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24 Among the Thirty were Asahel brother of Joab; Elhanan son of Dodo of Bethlehem;(A) 25 Shammah of Harod; Elika of Harod;(B) 26 Helez the Paltite; Ira son of Ikkesh of Tekoa; 27 Abiezer of Anathoth; Mebunnai the Hushathite; 28 Zalmon the Ahohite; Maharai of Netophah; 29 Heleb son of Baanah of Netophah; Ittai son of Ribai of Gibeah of the Benjaminites; 30 Benaiah of Pirathon; Hiddai of the wadis of Gaash; 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite; Azmaveth of Bahurim;[a] 32 Eliahba of Shaalbon; the sons of Jashen: Jonathan 33 son of[b] Shammah the Hararite; Ahiam son of Sharar the Hararite; 34 Eliphelet son of Ahasbai of Maacah; Eliam son of Ahithophel the Gilonite; 35 Hezro[c] of Carmel; Paarai the Arbite; 36 Igal son of Nathan of Zobah; Bani the Gadite; 37 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai of Beeroth, the armor-bearer of Joab son of Zeruiah; 38 Ira the Ithrite; Gareb the Ithrite;(C) 39 Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.(D)
David’s Census of Israel and Judah
24 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”(E) 2 So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army[d] who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.”(F) 3 But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold while the eyes of my lord the king can still see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?” 4 But 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 take a census of the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and began from[e] Aroer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.(G) 6 Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites,[f] and they came to Dan, and from Dan[g] they went around to Sidon(H) 7 and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba.(I) 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand.(J)
Judgment on David’s Sin
10 But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”(K) 11 When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,(L) 12 “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer[h] you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.”(M) 13 So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you on 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 the one who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into human hands.”(N)
15 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba.(O) 16 But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing[i] by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.[j](P) 17 When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done evil,[k] but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”(Q)
David’s Altar on the Threshing Floor
18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”(R) 19 Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. 20 When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him, and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21 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, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”(S) 22 Then 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 threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.(T) 23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God respond favorably to you.”(U)
24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them 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 of silver.(V) 25 David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.(W)
Peter Heals a Crippled Beggar
3 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, at three o’clock in the afternoon.(A) 2 And a man lame from birth was being carried in. People would lay him daily at the gate of the temple called the Beautiful Gate so that he could ask for alms from those entering the temple.(B) 3 When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked them for alms. 4 Peter looked intently at him, as did John, and said, “Look at us.” 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,[a] stand up and walk.”(C) 7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God. 9 All the people saw him walking and praising God,(D) 10 and they recognized him as the one who used to sit and ask for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and they were filled with wonder and astonishment at what had happened to him.
Peter Speaks in Solomon’s Portico
11 While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished.(E) 12 When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, “Fellow Israelites,[b] why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? 13 The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,[c] the God of our ancestors, has glorified his servant[d] Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him.(F) 14 But you rejected the holy and righteous[e] one and asked to have a murderer given to you,(G) 15 and you killed the author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses.(H) 16 And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus[f] has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you.
17 “And now, brothers and sisters, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.(I) 18 In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah[g] would suffer.(J) 19 Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, 20 so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that he may send the Messiah[h] appointed for you, that is, Jesus, 21 who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets.(K) 22 Moses said, ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you.(L) 23 And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out of the people.’ 24 And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. 25 You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’(M) 26 When God raised up his servant,[i] he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”(N)
21 The wise of heart is called perceptive,
and pleasant speech increases persuasiveness.
22 Wisdom is a fountain of life to one who has it,
but folly is the punishment of fools.(A)
23 The mind of the wise makes their speech judicious
and adds persuasiveness to their lips.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.