April 8

2 Samuel 7:1 — 10:19

7 And it came about that, when the king dwelt in his own house and Jehovah himself had given him rest from all his enemies round about, 2 then the king said to Nathan the prophet: “See, now, I am dwelling in a house of cedars while the ark of the [true] God is dwelling in the middle of tent cloths.” 3 Upon that Nathan said to the king: “Everything that is in your heart—go, do, because Jehovah is with you.”

4 And it came about on that night that the word of Jehovah came to Nathan, saying: 5 “Go, and you must say to my servant David, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Should you yourself build me a house for me to dwell in? 6 For I have not dwelt in a house from the day of my bringing the sons of Israel up out of Egypt to this day, but I was continually walking about in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7 During all the time that I have walked about among all the sons of Israel, was there a word that I spoke with one of the tribes of Israel that I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, ‘Why did YOU people not build me a house of cedars?’”’ 8 And now this is what you will say to my servant David, ‘This is what Jehovah of armies has said: “I myself took you from the pasture ground from following the flock to become a leader over my people Israel. 9 And I shall prove to be with you wherever you do go, and I will cut off all your enemies from before you; and I shall certainly make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones that are in the earth. 10 And I shall certainly appoint a place for my people Israel and plant them, and they will indeed reside where they are, and no more will they be disturbed; and the sons of unrighteousness will not afflict them again as they did at the first, 11 even from the day that I put judges in command over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies.

“‘“And Jehovah has told you that a house is what Jehovah will make for you. 12 When your days come to the full, and you must lie down with your forefathers, then I shall certainly raise up your seed after you, which will come out of your inward parts; and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one that will build a house for my name, and I shall certainly establish the throne of his kingdom firmly to time indefinite. 14 I myself shall become his father, and he himself will become my son. When he does wrong, I will also reprove him with the rod of men and with the strokes of the sons of Adam. 15 As for my loving-kindness, it will not depart from him the way I removed it from Saul, whom I removed on account of you. 16 And your house and your kingdom will certainly be steadfast to time indefinite before you; your very throne will become one firmly established to time indefinite.”’”

17 According to all these words and according to all this vision was the way that Nathan spoke to David.

18 At that King David came in and sat down before Jehovah and said: “Who am I, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah? And what is my house that you have brought me thus far? 19 As though this should even be something little in your eyes, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, yet you also speak respecting the house of your servant down to a distant future time; and this is the law given for mankind, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah. 20 And what more can David add and speak to you, when you yourself know your servant well, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah? 21 For the sake of your word and in agreement with your own heart you have done all these great things to cause your servant to know them. 22 That is why you are indeed great, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah; for there is no other like you, and there is no God except you among all of whom we have heard with our ears. 23 And what one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem to himself as a people and to assign himself a name and to do for them great and fear-inspiring things—to drive out because of your people, whom you have redeemed to yourself from Egypt, the nations and their gods? 24 And you proceeded to establish your people Israel firmly for yourself as your people to time indefinite; and you yourself, O Jehovah, have become their God.

25 “And now, Jehovah God, the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house carry out to time indefinite and do just as you have spoken. 26 And let your own name become great to time indefinite, saying, ‘Jehovah of armies is God over Israel,’ and let the very house of your servant David become firmly established before you. 27 For you, Jehovah of armies the God of Israel, have made a revelation to your servant’s ear, saying, ‘A house I shall build for you.’ That is why your servant has taken heart to pray to you with this prayer. 28 And now, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, you are the [true] God; and as for your words, let them prove to be truth, since you promise to your servant this goodness. 29 And now take it upon yourself and bless the house of your servant [for it] to continue to time indefinite before you; for you yourself, O Sovereign Lord Jehovah, have promised, and due to your blessing let the house of your servant be blessed to time indefinite.”


8 And it came about afterward that David proceeded to strike the Philistines down and subdue them, and David got to take Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines.

2 And he went on to strike down the Moabites and measure them with a line, making them lie down on the earth, that he might measure two lines to put them to death, and a full line to preserve them alive; and the Moabites came to be David’s servants to carry tribute.

3 And David went on to strike down Hadadezer the son of Rehob the king of Zobah as he was going his way to put his control back again at the river Euphrates. 4 And David got to capture from him one thousand seven hundred horsemen and twenty thousand men on foot; and David proceeded to hamstring all the chariot horses, but he let a hundred chariot horses of them remain.

5 When Syria of Damascus came to help Hadadezer the king of Zobah, David then struck down among the Syrians twenty-two thousand men. 6 Further, David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians came to be David’s servants to carry tribute. And Jehovah continued to save David wherever he went. 7 Moreover, David took the circular shields of gold that happened to be on the servants of Hadadezer and brought them to Jerusalem. 8 And from Betah and Berothai, cities of Hadadezer, King David took copper in very great quantity.

9 Now Toi the king of Hamath got to hear that David had struck down all the military force of Hadadezer. 10 So Toi sent Joram his son to King David to ask him about his welfare and congratulate him over the fact that he had fought against Hadadezer so that he struck him down (for Hadadezer had become trained in warfare against Toi); and in his hand there proved to be articles of silver and articles of gold and articles of copper. 11 These also King David sanctified to Jehovah, together with the silver and the gold that he had sanctified from all the nations that he had subdued, 12 from Syria and from Moab and from the sons of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek and from the spoil of Hadadezer the son of Rehob the king of Zobah. 13 And David proceeded to make a name when he came back from striking down the Edomites in the Valley of Salt—eighteen thousand. 14 And he kept garrisons placed in Edom. In all Edom he placed garrisons, and all the Edomites came to be servants of David; and Jehovah kept saving David wherever he went.

