2 Samuel 22

English Standard Version

David's Song of Deliverance

22 And David spoke ^(A)to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. ²^(B)He said,

^(C)“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
³    ^(D)my^[a] God, my rock, ^(E)in whom I take refuge,
^(F)my shield, and ^(G)the horn of my salvation,
    ^(H)my stronghold and ^(I)my refuge,
    my savior; you save me from violence.
⁴I call upon the Lord, who is ^(J)worthy to be praised,
    and I am saved from my enemies.

⁵^(K)“For the waves of death encompassed me,
the torrents of destruction assailed me;^[b]
⁶^(L)the cords of Sheol entangled me;
the snares of death confronted me.

⁷^(M)“In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I called.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry ^(N)came to his ears.

⁸“Then ^(O)the earth reeled and rocked;
    ^(P)the foundations of the heavens trembled
    and quaked, because he was angry.
⁹Smoke went up from his nostrils,^[c]
    and devouring fire from his mouth;
    ^(Q)glowing coals flamed forth from him.
¹⁰^(R)He bowed the heavens and ^(S)came down;
    ^(T)thick darkness was under his feet.
¹¹He rode on a cherub and flew;
    he was seen on ^(U)the wings of the wind.
¹²He made ^(V)darkness around him ^(W)his canopy,
    thick clouds, a gathering of water.
¹³Out of the brightness before him
    ^(X)coals of fire flamed forth.
¹⁴^(Y)The Lord thundered from heaven,
    and the Most High uttered his voice.
¹⁵And he sent out ^(Z)arrows and scattered them;
    lightning, and routed them.
¹⁶Then the channels of the sea were seen;
    the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at the rebuke of the Lord,
    at the ^(AA)blast of the breath of his nostrils.

¹⁷^(AB)“He sent from on high, he took me;
    he drew me out of many waters.
¹⁸He rescued me from my strong enemy,
    from those who hated me,
    for they were too mighty for me.
¹⁹They confronted me in the day of my calamity,
    but the Lord was my support.
²⁰^(AC)He brought me out into a broad place;
    he rescued me, because ^(AD)he delighted in me.

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

²⁶^(AK)“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;
    with the ^(AL)blameless man you show yourself blameless;
²⁷with the purified you deal purely,
    and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
²⁸^(AM)You save a humble people,
    ^(AN)but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
²⁹^(AO)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—^(AP)his way is perfect;
    the ^(AQ)word of the Lord proves true;
    he is ^(AR)a shield for all those who take refuge in him.

³²“For who is God, but the Lord?
    ^(AS)And who is a rock, except our God?
³³This God is my ^(AT)strong refuge
    and has made my^[d] way blameless.^[e]
³⁴^(AU)He made my feet like the feet of a deer
    and set me secure ^(AV)on the heights.
³⁵^(AW)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^(AX)You gave a wide place for my steps under me,
    and my feet^[f] 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 ^(AY)under my feet.
⁴⁰For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
    you made ^(AZ)those who rise against me sink under me.
⁴¹You ^(BA)made my enemies turn their backs to me,^[g]
    those who hated me, and I destroyed them.
⁴²They looked, but there was none to save;
    they cried to the Lord, but ^(BB)he did not answer them.
⁴³I beat them fine ^(BC)as the dust of the earth;
    I crushed them and stamped them down ^(BD)like the mire of the streets.

⁴⁴“You delivered me from strife with my people;^[h]
    you kept me as the head of ^(BE)the nations;
    ^(BF)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^[i] ^(BG)out of their fortresses.

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

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

Footnotes

2 Samuel 22:3 Septuagint (compare Psalm 18:2); Hebrew lacks my
2 Samuel 22:5 Or terrified me
2 Samuel 22:9 Or in his wrath
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 24

English Standard Version

David's Census

24 ^(A)^(B)Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ^(C)“Go, number Israel and Judah.” ²So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army,^[a] who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, ^(D)from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” ³But Joab said to the king, ^(E)“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. ⁵They crossed the Jordan and began from ^(F)Aroer,^[b] and from the city that is in the middle of the ^(G)valley, toward Gad and on to ^(H)Jazer. ⁶Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites;^[c] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[d] they went around to ^(I)Sidon, ⁷and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^(J)Hivites and ^(K)Canaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. ⁸So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men ^(L)who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

The Lord's Judgment of David's Sin

¹⁰But ^(M)David's heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, ^(N)“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done ^(O)very foolishly.” ¹¹And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to ^(P)the prophet Gad, David's ^(Q)seer, saying, ¹²“Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer^[e] you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” ¹³So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(R)three^[f] 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 consider, and decide what answer I shall return to him who sent me.” ¹⁴Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(S)for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

¹⁵^(T)So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from ^(U)Dan to Beersheba 70,000 men. ¹⁶And when ^(V)the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem ^(W)to destroy it, ^(X)the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel ^(Y)who was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And ^(Z)the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of ^(AA)Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father's house.”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^(AB)Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹So David went up at Gad's word, as the Lord commanded. ²⁰And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. ²¹And Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague ^(AC)may be averted from the people.” ²²Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the ^(AD)threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God ^(AE)accept you.” ²⁴But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels^[g] of silver. ²⁵And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ^(AF)So the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.