April 14

2 Samuel 22:33 — 24:25

33 The [true] God is my strong fortress,

                And he will cause my way to be perfect,

34 Making my feet like those of the hinds;

And upon places high for me he keeps me standing.

35 He is teaching my hands for warfare;

And my arms have pressed down a bow of copper.

36 And you will give me your shield of salvation,

And it is your humility that makes me great.

37 You will make room large enough for my steps under me;

And my ankles will certainly not wobble.

38 I will pursue my enemies, that I may annihilate them,

And I shall not return until they are exterminated.

39 And I shall exterminate them and break them in pieces, that they may not rise up;

And they will fall under my feet.

40 And you will gird me with vital energy for the battle;

You will make those rising against me collapse under me.

41 And as for my enemies, you will certainly give me the back of their neck;

Those hating me intensely—I shall also silence them.

42 They cry for help, but there is no savior;

To Jehovah, but he actually does not answer them.

43 And I shall pound them fine like the dust of the earth;

Like the mire of the streets I shall pulverize them;

I shall beat them flat.

44 And you will provide me escape from the faultfinding of my people.

You will safeguard me to be the head of nations;

A people that I have not known—they will serve me.

45 Foreigners themselves will come cringing to me;

Ears will be obedient to hear me.

46 Foreigners themselves will fade away,

And they will come quaking out from their bulwarks.

47 Jehovah is living; and blessed be my Rock;

And let the God of the rock of my salvation be exalted.

48 The [true] God is the Giver of acts of vengeance to me

And the One bringing the peoples down under me,

49 And the One bringing me out from my enemies.

And above those who rise up against me you will lift me up;

From the man of violent deeds you will deliver me.

50 That is why I shall thank you, O Jehovah, among the nations;

And to your name I shall make melody:

51 The One doing great acts of salvation for his king

And exercising loving-kindness to his anointed one,

To David and to his seed for time indefinite.”

23 And these are the last words of David:

“The utterance of David the son of Jesse,

And the utterance of the able-bodied man that was raised up on high,

The anointed of the God of Jacob,

And the pleasant one of the melodies of Israel.

 2 The spirit of Jehovah it was that spoke by me,

And his word was upon my tongue.

 3 The God of Israel said,

To me the Rock of Israel spoke,

‘When one ruling over mankind is righteous,

Ruling in the fear of God,

 4 Then it is as the light of morning, when the sun shines forth,

A morning without clouds.

From brightness, from rain, there is grass out of the earth.’

 5 For is not my household like that with God?

Because it is an indefinitely lasting covenant that he has assigned to me,

Nicely put in order in everything and secured.

Because it is all my salvation and all my delight,

Is that not why he will make it grow?

 6 But good-for-nothing persons are chased away, like thornbushes, all of them;

For it is not by the hand that they should be taken.

 7 When a man touches them

He should be fully armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,

And with fire they will thoroughly be burned up.”

8 These are the names of the mighty men that belonged to David: Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite, the head of the three. He was brandishing his spear over eight hundred slain at one time. 9 Next to him Eleazar the son of Dodo the son of Ahohi was among the three mighty men with David when they taunted the Philistines. They had gathered themselves there for the battle, and so the men of Israel retreated. 10 He it was that rose up and kept striking down the Philistines until his hand wearied and his hand kept cleaving to the sword, so that Jehovah performed a great salvation on that day; and as for the people, they returned behind him only to strip [those struck down].

11 And next to him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. And the Philistines proceeded to gather themselves to Lehi, where there then happened to be a tract of the field full of lentils; and the people themselves fled because of the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the middle of the tract and delivered it and kept striking down the Philistines, so that Jehovah performed a great salvation.

13 And three of the thirty head ones proceeded to go down and come at [the] harvest, to David at the cave of Adullam; and a tent village of the Philistines was encamped in the low plain of the Rephaim. 14 And David was then in the place hard to approach; and an outpost of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15 After a while David expressed his craving and said: “O that I might have a drink of the water from the cistern of Bethlehem that is at the gate!” 16 At that the three mighty men forced their way into the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the cistern of Bethlehem that is at the gate and came carrying and bringing it to David; and he did not consent to drink it, but poured it out to Jehovah. 17 And he went on to say: “It is unthinkable on my part, O Jehovah, that I should do this! [Shall I drink] the blood of the men going at the risk of their souls?” And he did not consent to drink it.

These are the things the three mighty men did.

