May 12
     1 Chronicles 17:1 — 20:8

17 And it came about that as soon as David had begun dwelling in his own house, David proceeded to say to Nathan the prophet: “Here I am dwelling in a house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of Jehovah is under tent cloths.” 2 Upon that Nathan said to David: “Everything that is in your heart do, for the [true] God is with you.”

3 And it came about on that night that the word of God came to Nathan, saying: 4 “Go, and you must say to David my servant, ‘This is what Jehovah has said: “It will not be you that will build me the house in which to dwell. 5 For I have not dwelt in a house from the day that I brought Israel up until this day, but I continued from tent to tent and from one tabernacle [to another]. 6 During all the time that I walked about in all Israel, did I speak a single word with one of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, ‘Why have YOU men not built me a house of cedars?’”’

7 “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. 8 And I shall prove to be with you wherever you do walk, and I shall cut off all your enemies from before you, and I shall certainly make for you a name like the name of the great ones that are upon the earth. 9 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 wear them out again, just as they did at the first, 10 even since the days that I put judges in command over my people Israel. And I shall certainly humble all your enemies. And I tell you, ‘Also a house Jehovah will build for you.’

11 “‘“And it must occur that when your days have come to the full [for you] to go [to be] with your forefathers, I shall certainly raise up your seed after you that will come to be one of your sons, and I shall indeed firmly establish his kingship. 12 He is the one that will build me a house, and I shall certainly establish his throne firmly to time indefinite. 13 I myself shall become his father, and he himself will become my son; and my loving-kindness I shall not remove from him the way I removed it from the one that happened to be prior to you. 14 And I will cause him to stand in my house and in my kingship to time indefinite, and his throne will itself become one lasting to time indefinite.”’”

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

16 After that King David came in and sat down before Jehovah and said: “Who am I, O Jehovah God, and what is my house that you have brought me thus far? 17 As though this should be something little in your eyes, O God, yet you speak concerning the house of your servant down to a distant future time, and you have looked on me according to the opportunity of the man in the ascendancy, O Jehovah God. 18 What more could David say to you as to honoring your servant, when you yourself know your servant well? 19 O Jehovah, for the sake of your servant and in agreement with your own heart you have done all these great things by making all the great achievements known. 20 O Jehovah, there is none like you, and there is no God except you in connection with all that we have heard with our ears. 21 And what other nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom the [true] God went to redeem to himself as a people, to assign to yourself a name of great achievements and fear-inspiring things by driving out nations from before your people whom you have redeemed from Egypt? 22 And you proceeded to constitute your people Israel as your people to time indefinite, and you yourself, O Jehovah, became their God. 23 And now, O Jehovah, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house prove faithful to time indefinite, and do just as you have spoken. 24 And let your name prove faithful and become great to time indefinite, saying, ‘Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, is God to Israel,’ and let the house of David your servant be one lasting before you. 25 For you yourself, my God, have revealed to your servant the purpose to build him a house. That is why your servant has found occasion to pray before you. 26 And now, O Jehovah, you are the [true] God, and you promise this goodness concerning your servant. 27 And now you must take it upon yourself and bless the house of your servant [for it] to continue to time indefinite before you; for you yourself, O Jehovah, have blessed, and it is blessed to time indefinite.”

18 And it came about afterward that David proceeded to strike down the Philistines and subdue them and take Gath and its dependent towns out of the hand of the Philistines. 2 Then he struck Moab down, and the Moabites came to be David’s servants bearing tribute.

3 And David went on to strike down Hadadezer the king of Zobah at Hamath as he was going his way to set up his control at the river Euphrates. 4 Further, David captured from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand men on foot. Then David hamstrung 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 went striking down among the Syrians twenty-two thousand men. 6 After that David put [garrisons] in Syria of Damascus, and the Syrians came to be David’s servants bearing tribute. And Jehovah kept giving salvation to 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 Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took very much copper. With it Solomon made the copper sea and the pillars and the copper utensils.

9 When Tou the king of Hamath heard that David had struck down all the military force of Hadadezer the king of Zobah, 10 he immediately sent Hadoram 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 Tou,) and [there were with him] all sorts of articles of gold and silver and copper. 11 These also King David sanctified to Jehovah together with the silver and the gold that he had carried off from all the nations, from Edom and from Moab and from the sons of Ammon and from the Philistines and from Amalek.

