5 So David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-Gilead and said to them, “May you be blessed by Yahweh because you did this loyal love with your lord, with Saul, and you buried him.
6 Now may Yahweh show loyal love and faithfulness with you. I will also show the good with you that you have done in this matter.
7 So then, let your hands be strong and be valiant, for your lord Saul is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me as king over them.”
8 But Abner the son of Ner, the commander of Saul’s army, had taken Ish-Bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim.
9 He made him king over Gilead, over the Ashurites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, over Benjamin, and over Israel, all of it.
10 Ish-Bosheth the son of Saul was forty years old when he became king over Israel and he reigned two years; however, the house of Judah followed David.
11 The number of days that David was king over Hebron, over the house of Judah, was seven years and six months.