Old/New Testament
Defeating the Ammonites
19 Now in the course of time Nachash king of the Ammonites died and his son became king in his place. 2 David said: “l will show lovingkindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father dealt loyally with me.”
So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father. But when David’s emissaries came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to console him, 3 the Ammonite officials said to Hanun, “Do you really think that David is honoring your father, by sending messengers to express sympathy? Have not his servants come to you to explore and spy out the country to overthrow it?” 4 So Hanun took David’s emissaries and shaved them. He cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks and sent them away.
5 When some people came and told David about the men, he sent messengers to meet them for the men were throughly humiliated. The king said: “Stay in Jericho until your beards grow and then return.”
6 When the children of Ammon realized they had made themselves a stench to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent 1,000 talents of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram-naharaim[a], Aram-maacah and Zobah. 7 So they hired 32,000 chariots along with the king of Maacah and his people, who came and camped before Medeba. The children of Ammon also assembled from their cities and moved out to the battle.
8 On hearing this, David sent Joab and the entire army of mighty men. 9 The children of Ammon came out and took up battle formation at the city gate, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the field. 10 When Joab saw that there was a battle line against him both in front and rear, he selected some of Israel’s best men and deployed them against the Arameans. 11 He put the rest of the people under the command of his brother Abishai, and arrayed them against the Ammonites. 12 He said: “If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you will help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will help you. 13 Chazak! Take courage for the sake of our people and the cities of our God! Adonai will do what is good in His eyes.”
14 So Joab and the people who were with him advanced to battle against the Arameans, and they fled before him. 15 When the Ammonites saw that the Arameans had fled, they likewise fled before his brother Abishai and withdrew into the city. Then Joab went to Jerusalem.
16 After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they sent messengers and had the Arameans brought from across the River[b] with Shophah the commander of Hadadezer’s army leading them.
17 When David was informed he gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan. He came against them and took up positions against them. David took up positions against the Arameans in battle and they fought with him. 18 But the Arameans fled before Israel. David killed 7,000 Aramean charioteers and 40,000 infantrymen. He also killed Shophah the commander of the army.
19 Now when Hadadezer’s vassals saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with David and served him. Thus the Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.
Clearing Out the Giants
20 At the turn of the year, the season when kings go out to war, Joab led out the army and devastated the land of the Ammonites. He went and besieged Rabbah, while David remained in Jerusalem. Joab smote Rabbah and left it in ruins. 2 David took the crown from the head of their king—its weight was found to be a talent[c] of gold and it was set with precious stones—and it was placed on David’s head. He took a vast amount of spoils from the city. 3 Furthermore, he removed the people who were in it and set them to work with saws, sharp iron tools and axes. Thus he did to all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
4 Now it came about after this, that war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaim, and they were subdued. 5 Again there was war with the Philistines, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver’s beam. 6 Once again there was a battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had 24 fingers and toes, six on each hand and six on each foot. He too also descended from the giants. 7 When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, struck him down.
8 These were descendants of the giants in Gath; they fell by the hand of David and his servants.
Census and Plague
21 Then satan stood up against Israel and incited David to count Israel. 2 So David told Joab and the leaders of the people, “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan. Then bring me a report so I may know their number.”
3 But Joab said, “May Adonai multiply His people 100 times over! But my master the king, are they not all my master’s servants? Why does my master require this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?” 4 Nevertheless the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and finally came back to Jerusalem.
5 Joab gave the number of the census of the people to David: in all Israel there were 1,100,000 sword-wielding men; Judah had 470,000 sword-wielding men. 6 But he did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, for the king’s word was detestable to Joab. 7 But God was displeased with this thing and He struck Israel.
8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. But now, I entreat you, take away the guilt of Your servant for I have behaved very foolishly.”
9 Then Adonai spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying: 10 “Go and speak to David, saying, ‘Thus says Adonai, “I offer you three things; choose one of them and I will bring it upon you.”’”
