2 Samuel 23-24

New American Standard Bible

David’s Last Song

23 Now these are the last words of David.

David the son of Jesse declares,
^(A)The man who was raised on high,
^(B)The anointed of the God of Jacob
And the sweet psalmist of Israel, declares,
²“^(C)The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me,
And His word was on my tongue.
³The God of Israel said it;
^(D)The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
‘^(E)He who rules over mankind righteously,
^(F)Who rules in the fear of God,
⁴^(G)Is like the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the fresh grass springs out of the earth
From sunshine after rain.’
⁵Is my house not indeed so with God?
For ^(H)He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Properly ordered in all things, and secured;
For will He not indeed make
All my salvation and all my delight grow?
⁶^(I)But the worthless, every one of them, are like scattered thorns,
Because they cannot be taken in hand;
⁷Instead, the man who touches them
Must be ^[a]armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
And ^(J)they will be completely burned with fire in their ^[b]place.”

David’s Mighty Men

⁸^(K)These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the ^[c]captains; he was called Adino the Eznite because of eight hundred who were killed by him at one time. ⁹And after him was Eleazar the son of ^(L)Dodo the ^(M)Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of Israel had ^[d]withdrawn. ¹⁰^(N)He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and ^[e]it clung to the sword, and ^(O)the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder the dead.

¹¹Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee, a ^(P)Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered ^[f]into an army where there was a plot of land full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. ¹²But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it, and struck the Philistines; and ^(Q)the Lord brought about a great victory.

¹³Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time to the ^(R)cave of Adullam, while the army of the Philistines was camping in ^(S)the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴David was then ^(T)in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. ¹⁵And ^(U)David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” ¹⁶^(V)So the three mighty men forced their way into the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David. Yet he would not drink it, but ^(W)poured it out as an offering to the Lord; ¹⁷and he said, “Far be it from me, Lord, that I would do this! ^(X)Should I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

¹⁸Now ^(Y)Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was ^(Z)chief of the ^[g]thirty. And he swung his spear against three hundred ^[h]and killed them, and had a name ^[i]as well as the three. ¹⁹He was the most honored among the thirty, so he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the reputation of the three.

²⁰Then ^(AA)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of ^(AB)Kabzeel, who had done great deeds, ^[j]killed the ^[k]two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. ²¹And he ^[l]killed an Egyptian, ^[m]an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. ²²These things ^(AC)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and had a name ^[n]as well as the three mighty men. ²³He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain the reputation of the three. And David appointed him over his bodyguard.

²⁴^(AD)Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty; and there was Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, ²⁵^(AE)Shammah the ^(AF)Harodite, Elika the Harodite, ²⁶Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the ^(AG)Tekoite, ²⁷Abiezer the ^(AH)Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, ²⁸Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the ^(AI)Netophathite, ²⁹^(AJ)Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of ^(AK)Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, ³⁰Benaiah a ^(AL)Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of ^(AM)Gaash, ³¹Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the ^(AN)Barhumite, ³²Eliahba the ^(AO)Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, ³³^(AP)Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, ³⁴Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of ^(AQ)the Maacathite, ^(AR)Eliam the son of ^(AS)Ahithophel the Gilonite, ³⁵^(AT)Hezro the ^(AU)Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, ³⁶Igal the son of Nathan of ^(AV)Zobah, Bani the Gadite, ³⁷Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the ^(AW)Beerothite, armor bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah, ³⁸Ira the ^(AX)Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, ³⁹and ^(AY)Uriah the Hittite; thirty-seven in all.

The Census Taken

24 ^(AZ)Now ^(BA)the anger of the Lord burned against Israel again, and He incited David against them to say, “^(BB)Go, count Israel and Judah.” ²So the king said to Joab the commander of the army, who was with him, “Roam about now through all the tribes of Israel, ^(BC)from Dan to Beersheba, and conduct a census of the people, so that I may know the number of the people.” ³But Joab said to the king, “^(BD)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 can still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” ⁴Nevertheless, the king’s order prevailed against Joab and against the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army left the presence of the king to conduct a census of the people of Israel. ⁵They crossed the Jordan and camped in ^(BE)Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the Valley of Gad and toward ^(BF)Jazer. ⁶Then they came to Gilead and to ^[o]the land of Tahtim-hodshi, and they came to Dan-jaan and around to ^(BG)Sidon, ⁷then they came to the ^(BH)fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ^(BI)Hivites and of the Canaanites, and they went out to the south of Judah, to ^(BJ)Beersheba. ⁸So when they had roamed about through the whole land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹And Joab gave ^(BK)the number of the census of the people to the king: in Israel there were ^(BL)eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword, and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

¹⁰Now ^(BM)David’s heart ^[p]troubled him after he had counted the people. So David said to the Lord, “^(BN)I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, Lord, please ^[q]overlook the guilt of Your servant, for ^(BO)I have acted very foolishly.” ¹¹When David got up in the morning, the word of the Lord came to ^(BP)Gad the prophet, David’s ^(BQ)seer, saying, ¹²“Go and speak to David, ‘This is what the Lord says: “I am imposing upon you three choices; choose for yourself one of them, and I will do it to you.”’” ¹³So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^(BR)seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee for three months before your enemies while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ of plague in your land? Now consider and see what answer I shall return to Him who sent me.” ¹⁴Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord, ^(BS)for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into human hands.”

Plague Sent

¹⁵So ^(BT)the Lord ^[r]sent a plague upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand men of the people ^(BU)from Dan to Beersheba died. ¹⁶^(BV)When the angel extended his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, ^(BW)the Lord relented of the disaster and said to the angel who destroyed the people, “It is enough! Now drop your hand!” And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking down the people, and said, “Behold, ^(BX)it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong; but ^(BY)these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house!”

David Builds an Altar

¹⁸So Gad came to David that day and said to him, “^(BZ)Go up, erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^[s]Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹Then David went up in accordance with the word of Gad, just as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰And Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants crossing over toward him; so Araunah went out and bowed his face to the ground before the king. ²¹Then Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” And David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you, in order to build an altar to the Lord, ^(CA)so that the plague may be ^[t]withdrawn from the people.” ²²Araunah then said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what is good in his sight. Look, here are ^(CB)the oxen for the burnt offering, the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³Everything, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God be ^(CC)favorable to you.” ²⁴However, the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will certainly buy it from you for a price; for ^(CD)I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God ^[u]that cost me nothing.” So ^(CE)David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵Then David built there an altar to the Lord, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And ^(CF)the Lord responded to prayer for the land, and the plague was ^[v]withdrawn from Israel.