as king over Israel.

⁴David was thirty years old when he became king, and he reigned forty years.

⁵In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah.

⁶And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusite who dwelled in the land; and he said to David, saying, “You will not come in here, for the blind and the lame will turn you aside, saying, ‘David will not come in here.’”

⁷And David captured the stronghold of Zion; it is the city of David.

⁸And David said on that day, “Anyone who strikes the Jebusite, let him reach the lame and the blind through the water-spout — those hated by David's being!” Therefore they say, “A blind man or a lame man will not come into the house.”

⁹And David dwelled in the stronghold and called it the city of David; and David built round about, from the Millo and inward.

¹⁰And David went on becoming great, and Yahweh, the God of hosts, was with him.

¹¹And Hiram the king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar timbers, and artisans in wood, and artisans in the stone of the wall; and they built a house for David.

¹²And David knew that Yahweh had established him as king over Israel, and that he had lifted up his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.

¹³David took again concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and sons and daughters were born again to David.

¹⁴And these are the names of those born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon,

¹⁵and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia,

¹⁶and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet.

¹⁷The Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, and all the Philistines came up to search for David; and David heard and came down to the stronghold.

¹⁸And the Philistines came, and spread out in the vale of Rephaim.

¹⁹David inquired of Yahweh, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you set them in my hand? And Yahweh said to David, Go up, for I will surely set the Philistines in your hand.

²⁰David came to Baal-perazim, and David struck them down there, and said, Yahweh has burst open my enemies before my face, like a breach of waters. Therefore one called the name of that place Baal-perazim.

²¹There they forsook their idols, and David and his men carried them off.

²²Once again the Philistines went up and spread out in the vale of Rephaim.

²³David inquired of Yahweh, and he said, You shall not go up; go partly round behind them, and come at them from opposite the weeping trees.

²⁴And let it be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the weeping trees, then you shall act decisively, for then Yahweh has gone out before your face to strike the camp of the Philistines.

²⁵David did so, just as Yahweh had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as the approach to Gezer.