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David Defeats Ammon and Aram(A)
19 Later King Nahash of Ammon died, and his son became king in his place. 2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun because his father Nahash showed me kindness.” So David sent messengers to comfort Hanun after his father’s death. But when David’s servants entered Ammonite territory to comfort Hanun, 3 the Ammonite princes asked Hanun, “Do you think David is honoring your father because he sent men to comfort you? Haven’t his servants come to explore, destroy, and spy on the country?” 4 So Hanun took David’s men, shaved them, cut off their clothes from the waist down, and sent them away.
5 After people told David what had happened to the men, he sent someone to meet them because they were deeply humiliated. The king said to them, “Stay in Jericho until your beards have grown back, and then return to Jerusalem.”
6 The Ammonites realized that they had made themselves offensive to David. So Hanun and the Ammonites sent 75,000 pounds of silver to hire chariots and horses from the Arameans in Upper Mesopotamia, Maacah, and Zobah. 7 They hired 32,000 chariots and the king of Maacah with his army. They camped near Medeba. The Ammonites gathered for the battle from their cities.
8 After David heard about this, he sent Joab and all the elite troops. 9 The Ammonites formed a battle line at the entrance of the city, while the Arameans from Zobah and Rehob and the kings who had come remained by themselves in the open country.
10 When Joab saw he was under attack in front and behind, he took the select troops of Israel and organized them for combat against the Arameans. 11 He put his brother Abishai in charge of the rest of the troops. They organized for combat against the Ammonites.
12 Joab said, “If the Arameans are too strong for my troops, be ready to help me. And if the Ammonites are too strong for your troops, I’ll help you. 13 Be strong! Let’s prove ourselves strong for our people and for the cities of our Elohim, and Yahweh will do what he considers right.”
14 Then Joab and his troops advanced to fight the Arameans, and the Arameans fled. 15 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they, too, fled from Joab’s brother Abishai and went into the city. So Joab returned to Jerusalem.
16 Realizing that Israel had defeated them, the kings sent messengers to get other Arameans from beyond the Euphrates River. Shophach, the commander of Hadadezer’s army, led them.
17 When David was told about this, he assembled Israel’s army, crossed the Jordan, and confronted them. David formed a battle line against the Arameans, and they fought him. 18 The Arameans fled from Israel, and David killed 7,000 chariot drivers and 40,000 foot soldiers. David also killed Shophach. 19 When all the kings who were subject to Hadadezer saw that Israel had defeated them, they made peace with David and became his subjects. And the Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.
David Defeats the Philistines(B)
20 In the spring, the time when kings go out to battle, Joab led the army to war. They destroyed the Ammonites and came to Rabbah to attack it, while David stayed in Jerusalem. Joab defeated Rabbah and tore it down. 2 He took the gold crown from the head of Rabbah’s king and put it on David’s head. (The crown was found to weigh 75 pounds, and in it was a precious stone.) David also took a lot of goods from the city. 3 He brought out the troops who were there and put them to work with saws, hoes, and axes.[a] He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the troops returned to Jerusalem.
4 After this, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbecai from Hushah[b] killed Sippai, a descendant of Haraphah, and the Philistines were defeated. 5 When more fighting broke out with the Philistines, Elhanan, son of Jair, killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath from Gath. (The shaft of Lahmi’s spear was like a beam used by weavers.) 6 In another battle at Gath, there was a tall man who had 24 fingers and toes: six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. He also was a descendant of Haraphah. 7 When he challenged Israel, Jonathan, son of David’s brother Shimea, killed him. 8 These men were the descendants of Haraphah from Gath, and David and his men killed them.
David Counts the People(C)
21 Satan attempted to attack Israel by provoking David to count the Israelites. 2 David said to Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan. Bring me the results so that I may know how many people there are.”
3 Joab responded, “May Yahweh multiply his people a hundred times over. But, Your Majesty, aren’t they all your servants? Why are you trying to do this? Why do you wish to make Israel guilty of this sin?”
4 However, the king overruled Joab. So Joab left, went throughout Israel, and returned to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the census figures to David: In Israel there were 1,100,000 men who could serve in the army, and in Judah there were 470,000 who could serve in the army. 6 Joab didn’t include Levi and Benjamin in the number because he was disgusted with the king’s order.
7 Elohim considered the census to be sinful, so he struck Israel with a plague.
8 David said to Elohim, “I have committed a terrible sin by doing this thing. Forgive me because I have acted very foolishly.”
9 Yahweh spoke to Gad, David’s seer.[c] 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what Yahweh says: I’m offering you three choices. Choose the one you want me to do to you.’”
11 When Gad came to David, he said, “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Take your pick: 12 either three years of famine, or three months during which your enemies will chase you away when their swords catch up to you, or three days of Yahweh’s sword—a plague in the land with the Messenger of Yahweh destroying the whole country of Israel.’ Decide what answer I should give the one who sent me.”
