2 Samuel 22-24

2 Samuel 22

¹And David sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.

²He said: “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.

³My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation. My stronghold, my refuge, and my Savior, You save me from violence.

⁴I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death engulfed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.

⁶The cords of Sheol entangled me; the snares of death confronted me.

⁷In my distress I called upon the LORD; I cried out to my God. And from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry for help reached His ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and quaked; the foundations of the heavens trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger.

⁹Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth.

¹⁰He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet.

¹¹He mounted a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness a canopy around Him, a gathering of water and thick clouds.

¹³From the brightness of His presence coals of fire blazed forth.

¹⁴The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded.

¹⁵He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them.

¹⁶The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

¹⁷He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.

¹⁸He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from foes too mighty for me.

¹⁹They confronted me in my day of calamity, but the LORD was my support.

²⁰He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.

²¹The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness; He has repaid me according to the cleanness of my hands.

²²For I have kept the ways of the LORD and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all His ordinances are before me; I have not disregarded His statutes.

²⁴And I have been blameless before Him and kept myself from iniquity.

²⁵So the LORD has repaid me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in His sight.

²⁶To the faithful You show Yourself faithful, to the blameless You show Yourself blameless;

²⁷to the pure You show Yourself pure, but to the crooked You show Yourself shrewd.

²⁸You save an afflicted people, but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

²⁹For You, O LORD, are my lamp; the LORD lights up my darkness.

³⁰For in You I can charge an army; with my God I can scale a wall.

³¹As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is flawless. He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.

³²For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?

³³God is my strong fortress, and He makes my way clear.

³⁴He makes my feet like those of a deer and stations me upon the heights.

³⁵He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

³⁶You have given me Your shield of salvation, and Your gentleness exalts me.

³⁷You broaden the path beneath me so that my ankles do not give way.

³⁸I pursued my enemies and destroyed them; I did not turn back until they were consumed.

³⁹I devoured and crushed them so they could not rise; they have fallen under my feet.

⁴⁰You have armed me with strength for battle; You have subdued my foes beneath me.

⁴¹You have made my enemies retreat before me; I destroyed those who hated me.

⁴²They looked, but there was no one to save them—to the LORD, but He did not answer.

⁴³I ground them as the dust of the earth; I crushed and trampled them like mud in the streets.

⁴⁴You have delivered me from the strife of my people; You have preserved me as the head of nations; a people I had not known shall serve me.

⁴⁵Foreigners cower before me; when they hear me, they obey me.

⁴⁶Foreigners lose heart and come trembling from their strongholds.

⁴⁷The LORD lives, and blessed be my Rock! And may God, the Rock of my salvation, be exalted—

⁴⁸the God who avenges me and brings down nations beneath me,

⁴⁹who frees me from my enemies. You exalt me above my foes; You rescue me from violent men.

⁵⁰Therefore I will praise You, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing praises to Your name.

⁵¹Great salvation He brings to His king. He shows loving devotion to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”

2 Samuel 23

¹These are the last words of David: “The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man raised on high, the one anointed by the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:

²The Spirit of the LORD spoke through me; His word was on my tongue.

³The God of Israel spoke; the Rock of Israel said to me, ‘He who rules the people with justice, who rules in the fear of God,

⁴is like the light of the morning at sunrise of a cloudless dawn, the glistening after the rain on the sprouting grass of the earth.’

⁵Is not my house right with God? For He has established with me an everlasting covenant, ordered and secured in every part. Will He not bring about my full salvation and my every desire?

⁶But the worthless are all like thorns raked aside, for they can never be gathered by hand.

⁷The man who touches them must be armed with iron or with the shaft of a spear. The fire burns them to ashes in the place where they lie.”

⁸These are the names of David’s mighty men: Josheb-basshebeth the Tahchemonite was chief of the Three. He wielded his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed at one time.

⁹Next in command was Eleazar son of Dodo the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he went with David to taunt the Philistines who had gathered for battle at Pas-dammim. The men of Israel retreated,

¹⁰but Eleazar stood his ground and struck the Philistines until his hand grew weary and stuck to his sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. Then the troops returned to him, but only to plunder the dead.

