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2 Samuel 21
And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. And Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. 2 And the king called the Gibeonites, and said to them: (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah:) 3 and David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh? 4 And the Gibeonites said to him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What you shall say, that will I do for you. 5 And they said to the king, the man that consumed us, and that devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6 let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. And the king said, I will give them.
7 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 9 and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, and they fell all seven together: and they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.
10 And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from heaven; and she permitted neither the birds of the heavens to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11 And it was told to David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12 And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa: 13 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. 14 And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that Elohim heard the prayer for the land.
15 And the Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines: and David grew weary. 16 And Ishbi-benob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, he being girded with a new sword, spoke of killing David. 17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall no more go out with us to battle, that you do not quench the lamp of Israel.
18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. 19 And there was war again with the Philistines at Cob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Beth-lehemite killed Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20 And there was war again at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant. 21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. 22 These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
2 Samuel 22
And David 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: 2 and he said,
Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
3 Elohim, 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.
4 I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
5 For the waves of death surrounded me;
The floods of unrighteousness made me afraid:
6 The cords of Sheol were all around me;
The snares of death came upon me.
7 In my distress I called on Yahweh;
I called to my Elohim:
And he heard my voice out of his temple,
And my cry came into his ears.
8 Then the earth shook and trembled,
The foundations of heaven quaked
And were shaken, because he was angry.
9 There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
And fire out of his mouth devoured:
Coals were kindled by it.
10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down;
And thick darkness was under his feet.
11 And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;
And he was seen on the wings of the wind.
12 And he made darkness pavilions around him,
Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies.
13 At the brightness before him
Coals of fire were kindled.
14 Yahweh thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered his voice.
15 And he sent out arrows, and scattered them;
Lightning, and troubled them.
16 Then 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.
17 He sent from on high, he took me;
He drew me out of many waters;
18 He delivered me from my strong enemy,
From them that hated me; for they were too mighty for me.
19 They came upon me in the day of my calamity;
But Yahweh was my support.
20 He brought me forth also into a large place;
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
21 Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands has he rewarded me.
22 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh,
And have not wickedly departed from my Elohim.
23 For all his ordinances were before me;
And as for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
24 I was also perfect toward him,
And I kept myself from my iniquity.
25 Therefore has Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness,
According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
26 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful;
With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect;
27 With the pure you will show yourself pure;
And with the perverse you will show yourself froward.
28 And the afflicted people you will save;
But your eyes are upon the haughty, that you may bring them down.
29 For you are my lamp, O Yahweh;
And Yahweh will lighten my darkness.
30 For by you I run upon a troop;
By my Elohim, I leap over a wall.
31 As for El, his way is perfect:
The word of Yahweh is tried;
He is a shield to all them that take refuge in him.
32 For who is El, except Yahweh?
And who is a rock, save our Elohim?
33 El is my strong fortress;
And he guides the perfect in his way.
34 He makes his feet like hinds’ feet,
And sets me on my high places.
35 He teaches my hands to war,
So that my arms bend a bow of bronze.
36 You have also given me the shield of your salvation;
And your gentleness has made me great.
37 You have enlarged my steps under me;
And my feet have not slipped.
38 I have pursued my enemies, and destroyed them;
Neither did I turn again till they were consumed.
39 And I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they cannot arise:
They have fallen under my feet.
40 For you have girded me with strength to the battle;
You have subdued under me those that rose up against me.
41 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
That I might cut off them that hate me.
42 They looked, but there was none to save;
Even to Yahweh, but he did not answer them.
43 Then I beat them small as the dust of the earth,
I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.
44 You 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 shall serve me.
45 The foreigners shall submit themselves to me:
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.
46 The foreigners shall fade away,
And shall come trembling out of their close places.
47 Yahweh lives; and blessed is my rock;
And exalted is Elohim, the rock of my salvation.
48 Even the El that executes vengeance for me,
And that brings down peoples under me,
49 And that brings me forth from my enemies:
You lift me up above them that rise up against me;
You deliver me from the violent man.
50 Therefore I will give thanks to you, O Yahweh, among the nations,
And will sing praises to your name.
51 Great deliverance gives he to his king,
And shows mercy to his anointed,
To David and to his seed, for evermore.
2 Samuel 23
Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Jesse says,
And the man who was raised on high says,
The anointed of the Elohim of Jacob,
And the sweet psalmist of Israel:
2 The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me,
And his word was on my tongue.
3 The Elohim of Israel said,
The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
One that rules over men righteously,
That rules in the fear of Elohim,
4 He shall 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.
5 Truly my house is not so with El;
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 makes it not to grow.
6 But the lawless shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away,
Because they cannot be taken with the hand;
7 But the man that touches them
Must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear:
And they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.
8 These 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 killed at one time.
9 And after 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 that were gathered there together to battle, and the men of Israel had gone away: 10 he arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take plunder.
11 And after him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. And 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. 12 But he stood in the middle of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory.
13 And three 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. 14 And David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem. 15 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! 16 And the three mighty men broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Beth-lehem, 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. 17 And he said, Be it far from me, O Yahweh, that I should do this: shall I drink the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.
18 And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three. 19 Was he not most honorable of the three? Therefore he was made their captain: however he attained not to the first three.
20 And Benaiah 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 middle of a pit in time of snow. 21 And he killed an Egyptian, a good man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men. 23 He was more honorable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. And David set him over his guard.
24 Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Beth-lehem, 25 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27 Abeizer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushasite, 28 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, 30 Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 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 to Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.
2 Samuel 24
And again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 2 And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number the people, that I may know the sum of the people. 3 And Joab said to the king, Now may Yahweh your Elohim add to the people, however many they may be, a hundredfold; and may the eyes of my sovereign the king see it: but why does my sovereign the king delight in this thing? 4 However, the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. 5 And they 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: 6 then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and around to Sidon, 7 and 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 Beer-sheba. 8 So when they had gone to and fro through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.
10 And David’s heart grieved him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, O Yahweh, put away, I plead you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 11 And when 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, In this manner says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 13 So 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 advise you, and consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me. 14 And David said to Gad, I am in great distress: let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man.
15 So Yahweh sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 16 And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh repented as to the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; now stop your hand. And the angel of Yahweh was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.17 And David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel that struck the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray you, be against me, and against my father’s house.
18 And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Yahweh in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.19 And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 20 And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21 And Araunah said, Why has my sovereign the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor of you, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stopped from the people. 22 And Araunah said to David, Let my sovereign the king while take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood: 23 all this, O king, does Araunah give to the king. and Araunah said to the king, May Yahweh your Elohim accept you. 24 And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will truly buy it from you at a price; neither will I offer burnt-offerings to Yahweh my Elohim which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to Yahweh, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Yahweh answered prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague was stopped from Israel.
