The Second Book of Samuel, starting at chapter 22
{22:1} David spoke to the LORD the words of this song in the day
that the LORD delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and
out of the hand of Saul: {22:2} and he said,
"The LORD is my rock,
my fortress,
and my deliverer, even mine;
{22:3} God, 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.
{22:4} I will call on the LORD, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from my enemies.
{22:5} For the waves of death surrounded me.
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.
{22:6} The cords of [1>]Sheol[<1] were around me.
The snares of death caught me.
{22:7} In my distress I called on the LORD.
Yes, I called to my God.
He heard my voice out of his temple.
My cry came into his ears.
{22:8} Then the earth shook and trembled.
The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken,
because he was angry.
{22:9} Smoke went up out of his nostrils.
Fire out of his mouth devoured.
Coals were kindled by it.
{22:10} He bowed the heavens also, and came down.
Thick darkness was under his feet.
{22:11} He rode on a cherub, and flew.
Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
{22:12} He made darkness pavilions around himself:
gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies.
{22:13} At the brightness before him,
coals of fire were kindled.
{22:14} The LORD thundered from heaven.
The Most High uttered his voice.
{22:15} He sent out arrows, and scattered them;
lightning, and confused them.
{22:16} Then the channels of the sea appeared.
The foundations of the world were laid bare by the rebuke of the
LORD,
At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.
{22:17} He sent from on high and he took me.
He drew me out of many waters.
{22:18} He delivered me from my strong enemy,
from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me.
{22:19} They came on me in the day of my calamity,
but the LORD was my support.
{22:20} He also brought me out into a large place.
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
{22:21} The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness.
He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands.
{22:22} For I have kept the ways of the LORD,
and have not wickedly departed from my God.
{22:23} For all his ordinances were before me.
As for his statutes, I did not depart from them.
{22:24} I was also perfect toward him.
I kept myself from my iniquity.
{22:25} Therefore the LORD has rewarded me according to my
righteousness,
According to my cleanness in his eyesight.
{22:26} With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.
With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect.
{22:27} With the pure you will show yourself pure.
With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.
{22:28} You will save the afflicted people,
But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.
{22:29} For you are my lamp, LORD.
The LORD will light up my darkness.
{22:30} For by you, I run against a troop.
By my God, I leap over a wall.
{22:31} As for God, his way is perfect.
The word of the LORD is tested.
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
{22:32} For who is God, besides the LORD?
Who is a rock, besides our God?
{22:33} God is my strong fortress.
He makes my way perfect.
{22:34} He makes his feet like hinds' feet,
and sets me on my high places.
{22:35} He teaches my hands to war,
so that my arms bend a bow of brass.
{22:36} You have also given me the shield of your salvation.
Your gentleness has made me great.
{22:37} You have enlarged my steps under me.
My feet have not slipped.
{22:38} I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them.
I didn't turn again until they were consumed.
{22:39} I have consumed them,
and struck them through,
so that they can't arise.
Yes, they have fallen under my feet.
{22:40} For you have armed me with strength for the battle.
You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.
{22:41} You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me,
that I might cut off those who hate me.
{22:42} They looked, but there was none to save;
even to the LORD, but he didn't answer them.
{22:43} Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth.
I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad.
{22:44} 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 will serve me.
{22:45} The foreigners will submit themselves to me.
As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me.
{22:46} The foreigners will fade away,
and will come trembling out of their close places.
{22:47} The LORD lives!
Blessed be my rock!
Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation,
{22:48} even the God who executes vengeance for me,
who brings down peoples under me,
{22:49} who 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.
{22:50} Therefore I will give thanks to you, LORD, among the nations.
Will sing praises to your name.
{22:51} He gives great deliverance to his king,
and shows loving kindness to his anointed,
to David and to his seed, forevermore."
{23:1} Now 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:
{23:2} "The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me.
His word was on my tongue.
{23:3} The God of Israel said,
the Rock of Israel spoke to me,
'One who rules over men righteously,
who rules in the fear of God,
{23:4} 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.'
{23:5} Most 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.
{23:6} But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away,
because they can't be taken with the hand,
{23:7} But 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."
{23:8} 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 slain at one time. {23:9} 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 who were there
gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away.
{23:10} He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary,
and his hand froze to the sword; and the LORD worked a great victory
that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil.
{23:11} After 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. {23:12} But he stood in the midst of the plot, and
defended it, and killed the Philistines; and the LORD worked a great
victory. {23:13} 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. {23:14} David was
then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then
in Bethlehem. {23:15} David longed, and said, "Oh that one would give
me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!"
{23:16} The 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 the LORD. {23:17} He said, "Be it far from
me, LORD, 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. {23:18} Abishai, 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. {23:19} Wasn't he most honorable of the three? therefore he was
made their captain: however he didn't attain to the three. {23:20}
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 midst of a pit in time of
snow. {23:21} He 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. {23:22} Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did these things, and
had a name among the three mighty men. {23:23} He was more honorable
than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the three. David set him over
his guard. {23:24} Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty;
Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, {23:25} Shammah the Harodite,
Elika the Harodite, {23:26} Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh
the Tekoite, {23:27} Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,
{23:28} Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, {23:29} Heleb
the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah
of the children of Benjamin, {23:30} Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of
the brooks of Gaash. {23:31} Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the
Barhumite, {23:32} Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen,
Jonathan, {23:33} Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the
Ararite, {23:34} Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the
Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, {23:35} Hezro
the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, {23:36} Igal the son of Nathan of
Zobah, Bani the Gadite, {23:37} Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the
Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah, {23:38} Ira the
Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, {23:39} Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in
all.
{24:1} Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and
he moved David against them, saying, "Go, number Israel and Judah."
{24:2} The 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."
{24:3} Joab said to the king, "Now may the LORD 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?"
{24:4} Notwithstanding, 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. {24:5} 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: {24:6} then they came to Gilead, and to the land of
Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and around to Sidon, {24:7}
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 Beersheba. {24:8} So when they had gone back and forth
through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months
and twenty days. {24:9} Joab 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. {24:10} David's heart struck him after that he had
numbered the people. David said to the LORD, "I have sinned greatly in
that which I have done. But now, the LORD, put away, I beg you, the
iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."
{24:11} When David rose up in the morning, the word of the LORD came
to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, {24:12} "Go and speak to
David, 'Thus says the LORD, "I offer you three things. Choose one of
them, that I may do it to you."'"
{24:13} 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 answer, and consider what answer I
shall return to him who sent me."
{24:14} David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let us fall now into
the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into
the hand of man."
{24:15} So the LORD 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. {24:16} When the angel stretched
out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD relented of the
disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, "It is
enough. Now stay your hand." The angel of the LORD was by the
threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
{24:17} David spoke to the LORD 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."
{24:18} Gad came that day to David, and said to him, "Go up, build
an altar to the LORD on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."
{24:19} David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD
commanded. {24:20} Araunah 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. {24:21} Araunah
said, "Why has my lord the king come to his servant?"
David said, "To buy your threshing floor, to build an altar to the
LORD, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."
{24:22} Araunah 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:
{24:23} all this, king, does Araunah give to the king." Araunah said
to the king, "May the LORD your God accept you."
{24:24} The king said to Araunah, "No; but I will most certainly buy
it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD
my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and
the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. {24:25} David built an altar to
the LORD there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So
the LORD was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from
Israel.
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Footnotes:
[1] {22:6} Sheol is the place of the dead.
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