2 Samuel 22:21-23:23

English Standard Version

²¹“The Lord ^(A)dealt with me according to my righteousness;
    according to the ^(B)cleanness of my hands he rewarded me.
²²^(C)For I have kept the ways of the Lord
    and have not wickedly departed from my God.
²³^(D)For all his rules were before me,
    and from his statutes I did not turn aside.
²⁴I was ^(E)blameless before him,
    and I kept myself from guilt.
²⁵^(F)And the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,
    according to my cleanness in his sight.

²⁶^(G)“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
    with the ^(H)blameless man you show yourself blameless;
²⁷with the purified you deal purely,
    and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
²⁸^(I)You save a humble people,
    ^(J)but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
²⁹^(K)For you are my lamp, O Lord,
    and my God lightens my darkness.
³⁰For by you I can run against a troop,
    and by my God I can leap over a wall.
³¹This God—^(L)his way is perfect;
    the ^(M)word of the Lord proves true;
    he is ^(N)a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

³²“For who is God, but the Lord?
    ^(O)And who is a rock, except our God?
³³This God is my ^(P)strong refuge
    and has made my^[a] way blameless.^[b]
³⁴^(Q)He made my feet like the feet of a deer
    and set me secure ^(R)on the heights.
³⁵^(S)He trains my hands for war,
    so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁶You have given me the shield of your salvation,
    and your gentleness made me great.
³⁷^(T)You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
    and my feet^[c] did not slip;
³⁸I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,
    and did not turn back until they were consumed.
³⁹I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise;
    they fell ^(U)under my feet.
⁴⁰For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
    you made ^(V)those who rise against me sink under me.
⁴¹You ^(W)made my enemies turn their backs to me,^[d]
    those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
⁴²They looked, but there was none to save;
    they cried to the Lord, but ^(X)he did not answer them.
⁴³I beat them fine ^(Y)as the dust of the earth;
    I crushed them and stamped them down ^(Z)like the mire of the streets.

⁴⁴“You delivered me from strife with my people;^[e]
    you kept me as the head of ^(AA)the nations;
    ^(AB)people whom I had not known served me.
⁴⁵Foreigners came cringing to me;
    as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.
⁴⁶Foreigners lost heart
    and came trembling^[f] ^(AC)out of their fortresses.

⁴⁷“The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,
    and exalted be ^(AD)my God, ^(AE)the rock of my salvation,
⁴⁸the God who gave me vengeance
    and ^(AF)brought down peoples under me,
⁴⁹who brought me out from my enemies;
    you exalted me above ^(AG)those who rose against me;
    you delivered me from ^(AH)men of violence.

⁵⁰^(AI)“For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,
    and sing praises to your name.
⁵¹^(AJ)Great salvation he brings^[g] to his king,
    and shows steadfast love to ^(AK)his anointed,
    to David and his offspring ^(AL)forever.”

The Last Words of David

23 Now these are the last words of David:

The oracle of David, the son of Jesse,
the oracle of ^(AM)the man who was raised on high,
^(AN)the anointed of the God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel:^[h]

²^(AO)“The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me;
    his word is on my tongue.
³The God of Israel has spoken;
    ^(AP)the Rock of Israel has said to me:
When one rules justly over men,
    ruling ^(AQ)in the fear of God,
⁴he ^(AR)dawns on them like the morning light,
    like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,
    like rain^[i] that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

⁵“For does not my house stand so with God?
    ^(AS)For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
    ordered in all things and secure.
For will he not cause to prosper
    all my help and my desire?
⁶But worthless men^[j] are all like thorns that are thrown away,
    for they cannot be taken with the hand;
⁷but the man who touches them
    arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,
    and they are utterly consumed with fire.”^[k]

David's Mighty Men

⁸^(AT)These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: ^(AU)Josheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite; he was chief of the three.^[l] He wielded his spear^[m] against eight hundred whom he killed at one time.

⁹And next to him among the three mighty men was Eleazar the son of ^(AV)Dodo, son of ^(AW)Ahohi. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew. ¹⁰He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword. And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the men returned after him only to strip the slain.

¹¹And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the ^(AX)Hararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi,^[n] where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. ¹²But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked a great victory.

¹³And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the ^(AY)cave of Adullam, when a band of Philistines was encamped ^(AZ)in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴David was then ^(BA)in the stronghold, and ^(BB)the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. ¹⁵And David said longingly, “Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” ¹⁶Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord ¹⁷and said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink ^(BC)the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

¹⁸Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty.^[o] And he wielded his spear against three hundred men^[p] and killed them and won a name beside the three. ¹⁹He was the most renowned of the thirty^[q] and became their commander, but he did not attain to ^(BD)the three.

²⁰And ^(BE)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man^[r] of ^(BF)Kabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels^[s] of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. ²¹And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. ²²These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. ²³He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.

Footnotes

2 Samuel 22:33 Or his; also verse 34
2 Samuel 22:33 Compare Psalm 18:32; Hebrew he has blamelessly set my way free, or he has made my way spring up blamelessly
2 Samuel 22:37 Hebrew ankles
2 Samuel 22:41 Or You gave me my enemies' necks
2 Samuel 22:44 Septuagint with the peoples
2 Samuel 22:46 Compare Psalm 18:45; Hebrew equipped themselves
2 Samuel 22:51 Or He is a tower of salvation
2 Samuel 23:1 Or the favorite of the songs of Israel
2 Samuel 23:4 Hebrew from rain
2 Samuel 23:6 Hebrew worthlessness
2 Samuel 23:7 Hebrew consumed with fire in the sitting
2 Samuel 23:8 Or of the captains
2 Samuel 23:8 Compare 1 Chronicles 11:11; the meaning of the Hebrew expression is uncertain
2 Samuel 23:11 Or gathered together as a camp
2 Samuel 23:18 Two Hebrew manuscripts, Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts three
2 Samuel 23:18 Or slain ones
2 Samuel 23:19 Compare 1 Chronicles 11:21; Hebrew Was he the most renowned of the three?
2 Samuel 23:20 Or the son of Ishhai
2 Samuel 23:20 The meaning of the word ariel is unknown