After this, all the families of Israel came to David to make him king over the whole nation.

They said, When Saul was king, you are the one that led the soldiers to fight against our enemies.

 

 

 

 

 

And God, the Lord, told you, You will feed My people and be the ruler over them.

 

The first thing David did as king was conquer Israel’s enemies, the Jebusites, at Jerusalem.

 

No one in Israel had been able to conquer them and drive them out of God’s special land. But David, by God's power and help, did it.

 

 

 

He took their fort and made it into his castle and built the city around it.

 

 

David went on and on doing great things because the Lord God was with him.

David knew that it was the Lord God that had made him king over Israel and that God was lifting up his nation Israel above the nations of the world because He loved His people.

David took more wives and women for himself and more sons were born to him in Jerusalem.

When the enemies, the Philistines, heard that David was king over Israel them came to fight against him.

 

 

David asked God, Should I fight against them? Will you give me to win over them in battle?

 

 

 

 

 

 

YES! God told him. I will give them into your hand.

David came and struck down the Philistines in one place and said, God has broken out on my enemies in front of me like a dam bursting.

 

 

 

But the Philistines came again. So David asked God again.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord told him, No, go around behind them and come up against them across from the mulberry trees.

 

When you hear the sound of them marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then get up and go fight them.

 

 

For the Lord will go out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.

 

So David did what the Lord commanded him and struck down the enemies, the Philistines.

 

 

 

 

Then David wanted to bring the Ark of the Covenant, God’s throne in Israel, into Jerusalem, the city David was living, so David could be close to  it.

 

 

 

When the men went to get it, they didn’t do it the way God said, and God struck down a man who wasn’t clean who touched the Ark of the Covenant.

 

 

Then David was afraid of the Lord and took the Ark of the Covenant to the house of a man named Obed-Edom.

 

 

God blessed that man and his house greatly. The Ark was there with them for 3 months.

 

 

 

So David went and brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem the way God said to do it and nothing bad happened.

 

 

They made the sign of God’s love and sang and danced with great joy as the Levites carried the Ark with the poles on their shoulders.

 

 

David put the Ark of the Covenant in its place and made the special tent for it.

 

 

Then they gave presents to God and David gave all the people a cake of bread and good piece of meat and a bottle of wine. And all the people went home.

David’s wife, named Michal, hated the way David looked when he was dancing before the Lord.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And when he got home that day, she told David that he looked stupid

 

 

 

 

 

when he was dancing around like that without his kings robes on.

 

David told her, I was dancing before the Lord. He chose me instead of your father to be king.

 

 

 

 

The maidens that you say think I'm yukky me, they hold me high in their hearts.

 

And Michal had no children because she didn't hold high in her heart her husband or her king.