1 Chronicles 18-21

Easy-to-Read Version

David Wins Over Different Nations

18 Later, David attacked the Philistines and defeated them. He took the town of Gath and the other small towns around it from the Philistines.

² Then David defeated the country of Moab. The Moabites became David’s servants and brought tribute to him.

³ David also fought against Hadadezer’s army. Hadadezer was the king of Zobah. David fought against that army all the way to the town of Hamath. David did this when he went to set up a monument for himself at the Euphrates River.^{[a] 4} David took 1000 chariots, 7000 chariot drivers, and 20,000 soldiers from Hadadezer. David also crippled most of Hadadezer’s horses that were used for pulling chariots. But David saved enough horses to pull 100 chariots.

⁵ The Arameans from the city of Damascus came to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David defeated and killed 22,000 Aramean soldiers. ⁶ Then David put fortresses in the city of Damascus in Aram. The Arameans became David’s servants and brought tribute to him. So the Lord gave victory to David everywhere he went.

⁷ David took the gold shields from Hadadezer’s army leaders and brought them to Jerusalem. ⁸ David also took much bronze from the towns of Tebah and Cun. These towns belonged to Hadadezer. Later, Solomon used this bronze to make the bronze tank,^[b] the bronze columns, and other things made from bronze for the Temple.

⁹ Tou was king of the city of Hamath. Hadadezer was the king of Zobah. Tou heard that David had defeated all of Hadadezer’s army. ¹⁰ So Tou sent his son Hadoram to King David to ask for peace and to bless him. He did this because David had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him. Hadadezer had been at war with Tou before. Hadoram gave David all kinds of things made of gold, silver, and bronze. ¹¹ King David made these things holy and gave them to the Lord. David did the same thing with all the silver and gold he had gotten from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and Amalekites.

¹² Abishai son of Zeruiah killed 18,000 Edomites in the Valley of Salt. ¹³ Abishai also put fortresses in Edom and all the Edomites became David’s servants. The Lord gave David victory everywhere he went.

David’s Important Officials

¹⁴ David was king over all Israel. He did what was right and fair for everyone. ¹⁵ Joab son of Zeruiah was the commander of David’s army. Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud wrote about the things David did. ¹⁶ Zadok and Abimelech were the priests. Zadok was Ahitub’s son, and Abimelech was Abiathar’s son. Shavsha was the scribe. ¹⁷ Benaiah was responsible for leading the Kerethites and Pelethites.^[c] Benaiah was Jehoiada’s son. And David’s sons were important officials. They served at King David’s side.

The Ammonites Shame David’s Men

19 Nahash was king of the Ammonites. When Nahash died, his son became the new king. ² Then David said, “Nahash was kind to me, so I will be kind to Hanun, Nahash’s son.” So David sent messengers to comfort Hanun about the death of his father. David’s messengers went to the country of Ammon to comfort Hanun.

³ But the Ammonite leaders said to Hanun, “Don’t be fooled. David didn’t really send these men to comfort you or to honor your dead father! No, David sent his servants to spy on you and your land. He really wants to destroy your country!” ⁴ So Hanun arrested David’s servants and cut off their beards.^[d] Hanun also cut their clothes off at the hip and sent them away.

⁵ David’s men were too embarrassed to go home. Some people went to David and told him what happened to his men. So King David sent this message to his men: “Stay in the town of Jericho until your beards grow again. Then you can come back home.”

⁶ The Ammonites saw they had caused themselves to become hated enemies of David. Then Hanun and the Ammonites used 75,000 pounds^[e] of silver to buy chariots and chariot drivers from Mesopotamia.^[f] They also got chariots and chariot drivers from the towns of Maacah and Zobah in Aram. ⁷ The Ammonites bought 32,000 chariots. They also paid the king of Maacah and his army to come and help them. The king of Maacah and his people came and set up a camp near the town of Medeba. The Ammonites themselves came out of their towns and got ready for battle.

⁸ David heard that the Ammonites were getting ready for war. So he sent Joab and the whole army of Israel to fight the Ammonites. ⁹ The Ammonites came out and got ready for battle. They were near the city gate. The kings who had come to help stayed out in the fields by themselves.

¹⁰ Joab saw that there were two army groups ready to fight against him. One group was in front of him and the other group was behind him. So Joab chose some of the best soldiers of Israel and sent them out to fight against the Aramean army. ¹¹ He put the rest of the Israelite army under his brother Abishai’s command. These soldiers went out to fight against the Ammonite army. ¹² Joab said to Abishai, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, you must help me. But if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you. ¹³ Let’s be brave and strong while we fight for our people and for the cities of our God! May the Lord do what he thinks is right.”

¹⁴ Joab and the army with him attacked the Aramean army. The Arameans ran away from Joab and his army. ¹⁵ When the Ammonite army saw that the Aramean army was running away, they also ran away. They ran away from Abishai and his army. The Ammonites went back to their city, and Joab went back to Jerusalem.

¹⁶ The Aramean leaders saw that Israel had defeated them. So they sent messengers to get help from the Arameans living east of the Euphrates River. Shophach was the commander of Hadadezer’s army from Aram. Shophach also led the other Aramean soldiers.

¹⁷ David heard the news that the Arameans were gathering for battle, so he gathered all the Israelites. David led them across the Jordan River, and they came face to face with the Arameans. David got his army ready for battle and they attacked the Arameans. ¹⁸ The Arameans ran away from the Israelites. David and his army killed 7000 Aramean chariot drivers and 40,000 Aramean soldiers. David and his army also killed Shophach, the commander of the Aramean army.

¹⁹ When Hadadezer’s officers saw that Israel had defeated them, they made peace with David. They became his servants. So the Arameans refused to help the Ammonites again.

