Absalom's rebellion comes to its dramatic conclusion. He is out-fought by David's army and defeated. Joab, David's commander, perhaps fearful that the king's affection for his son would compromise his effectiveness, persuades him ...

David is not yet secure on his throne, and risks alienating his supporters by his grief over Absalom. Joab, his key ally, is forced to rebuke him (verses 5–8). The loyalty of the northern tribes, who would rebel against David's grandson and be...

David's troubles are not over yet; he has to deal with another rebellion. Again, it is the northern tribes who prove disloyal. Amasa, to whom David has given the command of the army, is evidently not up to the job (verse 5); David falls back on ...

Some Bible stories are extremely difficult for us today, reflecting as they do an understanding of God that we cannot share. In this story, God sends a famine on Israel because of the guilt of the house of Saul for his treatment of the Gibeonites.

This chapter is a psalm of praise to God for keeping David safe in his troubles. It's also in the book of Psalms (Psalm 18). It uses vivid imagery drawn from storms and floods to depict the trials of David's life – and our own – and por...

At this stage of 2 Samuel David's life is drawing towards its close, though there's still more drama to come. This chapter pays tribute to his mighty warriors; it reads like our own stories of chivalry from the Middle Ages, where brave knig...

On the face of it, there's nothing wrong with a king taking a census. A prudent monarch needs to know how many soldiers and taxpayers he has. In this story, the element of sinfulness isn't explained. The writer ascribes what happens to God&...

This psalm is a communal lament by the temple musicians (the sons of Asaph), probably at a time when disaster had fallen upon the northern tribes. Coming together to lament before God, the Israelites recognise that they need God first and foremost, a...

Paul has just been rescued from great danger: a mob has nearly lynched him and he's been saved by a Roman commander, who – at the risk of starting up the riot again – gives him permission to address the hostile crowd.

Reading of Paul's adventures in Jerusalem we're struck by his courage and resourcefulness. He survives an attempted lynching, and faces the mob down. He uses Roman law to escape a potentially lethal flogging (22.25).

This chapter relates Paul's first appearance before the Roman governor, Felix. Accused by the lawyer Tertullus (verse 1) of riot and defiling the Temple, he defends himself clearly and factually: he is simply not guilty, he says.

The Romans were in many ways a horrifyingly brutal people, but they were, much of the time at least, committed to the rule of law. A new governor, Festus, has inherited the problem of Paul from his predecessor Felix; again, the Jewish leaders were ba...

King Agrippa, before whom Paul defends himself in this chapter, was a client king of the Romans and had been brought up at the Emperor Claudius's court. He was Jewish in faith, though, and was more receptive to Paul's testimony than the tho...

This is one of the 'we' sections of Acts; Luke writes in the first person, because he was there. It's a fine adventure story – anyone who likes tales of the sea will enjoy this – but it also speaks to us about deeper things.

We might think the ending of Acts is rather curious. The last chapter finishes the story of the shipwreck and takes Paul to Rome. He is still under Roman guard, but not very strictly; it's house arrest rather than imprisonment.

Romans is Paul's most purely 'theological' letter. He had not yet visited the church there, though he knows several of its members. The letter seems to have been written to outline what he believes as a way of introducing himself. It&#...

At first glance, it looks as though Paul is accusing the entire Roman church of being wicked sinners. That isn't quite what he means. He is warning these Jewish believers against relying on their Jewishness to be right with God, and thinking tha...

In this chapter Paul continues his argument that Jews and Gentiles are on level ground. Jews, he says, have been entrusted with God's message (verse 2) but they are in no better or worse condition than Gentiles (verse 9); we are all 'under ...

In Romans 4 Paul continues his attack on the idea that it's by 'works of the Law' that people are made right with God. That can't be true, he says, because Abraham was accepted by God as 'righteous' before he was circumc...

There's a clear theme in this chapter, though – like the rest of Romans – it is dense and rich in argument. Paul is overwhelmed with a sense of the scope and scale of salvation. It's not enough for God to have forgiven us – it was �...