1. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said to him, "Look, we are your own family.
2. Even when Saul was king, you were the one who led Israel in battle. The Lord said to you, 'You will be a shepherd for my people Israel. You will be their leader.'"
3. So all the older leaders of Israel came to King David at Hebron, and he made an agreement with them in Hebron in the presence of the Lord. Then they poured oil on David to make him king over Israel.
4. David was thirty years old when he became king, and he ruled forty years.
5. He was king over Judah in Hebron for seven years and six months, and he was king over all Israel and Judah in Jerusalem for thirty-three years.
6. When the king and his men went to Jerusalem to attack the Jebusites who lived there, the Jebusites said to David, "You can't get inside our city. Even the blind and the crippled can stop you." They thought David could not enter their city.
7. But David did take the city of Jerusalem with its strong walls, and it became the City of David.
8. That day David said to his men, "To defeat the Jebusites you must go through the water tunnel. Then you can reach those 'crippled' and 'blind' enemies. This is why people say, 'The blind and the crippled may not enter the palace.'"
9. So David lived in the strong, walled city and called it the City of David. David built more buildings around it, beginning where the land was filled in. He also built more buildings inside the city.
10. He became stronger and stronger, because the Lord God All-Powerful was with him.
11. Hiram king of the city of Tyre sent messengers to David, along with cedar logs, carpenters, and stonecutters. They built a palace for David.
12. Then David knew that the Lord really had made him king of Israel and that the Lord had made his kingdom great because the Lord loved his people Israel.
13. After he came from Hebron, David took for himself more slave women and wives in Jerusalem. More sons and daughters were born to David.
14. These are the names of the sons born to David in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon,
15. Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia,
16. Elishama, Eliada, and Eliphelet.
17. When the Philistines heard that David had been made king over Israel, all the Philistines went to look for him. But when David heard the news, he went down to the stronghold.
18. The Philistines came and camped in the Valley of Rephaim.
19. David asked the Lord, "Should I attack the Philistines? Will you hand them over to me?" The Lord said to David, "Go! I will certainly hand them over to you."
20. So David went to Baal Perazim and defeated the Philistines there. David said, "Like a flood of water, the Lord has broken through my enemies in front of me." So David named the place Baal Perazim.
21. The Philistines left their idols behind at Baal Perazim, so David and his men carried them away.
22. Once again the Philistines came and camped at the Valley of Rephaim.
23. When David prayed to the Lord, he answered, "Don't attack the Philistines from the front. Instead, go around and attack them in front of the balsam trees.
24. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, act quickly. I, the Lord, will have gone ahead of you to defeat the Philistine army."
25. So David did what the Lord commanded. He defeated the Philistines and chased them all the way from Gibeon to Gezer.