15 And David kept reigning over all Israel; and David was continually rendering judicial decision and righteousness for all his people. 16 And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder. 17 And Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Seraiah was secretary. 18 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada [was over] the Cherethites and the Pelethites. As for the sons of David, they became priests.

9 And David proceeded to say: “Is there yet anyone that is left over of the house of Saul, that I may exercise loving-kindness toward him for the sake of Jonathan?” 2 Now the house of Saul had a servant whose name was Ziba. So they called him to David, and the king then said to him: “Are you Ziba?” to which he said: “I am your servant.” 3 And the king went on to say: “Is there nobody of the house of Saul anymore, that I may exercise toward him the loving-kindness of God?” At this Ziba said to the king: “There is yet a son of Jonathan, lame in the feet.” 4 Then the king said to him: “Where is he?” So Ziba said to the king: “Look! He is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel at Lo-debar.”

5 Immediately King David sent and took him from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel at Lo-debar. 6 When Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul came in to David, he at once fell upon his face and prostrated himself. Then David said: “Mephibosheth!” to which he said: “Here is your servant.” 7 And David went on to say to him: “Do not be afraid, for without fail I shall exercise loving-kindness toward you for the sake of Jonathan your father; and I must return to you all the field of Saul your grandfather, and you yourself will eat bread at my table constantly.”

8 At that he prostrated himself and said: “What is your servant, that you have turned your face to the dead dog such as I am?” 9 The king now called Ziba, Saul’s attendant, and said to him: “Everything that had come to belong to Saul and to all his house I do give to the grandson of your master. 10 And you must cultivate the ground for him, you and your sons and your servants, and you must do the gathering in, and it must serve as food for [those belonging to] the grandson of your master, and they must eat; but Mephibosheth himself, the grandson of your master, will eat bread at my table constantly.”

Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. 11 So Ziba said to the king: “In accord with all that my lord the king commands for his servant is the way that your servant will do; but Mephibosheth is eating at my table like one of the sons of the king.” 12 Now Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica, and all those dwelling in the house of Ziba were servants to Mephibosheth. 13 And Mephibosheth himself was dwelling in Jerusalem, for it was constantly at the table of the king that he was eating; and he was lame in both of his feet.

10 And it came about afterward that the king of the sons of Ammon came to die, and Hanun his son began to reign instead of him. 2 At this David said: “I shall exercise loving-kindness toward Hanun the son of Nahash, just as his father exercised loving-kindness toward me.” Accordingly David sent by means of his servants to comfort him over his father, and the servants of David proceeded to come into the land of the sons of Ammon. 3 However, the princes of the sons of Ammon said to Hanun their lord: “Is David honoring your father in your eyes in that he has sent to you comforters? Is it not for the sake of searching through the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it that David has sent his servants to you?” 4 So Hanun took the servants of David and shaved off half their beards and cut their garments in half to their buttocks and sent them away. 5 Later people reported it to David, and he at once sent to meet them, because the men had come to feeling very humiliated; and the king went on to say: “Dwell in Jericho until YOUR beards grow abundantly. Then YOU must return.”

6 In time the sons of Ammon saw that they had become foul-smelling to David, and the sons of Ammon proceeded to send and hire Syrians of Beth-rehob and Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand men on foot, and the king of Maacah, a thousand men, and Ishtob, twelve thousand men. 7 When David heard of it, then he sent Joab and all the army [and] the mighty men. 8 And the sons of Ammon began to go out and draw up in battle formation at the entrance of the gate, also the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob, and Ishtob and Maacah by themselves in the open field.

9 When Joab saw that the battle charges had come to be against him from the front and from the rear, he at once chose some of all the choice men in Israel and drew them up in formation to meet the Syrians. 10 And the rest of the people he gave into the hand of Abishai his brother, that he might draw them up in formation to meet the sons of Ammon. 11 And he went on to say: “If the Syrians become too strong for me, then you must serve as a salvation for me; but if the sons of Ammon themselves become too strong for you, I must also come to save you. 12 Be strong, that we may show ourselves courageous in behalf of our people and in behalf of the cities of our God; and as for Jehovah, he will do what is good in his own eyes.”

13 Then Joab and the people that were with him advanced to the battle against the Syrians, and they went fleeing from before him. 14 As for the sons of Ammon, they saw that the Syrians had fled, and they took to flight from before Abishai and hence came into the city. After that Joab returned from the sons of Ammon and came to Jerusalem.

15 When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated before Israel, they proceeded to gather themselves together. 16 So Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians that were in the region of the River; and then they came to Helam, with Shobach the chief of the army of Hadadezer before them.

17 When the report was made to David, he immediately gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians now drew up in formation to meet David and began to fight against him. 18 And the Syrians took to flight from before Israel; and David got to kill of the Syrians seven hundred charioteers and forty thousand horsemen, and Shobach the chief of their army he struck down so that he died there. 19 When all the kings, the servants of Hadadezer, saw that they had been defeated before Israel, they promptly made peace with Israel and began to serve them; and the Syrians were afraid to try saving the sons of Ammon anymore.