¹¹And after him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines had banded together near a field full of lentils, Israel’s troops fled from them.

¹²But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field, defended it, and struck down the Philistines. So the LORD brought about a great victory.

¹³At harvest time, three of the thirty chief men went down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a company of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.

¹⁴At that time David was in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was at Bethlehem.

¹⁵David longed for water and said, “Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!”

¹⁶So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine camp, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem, and brought it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out to the LORD,

¹⁷saying, “Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this! Is this not the blood of the men who risked their lives?” So he refused to drink it. Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

¹⁸Now Abishai, the brother of Joab and son of Zeruiah, was chief of the Three, and he wielded his spear against three hundred men, killed them, and won a name along with the Three.

¹⁹Was he not more honored than the Three? And he became their commander, even though he was not included among the Three.

²⁰And Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a man of valor from Kabzeel, a man of many exploits. He struck down two champions of Moab, and on a snowy day he went down into a pit and killed a lion.

²¹He also struck down an Egyptian, a huge man. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club, snatched the spear from his hand, and killed the Egyptian with his own spear.

²²These were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada, who won a name along with the three mighty men.

²³He was most honored among the Thirty, but he did not become one of the Three. And David appointed him over his guard.

²⁴Now these were members of the Thirty: Asahel the brother of Joab, Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

²⁵Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

²⁶Helez the Paltite, Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

²⁷Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

²⁸Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

²⁹Heled son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai son of Ribai from Gibeah of the Benjamites,

³⁰Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai from the brooks of Gaash,

³¹Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

³²Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan

³³son of Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam son of Sharar the Hararite,

³⁴Eliphelet son of Ahasbai the Maacathite, Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

³⁵Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

³⁶Igal son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,

³⁷Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah,

³⁸Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

³⁹and Uriah the Hittite. There were thirty-seven in all.

2 Samuel 24

¹Again the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He stirred up David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.”

²So the king said to Joab the commander of his army, who was with him, “Go now throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and register the troops, so that I may know their number.”

³But Joab replied to the king, “May the LORD your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?”

⁴Nevertheless, the king’s word prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army departed from the presence of the king to register the troops of Israel.

⁵They crossed the Jordan and camped near Aroer, south of the town in the middle of the valley, and proceeded toward Gad and Jazer.

⁶Then they went to Gilead and the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and on to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon.

⁷They went toward the fortress of Tyre and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites. Finally, they went on to the Negev of Judah, to Beersheba.

⁸At the end of nine months and twenty days, having gone through the whole land, they returned to Jerusalem.

⁹And Joab reported to the king the total number of the troops. In Israel there were 800,000 men of valor who drew the sword, and in Judah there were 500,000.

¹⁰After David had numbered the troops, his conscience was stricken and he said to the LORD, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg You to take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

¹¹When David got up in the morning, the word of the LORD had come to Gad the prophet, David’s seer:

¹²“Go and tell David that this is what the LORD says: ‘I am offering you three options. Choose one of them, and I will carry it out against you.’”

¹³So Gad went and said to David, “Do you choose to endure three years of famine in your land, three months of fleeing the pursuit of your enemies, or three days of plague upon your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should reply to Him who sent me.”

¹⁴David answered Gad, “I am deeply distressed. Please, let us fall into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

¹⁵So the LORD sent a plague upon Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

¹⁶But when the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand now!” At that time the angel of the LORD was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷When David saw the angel striking down the people, he said to the LORD, “Surely I, the shepherd, have sinned and acted wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand fall upon me and my father’s house.”

¹⁸And that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and build an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”

¹⁹So David went up at the word of Gad, just as the LORD had commanded.

²⁰When Araunah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him, he went out and bowed facedown before the king.

²¹“Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” Araunah said. “To buy your threshing floor,” David replied, “that I may build an altar to the LORD, so that the plague upon the people may be halted.”

²²Araunah said to David, “May my lord the king take whatever seems good to him and offer it up. Here are the oxen for a burnt offering and the threshing sledges and ox yokes for the wood.

²³O king, Araunah gives all these to the king.” He also said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.”

²⁴“No,” replied the king, “I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵And there he built an altar to the LORD and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. Then the LORD answered the prayers on behalf of the land, and the plague upon Israel was halted.