11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “Thus says Adonai: ‘Select for yourself 12 either three years of famine, or three months being swept away from before your adversaries and the sword of your enemies overtaking you or three days of the sword of Adonai, pestilence in the land and the angel of Adonai ravaging throughout all the territories of Israel. Now, consider what I should reply to the one who sent me.’”
13 David said to Gad, “I am in a great anguish! Let me fall into the hand of Adonai for His compassion is very great. But do not let me fall into the hand of man.”
14 So Adonai sent a plague upon Israel, and 70,000 men of Israel fell. 15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it, but while he was doing so, Adonai saw and was grieved over the calamity. He said to the destroying angel, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand!”
The angel of Adonai was then standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 16 David lifted up his eyes and saw the angel of Adonai standing between the earth and the heaven with a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces. 17 David said to God, “Was it not I who commanded to count the people? I alone am the one who sinned and behaved wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let Your hand, Adonai my God, be against me and against my father’s house, but do not let the plague be on Your people.”
18 So the angel of Adonai told Gad to instruct David that David should go up and build an altar to Adonai on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 19 So David went up by the word of Gad, which he spoke in the Name of Adonai. 20 While Ornan was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel. His four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21 When David came to Ornan, Ornan looked up and saw David. He went out from the threshing floor and bowed to David with his face to the ground.
22 Then David said to Ornan: “Give me the site of this threshing floor that I may build an altar to Adonai. Sell it to me for full price, so the plague on the people may be stopped.”
23 Then Ornan said to David, “Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever seems good in his eyes. Look, I will give the oxen for burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.”
24 King David said to Ornan, “No, I insist on buying it for the full price. For I will not take for Adonai what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that cost me nothing.”
25 So David gave Ornan 600 shekels of gold by weight for the place. 26 David built there an altar to Adonai and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. He called on Adonai and He answered him with fire from heaven upon the altar of burnt offering. 27 Then Adonai commanded the angel, and he put his sword back in its sheath.
28 At that time, when David saw that Adonai had answered him at the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there. 29 For the Tabernacle of Adonai, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time in the high place at Gibeon. 30 But David could not go before it to seek God for he was afraid of the sword of the angel of Adonai.
Mercy for a Sinful Woman
8 But Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn, He came again into the Temple. All the people were coming to Him, and He sat down and began to teach them.
3 The Torah scholars and Pharisees bring in a woman who had been caught in adultery. After putting her in the middle, 4 they say to Yeshua, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Torah, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” 6 Now they were saying this to trap Him, so that they would have grounds to accuse Him.
But Yeshua knelt down and started writing in the dirt with His finger. 7 When they kept asking Him, He stood up and said, “The sinless one among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then He knelt down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 Now when they heard, they began to leave, one by one, the oldest ones first, until Yeshua was left alone with the woman in the middle. 10 Straightening up, Yeshua said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
11 “No one, Sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Yeshua said. “Go, and sin no more.”
The Light of the World
12 Yeshua spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. The one who follows Me will no longer walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
13 Then the Pharisees said to Him, “You are testifying about Yourself, so Your testimony is not valid.”
14 Yeshua answered them, “Even if I testify about Myself, My testimony is valid. For I know where I came from and where I am going. But you don’t know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh, but I do not judge anyone. 16 Yet even if I do judge, My judgment is true, because it is not I alone but I with the Father who sent Me. 17 Even in your Torah it is written that the testimony of two men is true. [a] 18 I am one witness for Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness for Me.”
19 Then they said to Him, “Where is your Father?”
Yeshua answered, “You know neither Me nor My Father. If you knew Me, you would also know My Father.” 20 He spoke these words in the treasury while teaching in the Temple, but no one arrested Him because His hour had not yet come.
21 Then again Yeshua spoke to them, “I am going away. You will look for Me and die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.”
22 “He won’t kill Himself, will He?” the Judeans asked. “Is that why He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?”
23 Yeshua said, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. If you don’t believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
25 So they asked Him, “Who are you?”
Yeshua replied, “What have I been telling you from the beginning? 26 I have much to say and judge about you. But the One who sent Me is true, and I tell the world what I heard from Him.” 27 They didn’t understand that He was talking to them about the Father.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.