Beginning
Chapter 18
David’s Conquests.[a] 1 After this, David defeated the Philistines. He subdued Gath and took it and its dependent towns from the Philistines.
2 He struck down Moab, and the Moabites became David’s vassals and brought him tribute.
3 The king defeated Hadadezer, the king of Zobah up to Hamath when he went forth to establish his power along the Euphrates River. 4 David took one thousand chariots from him, as well as seven thousand horsemen, and twenty thousand foot soldiers. David hamstrung the chariot horses, keeping one hundred chariots for himself.
5 When the Arameans of Damascus came to help Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, David killed twenty-two thousand of the Arameans. 6 David then stationed men in Damascus of the Arameans, and the Arameans became David’s vassals, bringing him tribute. The Lord guarded over David wherever he went.
7 David took the gold shields from Hadadezer’s servants, and he brought them to Jerusalem. 8 He also brought large quantities of bronze from Tibhath and Cun, Hadadezer’s cities. Solomon used the bronze to make the sea, the pillars, and vessels.
9 When Tou, the king of Hamath, heard how David had defeated the entire army of Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, 10 he sent his son Hadoram to King David to greet him and bless him because he had fought against Hadadezer and defeated him, for Hadadezer was at war with Tou. He brought him objects of gold, silver, and bronze. 11 King David dedicated them to the Lord along with the gold and the silver that he had taken from all the nations, from Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and from Amalek.
12 In addition to this, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, killed eighteen thousand of the Edomites in the Valley of Salt. 13 He also established outposts in Edom, so that all of Edom became David’s vassals. The Lord guarded over David wherever he went.
14 David reigned over all of Israel, and he gave judgment and justice to all of his people. 15 Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was the commander of the army, and Jehoshaphat, the son of Ahilud, was the archivist.
16 Zadok, the son of Ahitub, and Ahimelech, the son of Abiathar, were the priests, and Shavsha was the scribe. 17 Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, was in charge of the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and David’s sons were the officials of the king.[b]
Chapter 19
David’s Battles with the Ammonites. 1 Sometime after this, Nahash, the king of the Ammonites, died, and his son reigned in his stead. 2 David said, “I will show kindness to Hanun, the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent emissaries to console him with regard to his father. David’s servants came to the land of Ammon, to console Hanun.
3 The Ammonite nobles said to Hanun, “Do you really think that David is honoring your father by sending men to console you? Do you not see that David has sent his servants to overthrow you and to spy out the land?” 4 Hanun, therefore, seized David’s servants, shaving them and cutting their garments up to their hips. He then sent them away.
5 Some men came in and told David about what had happened to the men, so he sent someone to meet them, for the men were terribly embarrassed. The king told them, “Wait at Jericho until your beards grow back, and then return.”
6 The Ammonites realized that they had become abhorrent to David, so Hanun and the Ammonites sent one thousand talents of silver to hire chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, Aram, and Zobah. 7 They hired thirty-two thousand chariots for themselves along with the king of Maacah and his people. They came and camped in front of Medeba. The Ammonites also assembled from out of their cities and went out to fight.
8 David heard about this, so he sent Joab and his army of brave warriors out. 9 The Ammonites came and arranged themselves in battle line at the gate to the city while the kings who had come with them stood in the fields by themselves.
10 Joab saw that they were arranged in battle line both in front of him and behind him, so he chose some of the best men in Israel and placed them up against the Arameans. 11 He placed the rest of the people under the command of Abishai, his brother, and they lined up against the Ammonites. 12 He said, “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. 13 Be brave and let us be strong for our people and the cities of God. May the Lord do what he judges to be right.”
14 Joab and the people who were with him drew up to fight against the Arameans, and they fled before him. 15 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans were fleeing, they also fled before Abishai, his brother. They went into the city, and Joab returned to Jerusalem.
16 When the Arameans realized that they had been defeated by Israel, they sent messengers to summon the Arameans who lived beyond the river. Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army, led them.
17 When David was told, he gathered all of Israel together and crossed over the Jordan. He came upon them and lined up for battle against them. David set up his troops, and they fought against him.
18 The Arameans fled from before David, and he slew seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers. He also killed Shophach, the commander of the army.
19 When Hadadezer’s servants saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and became his vassals. The Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.
Chapter 20
1 In the spring of the year when kings go out to war, Joab led the army out, and he laid waste the land of the Ammonites. They came and besieged Rabbah while David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab defeated Rabbah and destroyed it.