Joab Destroys the Ammonites

20 In the spring,^[g] Joab led the army of Israel out to battle. That was the time of year when kings went out to battle, but David stayed in Jerusalem. The army of Israel went to the country of Ammon and destroyed it. Then they went to the city of Rabbah. The army camped around the city—they stayed there to keep people from going in or out of the city. Joab and the army of Israel fought against the city of Rabbah until they destroyed it.

² David took the crown from their king’s^[h] head. That gold crown weighed about 75 pounds^[i] and there were valuable stones in it. The crown was put on David’s head. Then David had a great many valuable things brought out of the city of Rabbah. ³ He brought out the people in Rabbah and forced them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. He did the same thing to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the army went back to Jerusalem.

Philistine Giants Are Killed

⁴ Later, the Israelites went to war with the Philistines at the town of Gezer. At that time Sibbecai from Hushah killed Sippai, who was one of the sons of the giants. So those Philistines became like slaves to the Israelites.

⁵ Another time when the Israelites fought against the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi. Lahmi was Goliath’s brother. Goliath was from the town of Gath. Lahmi’s spear was very big and heavy. It was like the large pole on a loom.

⁶ Later, the Israelites fought another war with the Philistines at the town of Gath. In this town there was a very large man. He had 24 fingers and toes. He had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He also was a son of the giants. ⁷ So when that man made fun of Israel, Jonathan killed him. Jonathan was Shimea’s son. Shimea was David’s brother.

⁸ These Philistine men were sons of the giants from the town of Gath. David and his servants killed those giants.

David Sins by Counting Israel

21 Satan^[j] was against the Israelites. He encouraged David to count the Israelites. ² So David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go and count all the Israelites. Count everyone in the country—from the town of Beersheba all the way to the town of Dan. Then tell me, so I will know how many people there are.”

³ But Joab answered, “May the Lord make his nation 100 times as large! Sir, all the Israelites are your servants. Why do you want to do this thing, my lord and king? You will make all the Israelites guilty of sin!”

⁴ But King David was stubborn. Joab had to do what the king said. So Joab left and went through all the country of Israel counting the people. Then he came back to Jerusalem ⁵ and told David how many people there were. In Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could use a sword. And there were 470,000 men in Judah who could use a sword. ⁶ Joab did not count the tribes of Levi and Benjamin because he did not like King David’s order. ⁷ David had done a bad thing in God’s sight, so God punished Israel.

God Punishes Israel

⁸ Then David said to God, “I have done something very foolish. I have committed a terrible sin by counting the Israelites. Now, I beg you to take the sin away from me, your servant.”

^9-10 Gad was David’s seer. The Lord said to Gad, “Go and tell David: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to give you three choices. You must choose one of them. Then I will punish you the way you choose.’”

^11-12 Then Gad went to David. He said to David, “The Lord says, ‘David, choose which punishment you want: three years without enough food, or three months of running away from your enemies while they use their swords to chase you, or three days of punishment from the Lord. Terrible sicknesses will spread through the country, and the Lord’s angel will go through Israel destroying the people.’ David, God sent me. Now, you must decide which answer I will give to him.”

¹³ David said to Gad, “I am in trouble! I don’t want some man to decide my punishment. The Lord is very merciful, so let him decide how to punish me.”

¹⁴ So the Lord sent terrible sicknesses to Israel, and 70,000 people died. ¹⁵ God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But when the angel started to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord saw it and felt sorry for all the suffering. So he said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Stop! That is enough!” This happened when the angel of the Lord was standing at the threshing floor of Araunah^[k] the Jebusite.^[l]

¹⁶ David looked up and saw the Lord’s angel in the sky. The angel was holding his sword over the city of Jerusalem. Then David and the elders bowed with their faces touching the ground. They were wearing the special clothes to show their sadness. ¹⁷ David said to God, “I am the one who sinned. I gave the order for the people to be counted! I was wrong. The Israelites did not do anything wrong. Lord my God, punish me and my family, but stop the terrible sicknesses that are killing your people.”

¹⁸ Then the angel of the Lord spoke to Gad. He said, “Tell David to build an altar to worship the Lord. David must build that altar near the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ Gad told David this, and David went to Araunah’s threshing floor.

²⁰ Araunah was threshing the wheat. He turned around and saw the angel. His four sons ran away to hide. ²¹ David walked up the hill to Araunah. Araunah saw him and left the threshing floor. He walked to David and bowed with his face to the ground in front of him.

²² David said to Araunah, “Sell me your threshing floor. I will pay you the full price. Then I can use the area to build an altar to worship the Lord. Then the terrible sicknesses will be stopped.”

²³ Araunah said to David, “Take this threshing floor. You are my lord and king, so do whatever you want. Look, I will also give you cattle for the burnt offering. You can have the wooden threshing tools to burn for the fire on the altar. And I will give the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this to you.”

²⁴ But King David answered Araunah, “No, I will pay you the full price. I will not take anything that is yours and give it to the Lord. I will not give offerings that cost me nothing.”

²⁵ So David gave Araunah about 15 pounds^[m] of gold for the place. ²⁶ David built an altar for worshiping the Lord there. David offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He prayed to the Lord. The Lord answered David by sending fire down from heaven. The fire came down on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ Then the Lord commanded the angel to put his sword back into its sheath.

²⁸ David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah, so David offered sacrifices there. ²⁹ (The Lord’s Holy Tent and the altar of burnt offerings were at the high place in the town of Gibeon. Moses had made the Holy Tent while the Israelites were in the desert. ³⁰ David could not go to the Holy Tent to speak with God because he was afraid. He was afraid of the angel of the Lord and his sword.)