Old/New Testament
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[a] 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 [b]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.[c]
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.
Chapter 8
Jesus, Savior of Sinners
A Woman Caught in Adultery.[a] [7:53Then each of them returned home. 1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At daybreak he entered the temple courts, and all the people gathered around him. He sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought in a woman who had been caught in adultery. Forcing her to stand in their midst, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery.[b] 5 Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.[c] What do you have to say?”
6 They asked him this question as a test so that they could bring a charge against him. Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they continued to persist in their question, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”[d] 8 Then he again bent down and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard his response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders, until Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. 10 Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 She replied, “No one, sir.” “Neither do I condemn you,” Jesus said. “Go on your way, and sin no more.”]
The Light Triumphs over Darkness
12 The Light of the World.[e] Jesus addressed them once again, saying,
“I am[f] the light of the world.
The one who follows me
will never walk in darkness.
Rather, he will have the light of life.”
13 On hearing this, the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf. Your testimony is not true.” 14 Jesus replied,
“Even though I testify on my own behalf,
my testimony is true,
because I know where I have come from
and where I am going,
whereas you do not know
where I have come from
or where I am going.
15 You judge by the flesh,
whereas I do not judge anyone.
16 Yet even if I do judge,
my judgment is true
because it is not I alone who judge,
but it is I and the Father who sent me.
17 “In your Law it is written
that the testimony of two witnesses is true.
18 I testify on my own behalf,
and the Father who sent me
also testifies on my behalf.”
19 They continued to question him, saying, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered,
“You know neither me nor my Father.
If you knew me,
you would know my Father also.”
20 He spoke these words while he was teaching at the treasury of the temple.[g] However, no one arrested him because his hour had not yet come.
21 I AM![h] Again he said to them,
“I am going away,
and you will search for me
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 Then the Jews wondered, “Is he planning to kill himself—because he was saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” 23 He continued,
“You belong to what is below,
whereas I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I am not of this world.
24 That is why I told you
that you would die in your sins.
For if you do not believe
that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
25 “Who are you then?” they asked him. Jesus answered,
“Just what I have been telling you
from the beginning.
26 I have much to say about you,
and much to condemn.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I have heard from him
I declare to the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father.
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