19 After this, Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place. ² David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed 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. ³ But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, “Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven’t his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?” ⁴ So Hanun took David’s servants, shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle at their buttocks, and sent them away. ⁵ Then some people went and told David how the men were treated. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return.”

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^[a] of silver to hire chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, out of Aram-maacah, and out of Zobah. ⁷ So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah with his people, who came and encamped near Medeba. The children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle. ⁸ When David heard of it, he sent Joab with all the army of the mighty men. 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. ¹⁰ Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose some of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians. 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. ¹² He said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you are to help me; but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you. ¹³ Be courageous, and let’s be strong for our people and for the cities of our God. May Yahweh do that which seems good to him.”

¹⁴ So Joab and the people who were with him came near to the front of the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him. ¹⁵ When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

¹⁶ When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they sent messengers, and called out the Syrians who were beyond the River,^[b] with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer leading them. ¹⁷ David was told that; so he gathered all Israel together, passed over the Jordan, came to 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. ¹⁸ The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrian men seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and also killed Shophach the captain of the army. ¹⁹ When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David, and served him. The Syrians would not help the children of Ammon any more.

20 At the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, Joab led out 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. ² David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold,^[c] and there were precious stones in it. It was set on David’s head, and he brought very much plunder out of the city. ³ He brought out the people who were in it, and had them cut with saws, with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁴ After this, war arose at Gezer with the Philistines. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

⁵ Again there was 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. ⁶ There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant. ⁷ When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David’s brother killed him. ⁸ These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, ² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, ⁵ who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶ Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, ⁷ that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— ⁸ whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, ⁹ receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, ¹¹ searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. ¹² To them it was revealed, that they served not themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

¹³ Therefore prepare your minds for action.^[a] Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— ¹⁴ as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, ¹⁵ but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; ¹⁶ because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”Leviticus 11:44-45 ¹⁷ If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear, ¹⁸ knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, ¹⁹ but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ, ²⁰ who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake, ²¹ who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope might be in God.

²² Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently, ²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. ²⁴ For,

This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.

3 Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, ² “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”

³ So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. ⁴ Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”

⁵ The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. ⁶ The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. ⁷ He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; ⁸ but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands. ⁹ Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”

¹⁰ God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.

A Psalm.