1 Chronicles 18-21

1 Chronicles 18

¹After this it happened, that David struck the Philistines, and subdued them, and took Gath and its towns out of the hand of the Philistines.

²He struck Moab; and the Moabites became servants to David, and brought tribute.

³David struck Hadadezer king of Zobah to Hamath, as he went to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates.

⁴David took from him one thousand chariots, and seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen; and David hamstrung all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for one hundred chariots.

⁵When the Syrians of Damascus came to help Hadadezer king of Zobah, David struck of the Syrians twenty-two thousand men.

⁶Then David put [garrisons] in Syria of Damascus; and the Syrians became servants to David, and brought tribute. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

⁷David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem.

⁸From Tibhath and from Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took very much brass, with which Solomon made the bronze sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass.

⁹When Tou king of Hamath heard that David had struck all the army of Hadadezer king of Zobah,

¹⁰he sent Hadoram his son to king David, to Greet him, and to bless him, because he had fought against Hadadezer and struck him; (for Hadadezer had wars with Tou;) and [he had with him] all kinds of vessels of gold and silver and brass.

¹¹These also did king David dedicate to Yahweh, with the silver and the gold that he carried away from all the nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

¹²Moreover Abishai the son of Zeruiah struck of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt eighteen thousand.

¹³He put garrisons in Edom; and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.

¹⁴David reigned over all Israel; and he executed justice and righteousness to all his people.

¹⁵Joab the son of Zeruiah was over the army; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was recorder;

¹⁶and Zadok the son of Ahitub, and Abimelech the son of Abiathar, were priests; and Shavsha was scribe;

¹⁷and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and the Pelethites; and the sons of David were chief about the king.

1 Chronicles 19

¹It happened after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place.

²David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me." So David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him.

³But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, "Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven't his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?"

⁴So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

⁵Then there went certain persons, and told David how the men were served. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."

⁶When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Arammaacah, and out of Zobah.

⁷So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and encamped before Medeba. The children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.

⁸When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army of the mighty men.

⁹The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the gate of the city: and the kings who had come were by themselves in the field.

¹⁰Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians.

¹¹The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of Ammon.

¹²He said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you are to help me; but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you.

¹³Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our God. May Yahweh do that which seems good to him."

¹⁴So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him.

¹⁵When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

¹⁶When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians who were beyond the River, with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer at their head.

¹⁷It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came on them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

¹⁸The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians [the men of] seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the army.

¹⁹When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.

1 Chronicles 20

¹It happened, at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out [to battle], that Joab led forth the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

²David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set on David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, exceeding much.

³He brought forth the people who were therein, and cut [them] with saws, and with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁴It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

⁵There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

⁶There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six [on each hand], and six [on each foot]; and he also was born to the giant.

⁷When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed him.

⁸These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

1 Chronicles 21

¹Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

²David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, "Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them."

³Joab said, "May Yahweh make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"

⁴Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.

⁶But he didn't count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

⁷God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

⁸David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

⁹Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹⁰"Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"

¹¹So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Take your choice:

¹²either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of Yahweh, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of Yahweh destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.'"

¹³David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."

¹⁴So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

¹⁵God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Yahweh standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

¹⁷David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Yahweh my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."

¹⁸Then the angel of Yahweh commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up, and raise an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh.

²⁰Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

²¹As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

²²Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to Yahweh. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."

²³Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."

²⁴King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."

²⁵So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.

²⁶David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

²⁹For the tabernacle of Yahweh, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

³⁰But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Yahweh.