12 As for Abishai the son of Zeruiah, he struck down the Edomites in the Valley of Salt, eighteen thousand. 13 So he put garrisons in Edom, and all the Edomites came to be David’s servants. And Jehovah kept saving David wherever he went. 14 And David continued to reign over all Israel, and he was continually rendering judicial decision and righteousness for all his people. 15 And Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder. 16 And Zadok the son of Ahitub and Ahimelech the son of Abiathar were priests, and Shavsha was secretary. 17 And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were the first in position at the side of the king.

19 And it came about afterward that Nahash the king of the sons of Ammon came to die, and his son began to reign in place of him. 2 At that David said: “I shall exercise loving-kindness toward Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father exercised loving-kindness toward me.” Accordingly David sent messengers to comfort him over his father, and the servants of David proceeded to come into the land of the sons of Ammon to Hanun to comfort him. 3 However, the princes of the sons of Ammon said to Hanun: “Is David honoring your father in your eyes in that he has sent comforters to you? Is it not for the sake of making a thorough search and causing an overthrow and for spying out the land that his servants have come in to you?” 4 So Hanun took the servants of David and shaved them and cut their garments in half to their buttocks and sent them away. 5 Later people went and told David about the men; and he at once sent to meet them, because they had become men very much 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 Hanun and the sons of Ammon proceeded to send a thousand silver talents to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia and from Aram-maacah and from Zobah. 7 Thus they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots and the king of Maacah and his people. Then they came in and camped before Medeba; and as for the sons of Ammon, they gathered together from their cities and now came in for the war.

8 When David heard of it, he immediately sent Joab and all the army [and] the mighty men. 9 And the sons of Ammon began to go out and draw up in battle formation at the entrance of the city, and the kings that had come were by themselves in the open field.

10 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. 11 And the rest of the people he gave into the hand of Abishai his brother, that they might draw up in formation to meet the sons of Ammon. 12 And he went on to say: “If the Syrians become too strong for me, you must also serve as a salvation for me; but if the sons of Ammon themselves become too strong for you, I must also save you. 13 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, what is good in his own eyes he will do.”

14 Then Joab and the people that were with him advanced before the Syrians to the battle, and they took to flight from before him. 15 As for the sons of Ammon, they saw that the Syrians had fled, and they themselves also took to flight from before Abishai his brother and then came into the city. Later Joab came into Jerusalem.

16 When the Syrians saw that they had been defeated before Israel, they proceeded to send messengers and bring out the Syrians that were in the region of the River, with Shophach the chief of the army of Hadadezer before them.

17 When the report was made to David, he immediately gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to them and drew up in formation against them. When David drew up in battle formation to meet the Syrians, they began to fight against him. 18 But the Syrians took to flight because of Israel; and David went killing of the Syrians seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand men on foot, and Shophach the chief of the army himself he put to death. 19 When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated before Israel, they promptly made peace with David and began to serve him; and Syria did not want to try saving the sons of Ammon anymore.

20 And it came about at the time of the year’s return, at the time that kings sally forth, that Joab proceeded to lead the combat force of the army and lay the land of the sons of Ammon in ruin and to come and besiege Rabbah, while David was dwelling in Jerusalem; and Joab went on to strike Rabbah and throw it down. 2 But David took the crown of Malcam off its head, and found it to be a talent of gold in weight, and in it there were precious stones; and it came to be on David’s head. And the spoil of the city that he brought out was very much. 3 And the people that were in it he brought out, and he kept them employed at sawing stones and at sharp instruments of iron and at axes; and that was the way David proceeded to do to all the cities of the sons of Ammon. Finally David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

4 And it came about after this that war began breaking out at Gezer with the Philistines. It was then that Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai of those born of the Rephaim, so that they were subdued.

5 And there came to be war again with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair got to strike down Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like the beam of loom workers.

6 And there came to be war again at Gath, when there happened to be a man of extraordinary size whose fingers and toes were in sixes, twenty-four; and he, too, had been born to the Rephaim. 7 And he kept taunting Israel. Finally Jonathan the son of Shimea the brother of David struck him down.

8 These were the ones that had been born to the Rephaim in Gath; and they came to fall by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.