Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Apart from the Psalms, it's been a while since we've checked in on David and his storyline.

The last time we saw him was 10 days ago on day 111.

Let's do a quick refresher of where we are in the story before we jump into today's recap.

Before today's reading, David has been king of the tribe of Judah for about seven years.

The other tribes have been following Saul's son Ishbosheth, but then two of Ishbosheth's military leaders murdered him.

And right before that happened, Ishbosheth's military commander, Abner, stepped down from his position and went around convincing all the other tribes that they should follow David instead.

So that's where we are when we pick up today's reading.

We hit 2 Samuel 5 first, then jumped over to 1 Chronicles 11 and 12, which recounted a lot of what we just read in 2 Samuel 5.

And that's often how it will be when we incorporate Chronicles into our reading.

But remember that it will often give its own lens on things, taking out some things that are less favorable, adding in some things that we don't see elsewhere,

let it flesh out your understanding of these stories a bit more.

Since these chapters mostly covered the same stories today, I'll do the recap as an overview of all three chapters at once.

Finally, David is anointed king over the other tribes, unifying the nation of Israel.

David was 30 years old at this point, which means he had to wait roughly 15 years between the time Samuel anointed him as king over Israel, and the time he actually became king over Israel.

Up until this point had been reigning in Hebron, which was the religious capital at the time.

But he's got his heart set on moving the capital to Jerusalem. There's only one problem. The Jebiusites lived there.

The Israelites haven't been able to drive them out on any previous attempts.

In part because of how Jerusalem is on a hill surrounded by valleys, surrounded by hills. It's almost like a topographical fortress with a natural moat.

The Jebiusites who lived there taunt David, saying that he's so weak and that Jerusalem itself is so fortified that they could practically appoint blind and lame people as their security guards on the walls surrounding the city, and he still wouldn't manage to get in.

And just like he did with the battle against Goliath, David opted for brains, not brawn. He outwitted them by going up through a water shaft instead of attacking the walls and gates.

The water shaft they used to enter the city is still there, and you can walk through the water tunnels, just like David and his mighty men did, except without the fear of death, unless maybe your claustrophobic.

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