The Second Book of Shemu'el, 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 Sha'ul: {22:2} and he said,
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine;
{22:3} God, my rock, in him will I 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 compassed me;
The floods of ungodliness made me afraid:
{22:6} The cords of She'ol were round about me;
The snares of death came on 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 [1>]eretz[<1] shook and trembled,
The foundations of heaven quaked
Were shaken, because he was angry.
{22:9} There went up a smoke 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 Keruv, and did fly;
Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind.
{22:12} He made darkness pavilions round about him,
Gathering of waters, 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 Elyon 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, 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 stay.
{22:20} He brought me forth also into a large place;
He delivered me, because he delighted in me.
{22:21} The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness;
According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.
{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 has the LORD recompensed 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} The afflicted people you will save;
But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down.
{22:29} For you are my lamp, LORD;
The LORD will lighten my darkness.
{22:30} For by you I run on a troop;
By my God do I leap over a wall.
{22:31} As for God, his way is perfect:
The word of the LORD is tried;
He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him.
{22:32} For who is God, save the LORD?
Who is a rock, save our God?
{22:33} God is my strong fortress;
He guides the perfect in his way.
{22:34} He makes his feet like hinds' [feet],
Sets me on my high places.
{22:35} He teaches my hands to war,
So that my arms do 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;
Neither did I turn again until they were consumed.
{22:39} I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they
can't arise:
Yes, they are fallen under my feet.
{22:40} For you have girded me with strength to 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 did I beat them small as the dust of the [2>]eretz[<2],
I did crush them as the mire of the streets, and did 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 shall serve me.
{22:45} The foreigners shall submit themselves to me:
As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me.
{22:46} The foreigners shall fade away,
Shall 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 forth 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} Great deliverance gives he to his king,
Shows lovingkindness to his anointed,
To David and to his seed, forevermore.
{23:1} Now these are the last words of David.
David the son of Yishai says,
The man who was raised on high says,
The anointed of the God of Ya`akov,
The sweet psalmist of Yisra'el:
{23:2} The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me,
His word was on my tongue.
{23:3} The God of Yisra'el said,
The Rock of Yisra'el spoke to me:
One who rules over men righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God,
{23:4} [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 [1>]eretz[<1],
Through clear shining after rain.
{23:5} Most assuredly 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 the ungodly shall be all of them 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:
Yoshev-Bashshevet a Tachkemonite, chief of the captains; the same was
`Adino the Etznite, against eight hundred slain at one time. {23:9}
After him was El`azar the son of Dodo the son of an Achochi, one of
the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Pelishtim who
were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Yisra'el were
gone away. {23:10} He arose, and struck the Pelishtim 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 Age a Harari. The
Pelishtim were gathered together into a troop, where was a plot of
ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Pelishtim.
{23:12} But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and
killed the Pelishtim; 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 Pelishtim
was encamped in the valley of Refa'im. {23:14} David was then in the
stronghold; and the garrison of the Pelishtim was then in Beit-Lechem.
{23:15} David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to
drink of the well of Beit-Lechem, which is by the gate! {23:16} The
three mighty men broke through the host of the Pelishtim, and drew
water out of the well of Beit-Lechem, 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: [shall I drink] the blood of the men who went in
jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things
did the three mighty men. {23:18} Avishai, the brother of Yo'av, the
son of Tzeru'yah, 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 [first] three. {23:20}
Benayah the son of Yehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kavtz'el, who
had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ari'el of Mo'av: he
went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of
snow. {23:21} He killed a Mitzrian, a goodly man: and the Mitzrian had
a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked
the spear out of the Mitzrian's hand, and killed him with his own
spear. {23:22} These things did Benayah the son of Yehoiada, 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 [first] three. David set him
over his guard. {23:24} `Asa'el the brother of Yo'av was one of the
thirty; Elchanan the son of Dodo of Beit-Lechem, {23:25} Shammah the
Harodi, Elika the Harodi, {23:26} Heletz the Paltite, `Ira the son of
`Ikkesh the Tekoite, {23:27} Avi-Ezer the `Antotite, Mevunnai the
Hushatite, {23:28} Tzalmon the Achochi, Maharai the Netofatite,
{23:29} Helev the son of Ba`anah the Netofatite, Ittai the son of
Rivai of Gevah of the children of Binyamin, {23:30} Benayah a
Pir`atonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Ga`ash. {23:31} Avi-Alvon the
`Arvati, `Azmavet the Barchumite, {23:32} Elyachba the Sha`alvonite,
the sons of Yashen, Yonatan, {23:33} Shammah the Harari, Achi'am the
son of Sharar the Ararite, {23:34} Elifelet the son of Achasbai, the
son of the Ma`akhatite, Eli`am the son of Achitofel the Giloni,
{23:35} Hetzro the Karmelite, Pa`arai the Arbi, {23:36} Yig'al the son
of Natan of Tzovah, Bani the Gadite, {23:37} Tzelek the `Ammonite,
Naharai the Be'erotite, armor bearers to Yo'av the son of Tzeru'yah,
{23:38} `Ira the Yitri, Garev the Yitri, {23:39} Uriyah the Hittite:
thirty-seven in all.
{24:1} Again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Yisra'el, and
he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Yisra'el and Yehudah.
{24:2} The king said to Yo'av the captain of the host, who was with
him, Go now back and forth through all the tribes of Yisra'el, from
Dan even to Be'er-Sheva, and number you the people, that I may know
the sum of the people. {24:3} Yo'av said to the king, Now 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 Yo'av, and against the captains of the
host. Yo'av and the captains of the host went out from the presence of
the king, to number the people of Yisra'el. {24:5} They passed over
the Yarden, and encamped in `Aro`er, on the right side of the city
that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Ya`zer: {24:6} then
they came to Gil`ad, and to the land of Tachtim-Hodshi; and they came
to Dan-Ya`an, and round about to Tzidon, {24:7} and came to the
stronghold of Tzor, and to all the cities of the Hivvi, and of the
Kana`anim; and they went out to the south of Yehudah, at Be'er-Sheva.
{24:8} So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they
came to Yerushalayim at the end of nine months and twenty days. {24:9}
Yo'av gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and
there were in Yisra'el eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the
sword; and the men of Yehudah 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 you 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 advise you, and consider what answer I
shall return to him who sent me. {24:14} David said to Gad, I am in a
great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his
mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. {24:15}
So the LORD sent a pestilence on Yisra'el from the morning even to the
time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to
Be'er-Sheva seventy thousand men. {24:16} When the angel stretched out
his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, the LORD repented him of
the evil, 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 Aravna the Yevusi. {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, rear an
altar to the LORD in the threshing floor of Aravna the Yevusi. {24:19}
David went up according to the saying of Gad, as the LORD commanded.
{24:20} Aravna looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming
on toward him: and Aravna went out, and bowed himself before the king
with his face to the ground. {24:21} Aravna said, Why is my lord the
king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor of
you, to build an altar to the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from
the people. {24:22} Aravna said to David, Let my lord the king 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: {24:23} all this, king, does Aravna give to the king. Aravna
said to the king, the LORD your God accept you. {24:24} The king said
to Aravna, No; but I will most assuredly buy it of you at a price.
Neither will I 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 there an altar to the LORD, and
offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings. So the LORD was entreated
for the land, and the plague was stayed from Yisra'el.
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Footnotes:
[1] {22:8} earth
[2] {22:43} earth
[1] {23:4} earth
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