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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh.
23:17 He 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.
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 Yahweh 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 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?”
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 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.”
24:11 When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,
24:12 “Go and speak to David, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.”’”
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 Yahweh; for his mercies are great. Let me not fall into the hand of man.”
24:15 So 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.
24:16 When 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.
24:17 David 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.”
24:18 Gad came that day to David, and said to him, “Go up, build an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”
24:19 David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh 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 Yahweh, 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh 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 Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.