³⁹ While I, though I am crowned king, have little strength, and these men, the sons of Zeruiah, are out of my control: may the Lord give to the evil-doer the reward of his evil-doing!

³³ So their blood will be on the head of Joab, and on the head of his seed for ever; but for David and his seed and his family and the seat of his kingdom, there will be peace for ever from the Lord.

³⁴ So Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, went up, and falling on him, put him to death; and his body was put to rest in his house in the waste land.

¹⁴ Alexander the copper-worker did me much wrong: the Lord will give him the reward of his works:

⁸ Morning by morning will I put to death all the sinners in the land, so that all evil-doers may be cut off from Jerusalem.

⁴ Give them the right reward of their acts, and of their evil doings: give them punishment for the works of their hands, let them have their full reward.

⁵ Now you have knowledge of what Joab, the son of Zeruiah, did to me, and to the two captains of the army of Israel, Abner, the son of Ner, and Amasa, the son of Jether, whom he put to death, taking payment for the blood of war in time of peace, and making the band of my clothing and the shoes on my feet red with the blood of one put to death without cause.

⁶ So be guided by your wisdom, and let not his white head go down to the underworld in peace.

⁴ For he is the servant of God to you for good. But if you do evil, have fear; for the sword is not in his hand for nothing: he is God's servant, making God's punishment come on the evil-doer.

⁴ And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.

⁵ Take away evil-doers from before the king, and the seat of his power will be made strong in righteousness.

⁸ A king on the seat of judging puts to flight all evil with his eyes.

¹⁰ By him will all the horns of the sinners be cut off; but the horns of the upright will be lifted up.

¹² And mercy, O Lord, is yours, for you give to every man the reward of his work.

¹⁶ His wrongdoing will come back to him, and his violent behaviour will come down on his head.

⁶ And said to the judges, Take care what you do, for you are judging not for man but for the Lord, and he is with you in the decisions you give.

⁷ So now let the fear of the Lord be in you; do your work with care; for in the Lord our God there is no evil, or respect for high position, or taking of payment to do wrong.

⁵ And David said, Solomon my son is young and untested, and the house which is to be put up for the Lord is to be very great, a thing of wonder and glory through all countries; so I will make ready what is needed for it. So David got ready a great store of material before his death.

¹⁵ Ozem, the sixth, David, the seventh;

¹⁶ And their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And Zeruiah had three sons: Abishai and Joab and Asahel.

¹³ And say to Amasa, Are you not my bone and my flesh? May God's punishment be on me, if I do not make you chief of the army before me at all times in place of Joab!

⁵ And Joab came into the house to the king and said, Today you have put to shame the faces of all your servants who even now have kept you and your sons and your daughters and your wives and all your women safe from death;

⁶ For your haters, it seems, are dear to you, and your friends are hated. For you have made it clear that captains and servants are nothing to you: and now I see that if Absalom was living and we had all been dead today, it would have been right in your eyes.

⁷ So get up now, and go out and say some kind words to your servants; for, by the Lord, I give you my oath, that if you do not go out, not one of them will keep with you tonight; and that will be worse for you than all the evil which has overtaken you from your earliest years.

¹² He who gives a man a death-blow is himself to be put to death.