A: Forty years (2 Samuel 5:4).
BONUS: Thirty-three years (2 Samuel 5:5). It took seven years before the other eleven tribes accepted him as king.
A: Ittai the Gittite. This foreign soldier was more loyal to King David than David’s own people (2 Samuel 15:19–21).
BONUS: Although David felt abandoned, he trusted God to deliver him (Psalm 3).
A: Joab, David’s army general, plunged three javelins into his heart (2 Samuel 18:14).
BONUS: Absalom had his head caught in the branches of a tree when he was attacked and killed by Joab.