13 “I’m in a desperate situation,” David told Gad. “Please let me fall into Yahweh’s hands because he is extremely merciful. But don’t let me fall into human hands.”
14 So Yahweh sent a plague on Israel, and 70,000 Israelites died. 15 Elohim also sent a Messenger to Jerusalem to destroy it, but as he was destroying it, Yahweh reconsidered and changed his mind about the disaster. “Enough!” he said to the destroying Messenger. “Put down your weapon.” The Messenger of Yahweh was standing by the threshing floor[d] of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 When David looked up, he saw the Messenger of Yahweh standing between heaven and earth. The Messenger had a sword in his hand and stretched it over Jerusalem. David and the leaders were dressed in sackcloth. They bowed down with their faces touching the ground. 17 David said to Elohim, “I’m the one who ordered the people to be counted. I am the one who sinned and did wrong. What have these sheep done? Yahweh my Elohim, let your punishment be against me and my father’s family, but don’t punish your people with a plague.”
18 Yahweh’s Messenger told Gad to tell David to go and set up an altar for Yahweh at Ornan the Jebusite’s threshing floor. 19 David went as Gad had told him in Yahweh’s name.
20 Now, Ornan had turned around and seen the Messenger. Ornan’s four sons who were with him hid, but Ornan kept on threshing the wheat.
21 When David arrived, Ornan looked up and saw him. So he left the threshing floor and bowed down with his face touching the ground in front of David. 22 David said to Ornan, “Let me have the land this threshing floor is on. I’ll build an altar for Yahweh on it. Sell it to me for the full price. Then the plague on the people will stop.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it, Your Majesty, and do whatever you think is right. I’ll give you oxen for the burnt offering, threshers[e] for firewood, and wheat for the grain offering. I’ll give you everything.”
24 “No,” King David told Ornan, “I insist on buying it for the full price. I won’t take what is yours for Yahweh and offer burnt sacrifices that cost me nothing.” 25 So David gave Ornan 15 pounds of gold for that place.
26 David built an altar for Yahweh there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on Yahweh, and Yahweh answered him by sending fire from heaven on the altar for burnt offerings. 27 So Yahweh spoke to the Messenger, and he put his sword back in its scabbard.
28 At that time, when David saw Yahweh had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29 Yahweh’s tent that Moses made in the desert and the altar for burnt offerings were at the worship site at Gibeon. 30 However, David couldn’t go there to consult Elohim because he was frightened by the sword of Yahweh’s Messenger.
25 For example, circumcision is valuable if you follow the laws in Moses’ Teachings. If you don’t follow those laws, your circumcision amounts to uncircumcision. 26 So if a man does what those laws demand, won’t he be considered circumcised even if he is uncircumcised? 27 The uncircumcised man who carries out what those laws say will condemn you for not following them. He will condemn you in spite of the fact that you are circumcised and have those laws in writing. 28 A person is not a Jew because of his appearance, nor is circumcision a matter of how the body looks. 29 Rather, a person is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision is something that happens in a person’s heart. Circumcision is spiritual, not just a written rule. That person’s praise will come from God, not from people.
Everyone Is a Sinner
3 Is there any advantage, then, in being a Jew? Or is there any value in being circumcised? 2 There are all kinds of advantages. First of all, God entrusted them with his word.
3 What if some of them were unfaithful? Can their unfaithfulness cancel God’s faithfulness? 4 That would be unthinkable! God is honest, and everyone else is a liar, as Scripture says,
“So you hand down justice when you speak,
and you win your case in court.”
5 But if what we do wrong shows that God is fair, what should we say? Is God unfair when he vents his anger on us? (I’m arguing the way humans would.) 6 That’s unthinkable! Otherwise, how would God be able to judge the world? 7 If my lie increases the glory that God receives by showing that God is truthful, why am I still judged as a sinner? 8 Or can we say, “Let’s do evil so that good will come from it”? Some slander us and claim that this is what we say. They are condemned, and that’s what they deserve.
Psalm 11
For the choir director; by David.
1 I have taken refuge in Yahweh.
How can you say to me:
“Flee to your mountain like a bird?
2 Wicked people bend their bows.
They set their arrows against the strings
to shoot in the dark at people whose motives are decent.
3 When the foundations of life are undermined,
what can a righteous person do?”
4 Yahweh is in his holy temple.
Yahweh’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes see.
They examine Adam’s descendants.
5 Yahweh tests righteous people,
but he hates wicked people and the ones who love violence.
6 He rains down fire and burning sulfur upon wicked people.
He makes them drink from a cup filled with scorching wind.
7 Yahweh is righteous.
He loves a righteous way of life.
Decent people will see his face.
10 Luxury does not fit a fool,
much less a slave ruling princes.
11 A person with good sense is patient,
and it is to his credit that he overlooks an offense.
12 The rage of a king is like the roar of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass.
The Names of God Bible (without notes) © 2011 by Baker Publishing Group.