²⁴ Asahel brother of Joab was one of the Thirty, also Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem, ²⁵ Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, ²⁶ Helez the Paltite, Ira son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, ²⁷ Aviezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, ²⁸ Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, ²⁹ Heleb son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, ³⁰ Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai from the wadis of Gaash, ³¹ Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmavet the Barhumite, ³² Eliahba the Shaalbonite of the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, ³³ Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam son of Sharar the Ararite, ³⁴ Eliphelet son of Ahasbai son of the Maacathite, Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, ³⁵ Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, ³⁶ Igal son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, ³⁷ Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor-bearer to Joab son of Zeruiah, ³⁸ Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, ³⁹ and Uriah the Hittite—37 in all.

David’s Unauthorized Census

24 Now the anger of Adonai again flared up against Israel, so He incited David against them saying, “Go, number Israel and Judah.” ² The king said to Joab the commander of the army who was with him, “Go about now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, so that I may know the sum of the people.”

³ But Joab said to the king, “May Adonai your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king looks on! But why does my lord the king desire such a thing?”

⁴ Nevertheless, the king’s command to Joab and the army generals remained firm. So Joab and the army generals went out from the king’s presence to number the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the right side of the town that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and toward Jazer. ⁶ Then they went to Gilead and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi. Then they came to Dan-jaan and round about to Sidon, ⁷ and came to the stronghold of Tyre, to all the cities of the Hivites and the Canaanites. Then they went out to the south of Judah, to Beersheba. ⁸ So when they had gone throughout all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and 20 days. ⁹ Joab reported the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: there were in Israel 800,000 valiant men who drew the sword and the men of Judah were 500,000 men.

¹⁰ But David’s heart troubled him after he had numbered the people. So David prayed to Adonai, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done! But now, Adonai, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

¹¹ When David rose up in the morning, the word of Adonai came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying: ¹² “Go and speak to David, thus says Adonai: ‘Three things I am proposing to you—choose one of them and I will bring it upon you.’” ¹³ So Gad came to David and told him, saying to him, “Shall seven years of famine come on you in your land? Or will you flee from your adversary for three months while he is pursuing you? Or shall there be three days of pestilence in your land? Now consider and see what answer I should return to Him who sent me.”

¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in a great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of Adonai, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man.” ¹⁵ So Adonai sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning until the appointed time, so that 70,000 men of the people died from Dan to Beersheba. ¹⁶ When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Adonai relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of Adonai was then by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel that was striking down the people, he spoke to Adonai saying, “Behold, it is I who have sinned, and it is I who have done wrong! But these sheep, what have they done? Please, let Your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

¹⁸ On that day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up, set up an altar to Adonai on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went up according to the word of Gad, as Adonai had commanded. ²⁰ Now when Araunah looked down and saw the king and his courtiers crossing over toward him, Araunah went out and bowed down before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ Then 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 Adonai, so that the plague may be held back from the people.”

²² Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good in his eyes. Look here, the oxen for the burnt offering, as well as the threshing sledges and the ox yokes for the wood. ²³ All this Araunah gives to the king.” Araunah said further to the king, “May Adonai your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you at a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to Adonai my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for 50 shekels of silver. ²⁵ Then David built there an altar to Adonai, and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. So Adonai was moved by prayer of entreaty for the land, and restrained the plague from Israel.

A Lame Beggar Walks

3 Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the ninth hour,^[a] the time of prayer. ² A man lame from birth was being carried—every day they used to put him at the Temple gate called Beautiful, so he could beg for tzedakah from those entering the Temple. ³ When he saw Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he began asking to receive tzedakah.

⁴ But Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, “Look at us!” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ But Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give to you—in the name of Yeshua ha-Mashiach ha-Natzrati, get up and walk!” ⁷ Then grabbing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made strong. ⁸ Jumping up, he stood and began walking; and he went with them into the Temple, walking and leaping and praising God!

⁹ Now all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ They began to realize he was the one who used to sit begging for tzedakah at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment over what had happened to him.

Peter Speaks at the Temple

¹¹ While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people together came running toward them in the place called Solomon’s Portico. ¹² But when Peter saw, he responded to the people, “Men of Israel, why are you amazed at this? Why do you stare at us—as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? ¹³ The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant^[b] Yeshua—the One you handed over and disowned before Pilate, though he had decided to release Him. ¹⁴ But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. ¹⁵ You killed the Author of life—the One God raised from the dead! We are witnesses of it. ¹⁶ Now through faith in the name of Yeshua, His name has strengthened this man whom you see and know. Indeed, the faith through Yeshua has given this man perfect health in front of you all.

¹⁷ “Now brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, just as your leaders did. ¹⁸ But what God foretold through the mouth of all His prophets—that His Messiah was to suffer—so He has fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent, therefore, and return—so your sins might be blotted out, ²⁰ so times of relief might come from the presence of Adonai and He might send Yeshua, the Messiah appointed for you. ²¹ Heaven must receive Him, until the time of the restoration of all the things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of His holy prophets. ²² Moses said, ‘Adonai your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. Hear and obey Him in all that He shall say to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to that Prophet shall be completely cut off from the people.’ ^{[c] 24} Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel on have announced these days. ²⁵ You are the sons of the prophets and also of the covenant that God cut with your fathers,^[d] saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ ^{[e] 26} God raised up His Servant and sent Him first to you, to bless you all by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”

Be Gracious to Your Servants

Psalm 123