18 As for Abishai the brother of Joab the son of Zeruiah, he was the head of the thirty, and he was brandishing his spear over three hundred slain ones, and he had a reputation like the three. 19 Although he was distinguished even more than the rest of the thirty, and he came to be their chief, to the rank of the [first] three he did not come.

20 As for Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the son of a valiant man, who did many deeds in Kabzeel, he himself struck down the two sons of Ariel of Moab; and he himself descended and struck down a lion inside a waterpit on a day of snowfall. 21 And he it was that struck down the Egyptian man that was of extraordinary size. Though there was a spear in the hand of the Egyptian, yet he went on down to him with a rod and snatched the spear away from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did; and he had a reputation like the three mighty men. 23 Although he was distinguished even more than the thirty, to the rank of the three he did not come; but David appointed him to his own bodyguard.

24 Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27 Abi-ezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, 30 Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the torrent valleys of Gaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Bar-humite, 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite, 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35 Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor-bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.

24 And again the anger of Jehovah came to be hot against Israel, when one incited David against them, saying: “Go, take a count of Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab the chief of the military forces who was with him: “Move about, please, through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and YOU men register the people, and I shall certainly know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king: “May Jehovah your God even add to the people a hundred times as many as they are while the very eyes of my lord the king are seeing it. But as for my lord the king, why has he found delight in this thing?”

4 Finally the king’s word prevailed upon Joab and the chiefs of the military forces. So Joab and the chiefs of the military forces went out from before the king to register the people Israel. 5 Then they crossed the Jordan and took up camping at Aroer to the right of the city that is in the middle of the torrent valley, toward the Gadites, and to Jazer. 6 After that they came on to Gilead and the land of Tahtim-hodshi and continued on to Dan-jaan and went around to Sidon. 7 Then they came to the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites and came to the terminating point in the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba. 8 Thus they went moving about through all the land and came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Joab now gave the number of the registration of the people to the king; and Israel amounted to eight hundred thousand valiant men drawing sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

10 And David’s heart began to beat him after he had so numbered the people. Consequently David said to Jehovah: “I have sinned very much in what I have done. And now, Jehovah, let your servant’s error pass by, please; for I have acted very foolishly.” 11 When David proceeded to rise up in the morning, Jehovah’s word itself came to Gad the prophet, David’s visionary, saying: 12 “Go, and you must say to David, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “Three things I am laying upon you. Choose for yourself one of them that I may do it to you.”’” 13 Accordingly Gad came in to David and told him and said to him: “Should there come to you seven years of famine in your land, or three months of your fleeing before your adversaries, with them pursuing you, or the occurring of three days of pestilence in your land? Now know and see what I shall reply to the One sending me.” 14 So David said to Gad: “It is very distressing to me. Let us fall, please, into the hand of Jehovah, for many are his mercies; but into the hand of man do not let me fall.”

15 Then Jehovah gave a pestilence in Israel from the morning until the time appointed, so that out of the people from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand persons died. 16 And the angel kept his hand thrust out toward Jerusalem to bring it to ruin; and Jehovah began to feel regret over the calamity, and so he said to the angel that was bringing ruin among the people: “It is enough! Now let your hand drop.” And Jehovah’s angel himself happened to be close by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

17 And David proceeded to say to Jehovah, when he saw the angel that was striking the people down, yes, he proceeded to say: “Here it is I that have sinned and it is I that have done wrong; but these sheep—what have they done? Let your hand, please, come upon me and upon the house of my father.”

18 Later Gad came in to David on that day and said to him: “Go up, set up for Jehovah an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 And David began to go up in accord with the word of Gad, according to what Jehovah had commanded. 20 When Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants passing along toward him, Araunah at once went out and bowed down to the king with his face to the earth. 21 Then Araunah said: “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” At that David said: “To buy from you the threshing floor for building an altar to Jehovah, that the scourge may be halted from upon the people.” 22 But Araunah said to David: “Let my lord the king take it and offer up what is good in his eyes. See the cattle for the burnt offering and the threshing sledge and the implements of the cattle for the wood. 23 Everything Araunah, O king, does give to the king.” And Araunah went on to say to the king: “May Jehovah your God show pleasure in you.”

24 However, the king said to Araunah: “No, but without fail I shall buy it from you for a price; and I shall not offer up to Jehovah my God burnt sacrifices without cost.” Accordingly David bought the threshing floor and the cattle for fifty silver shekels. 25 And David proceeded to build there an altar to Jehovah and offer up burnt sacrifices and communion sacrifices, and Jehovah began letting himself be entreated for the land, so that the scourge was halted from upon Israel.