The First Book of Chronicles, starting at chapter 19
{19:1} It happened after this, that Nahash the king of the children
of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place. {19:2} David said, I
will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father
shown 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. {19:3} But the princes of
the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Think you that David does honor
your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Aren't his
servants come to you to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the
land? {19:4} So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut
off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent
them away. {19:5} Then 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 be grown,
and then return. {19:6} When 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. {19:7} So
they hired them 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. {19:8} When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army
of the mighty men. {19:9} The 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. {19:10} Now 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.
{19:11} The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai
his brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of
Ammon. {19:12} He said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then you
shall help me; but if the children of Ammon be too strong for you,
then I will help you. {19:13} Be of good courage, and let us play the
man for our people, and for the cities of our God: and Yahweh do that
which seems him good. {19:14} So Joab and the people who were with him
drew near before the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him.
{19:15} When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled,
they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the
city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem. {19:16} When the Syrians saw that
they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent messengers, and
drew forth the Syrians who were beyond the River, with Shophach the
captain of the army of Hadarezer at their head. {19:17} It 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. {19:18} The 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. {19:19}
When the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse
before Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither
would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.
{20:1} It 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. {20:2} David 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. {20:3} He brought forth the people
who were therein, and cut [them] with saws, and with harrows of iron,
and with axes. Thus did David to all the cities of the children of
Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. {20:4} It
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. {20:5} There 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. {20:6} There was again war at Gath, where 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. {20:7} When
he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed
him. {20:8} These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the
hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
{21:1} Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number
Israel. {21:2} David 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. {21:3} Joab said, 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? {21:4} Nevertheless the king's word
prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout
all Israel, and came to Jerusalem. {21:5} Joab 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. {21:6} But he didn't
count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable
to Joab. {21:7} God was displeased with this thing; therefore he
struck Israel. {21:8} David 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. {21:9}
Yahweh spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying, {21:10} Go and speak to
David, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you
one of them, that I may do it to you. {21:11} So Gad came to David,
and said to him, Thus says Yahweh, Take which you will: {21:12} either
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.
{21:13} David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I
pray, into the hand of Yahweh; for very great are his mercies: and let
me not fall into the hand of man. {21:14} So Yahweh sent a pestilence
on Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men. {21:15} God
sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was about to
destroy, Yahweh saw, and he repented him of the evil, 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.
{21:16} David 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. {21:17} David 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.
{21:18} Then 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. {21:19} David went up at the saying of
Gad, which he spoke in the name of Yahweh. {21:20} Ornan turned back,
and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves.
Now Ornan was threshing wheat. {21:21} As 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. {21:22} Then David said
to Ornan, Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build
thereon an altar to Yahweh: for the full price shall you give it me,
that the plague may be stayed from the people. {21:23} Ornan said to
David, Take it to you, and let my lord the king do that which is good
in his eyes: behold, I give [you] the oxen for burnt offerings, and
the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal
offering; I give it all. {21:24} King 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. {21:25} So David gave to Ornan for the place six hundred shekels
of gold by weight. {21:26} David built there an altar to Yahweh, 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.
{21:27} Yahweh commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into
the sheath of it. {21:28} At that time, when David saw that Yahweh had
answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he
sacrificed there. {21:29} For the tent of Yahweh, which Moses made in
the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in
the high place at Gibeon. {21:30} But David couldn't go before it to
inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of
Yahweh.
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