Old/New Testament

The people worship the Lord

16 David had put up a special tent for God's Covenant Box, so they took it there. They put it in its place inside the tent. Then they offered burnt offerings and friendship offerings to God. ² After David had offered those sacrifices, he prayed that the Lord would bless the people. ³ Then he gave a gift to every Israelite man and woman. Each person received a loaf of bread, some dates and some raisins.

⁴ Then David chose some Levites to serve the Lord at the Covenant Box. They would lead prayers and songs to thank the Lord, Israel's God, and to praise him. ⁵ Asaph was the leader of that group and Zechariah was the second leader. Then there were Jeiel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Mattithiah, Eliab, Benaiah, Obed-Edom and Jeiel. Those men made music with harps and lyres. Asaph used the cymbals. ⁶ The priests Benaiah and Jahaziel would make a noise with trumpets in front of God's Covenant Box many times each day.

A song to thank God^[a]

⁷ On that day, David first told Asaph and the other Levites to sing this song to thank the Lord:

Then all the people said, ‘Amen! We agree! Praise the Lord!’

³⁷ King David had chosen Asaph and his relatives to serve the Lord at the Covenant Box. They must do that each day, as the rules said that they should do. ³⁸ They included Obed-Edom and 68 men from his clan. Jeduthun's son, Obed-Edom and Hosah were guards at the entrance of the tent.

³⁹ Zadok and the other priests served the Lord at the tabernacle in Gibeon. That was still the place where the Israelites worshipped God. ⁴⁰ Their job was to offer burnt offerings as sacrifices to the Lord on the big altar there. They did that every morning and every evening, as the law of the Lord commanded. The Israelites had to obey that law. ⁴¹ Heman and Jeduthun were with them at the tabernacle in Gibeon. There were also other Levites that David had chosen to help them. Their special job was to give thanks to the Lord with songs, because his faithful love continues for ever. ⁴² Heman and Jeduthun also had authority for the trumpets, the cymbals and the other musical instruments. The musicians used them to praise God with their music. Jeduthun's sons stood as guards at the entrance of the tabernacle.

⁴³ After that, all the people left to return to their homes. David also went home to ask God to bless his family.

The Lord's covenant with David

17 King David was living in his palace. One day, he said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Now I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But the Lord's Covenant Box is still in a tent.’

² Nathan replied to David, ‘Do what you think is right. God will help you.’

³ But that night God said to Nathan, ⁴ ‘Go and tell my servant David, “The Lord says this: You are not the right man to build a house for me to live in. ⁵ From the time that I brought the Israelites safely out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. I have lived in a tent as my home as I travelled from place to place. ⁶ I have moved about to many different places with the Israelites. I chose leaders to take care of my people, like shepherds take care of their sheep. But I never said to any of them, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’ ”

⁷ So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: “I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men. ⁹ I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, were they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, ¹⁰ from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will cause all your enemies to be weak.

I say to you, David: the Lord will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you.^{[b] 11} When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. ¹² He is the man who will build a house for me. And I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. ¹³ I will be his father and he will be my son. I will never remove my faithful love from him, as I took it away from the king who ruled before you. ¹⁴ I will cause him to rule my people and my kingdom for ever. Someone from his family will always be king.” ’

¹⁵ Nathan told David the whole message that the Lord had shown to him.

David thanks the Lord

¹⁶ Then King David went into the Lord's tent.^[c] He sat down and he prayed to the Lord. He said, ‘Lord, my God, I am not a special person and my family is not special. You have helped me very much and I do not deserve it. ¹⁷ And you have done more than that, my God. You have made a promise about the descendants of my family in the future. You, Lord God, have spoken to me as if I am a very important man. ¹⁸ I am your servant and you know me completely. You have given great honour to me. There is nothing more that I can say.

¹⁹ Lord, you have chosen to do all these great things for me, your servant. You are telling me what you have promised to do. ²⁰ There is nobody like you, Lord. You alone are God. What we have heard about you is true! ²¹ There is no other nation on earth like your people, Israel. We are the nation that you rescued so that we would belong to you. You did that to show that your name is great. You did great miracles as you rescued your people from Egypt. You chased out the nations who wanted to stop them. ²² You chose Israel to be your own people for all time. You, Lord became our God.

²³ Lord, please do the things that you have promised to do for me, your servant, and for my family. Continue to do for ever what you have promised to do, ²⁴ so that people see your promises are true. Then people will always give honour to your great name. They will say, “The Lord Almighty is Israel's God.” And David's descendants will continue to serve you as kings.

²⁵ My God, you have made this promise to me, your servant. You have said that I will always have descendants who will rule. That is the house that you will build for me. Because you have said that, I was not afraid to pray to you. ²⁶ Lord, you are the true God! You have promised these good things to me, your servant. ²⁷ Now please bless my family and my descendants. Then we will serve you faithfully for ever. Yes, Lord, you have blessed my descendants, and I know that you will continue to bless them for ever.’

David wins against his enemies

18 After some time, David attacked the Philistines and he won against them. He took Gath city and the villages around it from the Philistines.

² David also won a battle against the Moabites. They were now under David's authority and they paid taxes to him.

