2 Samuel 22-24

2 Samuel 22

¹David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul:

²and he said, "Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;

³God, my rock, in him I will take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence.

⁴I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies.

⁵For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

⁶The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.

⁷In my distress I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry [came] into his ears.

⁸Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry.

⁹Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet.

¹¹He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness pavilions around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.

¹³At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled.

¹⁴Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice.

¹⁵He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them.

¹⁶Then the channels of the sea appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters.

¹⁸He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.

¹⁹They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.

²⁰He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

²¹Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.

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

²³For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.

²⁴I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity.

²⁵Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight.

²⁶With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.

²⁷With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.

²⁸You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.

²⁹For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness.

³⁰For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall.

³¹As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.

³²For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God?

³³God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect.

³⁴He makes his feet like hinds' [feet], and sets me on my high places.

³⁵He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass.

³⁶You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great.

³⁷You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped.

³⁸I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn't turn again until they were consumed.

³⁹I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can't arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet.

⁴⁰For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

⁴¹You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me.

⁴²They looked, but there was none to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them.

⁴³Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.

⁴⁴You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people. You have kept me to be the head of the nations. A people whom I have not known will serve me.

⁴⁵The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.

⁴⁶The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places.

⁴⁷Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,

⁴⁸even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me,

⁴⁹who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man.

⁵⁰Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations. Will sing praises to your name.

⁵¹He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forevermore."

2 Samuel 23

¹Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, the man who was raised on high says, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel:

²"The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.

³The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, 'One who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God,

⁴shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through clear shining after rain.'

⁵Most certainly my house is not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure, for it is all my salvation, and all [my] desire, although he doesn't make it grow.

⁶But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can't be taken with the hand,

⁷But the man who touches them must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear. They shall be utterly burned with fire in their place."

⁸These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time.

⁹After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away.

¹⁰He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil.

¹¹After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines.

¹²But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory.

¹³Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

¹⁴David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

¹⁵David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!"

¹⁶The three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh.

¹⁷He said, "Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this! Isn't it the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives?" Therefore he would not drink it. The three mighty men did these things.

¹⁸Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three.

¹⁹Wasn't he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain: however he didn't attain to the [first] three.

²⁰Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.

²¹He killed an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear.

²²These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men.

²³He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the [first] three. David set him over his guard.

²⁴Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

²⁵Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

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

²⁷Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

²⁸Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

²⁹Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

³⁰Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash.

³¹Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

³²Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan,

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

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

³⁵Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

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

³⁷Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah,

³⁸Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

³⁹Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

2 Samuel 24

¹Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."

²The king said to Joab the captain of the army, who was with him, "Now go back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people."

³Joab said to the king, "Now may Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"

⁴Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

⁵They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer:

⁶then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon,

⁷and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba.

⁸So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

⁹Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

¹¹When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹²"Go and speak to David, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"

¹³So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me."

¹⁴David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."

¹⁵So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the appointed time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

¹⁶When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, "Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house."

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

¹⁹David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded.

²⁰Araunah looked out, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. Then Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

²¹Araunah said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?" David said, "To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."

²²Araunah said to David, "Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Behold, the cattle for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood:

²³all this, king, does Araunah give to the king." Araunah said to the king, "May Yahweh your God accept you."

²⁴The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

²⁵David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.