2 David took away their king’s crown. It weighed one golden talent, and there were precious stones on it. It was set upon David’s head. He also took away much spoil.
3 He also took away the people who were in it. He put them to work with saws, iron picks, and axes. David did this to all of the Ammonite cities. David and all the people then returned to Jerusalem.
Battle with the Philistines. 4 Sometime after this, there was a war with the Philistines at Gezer. This was when Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, who was one of the Rephaim. They were subdued.
5 There was another war with the Philistines, and Elhanan, the son of Jair, killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite. The staff of his spear was as large was a weaver’s beam.
6 There was war again at Gath where there was an enormous man who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four fingers and toes in all. He was a Rephaim. 7 He taunted Israel, and Jonathan, the son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. 8 These were born to the Rephaim in Gath, and they fell at David’s hand and those of his servants.
Chapter 21
The Census and Plague. 1 Now Satan took his stand[c] against Israel, and he tempted David to take a census of Israel.
2 David said to Joab and to the leaders of the people, “Go take a census of Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan. Bring the number to me so that I might know it.”
3 Joab answered, “May the Lord multiply his people a hundred times over, but, my lord, the king, are these not my lord’s servants? Why would my lord order this? Why would he bring this guilt upon Israel?”
4 Nevertheless, the king was resolute with Joab. Joab departed and traveled all throughout Israel, and he then returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab gave the total number of the people to David. In all of Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could draw the sword. In Judah there were four hundred and seventy thousand men who could draw the sword. 6 He did not count Levi or Benjamin, however, for Joab found the king’s command to be detestable.
7 God was greatly displeased at this, and he struck down Israel.
8 David said to God, “I have sinned grievously in doing this. I beg you now, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”
9 [d]The Lord then spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying, 10 “Go and speak to David saying: Thus says the Lord: ‘I will offer you three options. Choose one of them so that I might do it to you.’ ”
11 Gad came to David and said, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Choose for yourself 12 three years of famine, or three months of being defeated by your enemies, with the swords of your foes striking you down, or else three days of the sword of the Lord. Plague will be in the land, and the angel of the Lord will cause destruction all throughout the territory of Israel.’ Think about the answer I should take back to him who sent me.”
13 David said to Gad, “I am greatly distressed. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are truly great. Let me not fall into human hands.”
14 So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel, and seventy thousand people fell because of it. 15 God also sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was destroying it, the Lord regretted the disaster, and he said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Hold back your hand!”
Ornan’s Threshing Floor. So the angel of the Lord stood by the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.
16 David looked up, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing between the earth and the heavens, holding a drawn sword in his hands that was stretched out over Jerusalem. David and the elders fell down upon their faces, clothed in sackcloth.[e]
17 David said to God, “Was it not I who commanded the census of the people? I am the one who sinned, for I have truly done what was wrong. As for these sheep, what have they done? O Lord, my God, let your hand be against me and my father’s household, but let your people not suffer from the plague.”
18 The angel of the Lord then commanded Gad to tell David that David should go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. 19 So David went up as Gad, who spoke in the name of the Lord, had said.
20 Ornan turned around, and he saw the angel, and his four sons who were with him went and hid themselves while Ornan remained on the threshing floor.
21 David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked out and saw David. He went out from the threshing floor and bowed down with his face to the ground before David. 22 David said to Ornan, “Give me this place, the threshing floor, so that I can build an altar to the Lord on it. Sell it to me at full price so that the plague can be withdrawn from the people.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself. Let my lord, the king, do what he sees fit. Behold, I will also give you the oxen for burnt offering and the instruments used for threshing for wood and wheat for the grain offering. I will give it all to you.”
24 But King David said to Ornan, “No, I will surely pay you the full price. I will not take anything from you for the Lord, nor will I offer any burnt offering that did not cost me anything.”
25 David gave Ornan the weight of six hundred shekels of gold for the site. 26 David then built an altar to the Lord there, and he offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called upon the Lord, and he answered him from heaven by sending fire upon the altar of the burnt offerings.
27 The Lord gave the command to the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath. 28 David then realized that the Lord had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, and he performed a sacrifice there.
29 At that time, the tabernacle of the Lord that Moses had made and the altar of burnt offerings were at the high place in Gibeon. 30 But David could not go in to make inquiry of God, for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.
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