³ David also won a battle against Hadadezer, king of Zobah. He won land as far as Hamath. That happened when Hadadezer took his army to the Euphrates river to show that he had authority there. ⁴ David took from Hadadezer 1,000 chariots and 7,000 men who drove them. He also caught 20,000 of Hadadezer's other soldiers. David kept 100 horses that pulled chariots. But he cut the legs of the other horses so that they could not run.

⁵ The Syrians from Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David killed 22,000 soldiers of the Syrian army. ⁶ David put some of his soldiers in Damascus to keep his authority over the Syrian people. They had to pay taxes to King David.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

⁷ David took the gold shields that Hadadezer's officers had carried. He brought the shields to Jerusalem. ⁸ David also took a lot of bronze things from Tebah and Cun. Those towns had belonged to Hadadezer towns. Later, Solomon used that bronze to make the big bath in the temple that was called ‘the Sea’. He also used the bronze to make pillars and other things for the temple.

⁹ Tou, the king of Hamath, heard news that David had won the battle against the whole army of King Hadadezer of Zobah. ¹⁰ There had been a war between King Hadadezer and King Tou. So Tou sent his son, Hadoram, to say ‘hello’ to King David. He wanted to praise David because he had won the battle against King Hadadezer. He also sent many gifts of gold, silver and bronze to David.

¹¹ King David took those gifts and he offered them to the Lord. He also offered to the Lord all the silver and gold things that he had taken from other nations. Those nations were Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites.

¹² Zeruiah's son Abishai killed 18,000 men from Edom in the Valley of Salt. ¹³ He put groups of his soldiers in Edom, so that David had authority over all the Edomites.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

David's officers

¹⁴ David ruled over all Israel. He did everything that was right and fair for all his people. ¹⁵ Zeruiah's son Joab was the leader of Israel's army. Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat wrote down the important things that happened. ¹⁶ Ahitub's son Zadok and Abiathar's son Ahimelech were priests. Shavsha was David's secretary. ¹⁷ Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of David's personal guards. David's sons were his most important officers.^[d]

²⁸ Jesus was still teaching in the yard of the temple. He shouted, ‘Yes, you say that you know me. And you know where I came from. But I have not come because I myself decided to come. He who sent me is true. You do not know him. ²⁹ But I know him because I have come from him. He is the one who sent me.’ ³⁰ When they heard this, they tried to take hold of him. But nobody could put their hands on him, because it was not yet the right time. ³¹ But many people in the crowd believed in Jesus. They said, ‘This man has done so many miracles. Surely he is the Messiah! Nobody could do more miracles than he has done.’

³² The Pharisees heard what these people were saying quietly about Jesus. Then the leaders of the priests and the Pharisees sent some of their officers to take him away.

³³ Jesus said, ‘I will be with you for only a short time. Then I will return to the one who sent me. ³⁴ You will look for me, but you will not find me. You cannot go to the place where I will be.’ ³⁵ The Jewish leaders asked each other, ‘What is he trying to tell us? Where can he go so that we cannot find him? Perhaps he will go to our people who have gone away to live among the Greek people.^[a] Perhaps he will go to teach the Greek people. ³⁶ He said, “You will look for me, but you will not find me.” And he also said, “You cannot go to the place where I will be.” What does he mean?’

Streams of water that give life to people

³⁷ The last day of the festival was the most important day. On that day, Jesus stood up and he spoke with a loud voice. He said, ‘If anyone is thirsty, he should come to me so that he may drink. ³⁸ It says in the Bible, “God will cause streams of water to pour out from anyone who believes in me. Water that gives life will come out from inside that person.” ’ ³⁹ Jesus was speaking about God's Spirit, who would come to people some time after that. Those people who believed in Jesus would receive God's Spirit at that later time. But God had not yet given his Spirit to people, because he had not yet raised Jesus back up to heaven.^[b]

The people argue about who Jesus is

⁴⁰ The people in the crowd heard Jesus say these words. Some of them said, ‘Surely this man must be the Prophet from God that we have been waiting for!’ ⁴¹ Other people said, ‘This man is the Messiah.’ But some other people said, ‘The Messiah will not come from Galilee! ⁴² The Bible says that the Messiah will come from King David's family.^[c] He will come from Bethlehem, the town where David lived.’ ⁴³ In this way the people had different thoughts about Jesus. ⁴⁴ Some people wanted to take hold of him. But nobody could put their hands on him to take him away.

⁴⁵ The officers returned to the leaders of the priests and the Pharisees. The leaders asked their officers, ‘Why did you not bring Jesus here?’ ⁴⁶ The officers answered, ‘Nobody has ever spoken great things like this man speaks.’ ⁴⁷ The Pharisees replied, ‘He seems to have made you believe his lies! ⁴⁸ None of the Pharisees or our leaders believe in him. ⁴⁹ But this crowd does not know what God's Law teaches. God will surely punish them.’

⁵⁰ Nicodemus spoke to them. He himself was one of the Pharisees. He was the man who had gone to speak with Jesus before. He said, ⁵¹ ‘We must find out first what this man has done. Then we can decide if it is right to punish him. Our law says that we must listen to him first.’ ⁵² They answered Nicodemus, ‘Perhaps you come from Galilee, as well as him! Study what the Bible teaches. You will learn that no prophet of God ever comes from Galilee.’ ⁵³ [Then everyone went to his own home.]^[d]