Psalm 93 - 2 Samuel 22 - 2 Samuel 23 - 2 Samuel 24

Psalm 93

1Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength. The world also is established. It can't be moved.

2Your throne is established from long ago. You are from everlasting.

3The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.

4Above the voices of many waters, The mighty breakers of the sea, Yahweh on high is mighty.

5Your statutes stand firm. Holiness adorns your house, Yahweh, forevermore.

The Rise and Fall of Israel's Kingdom

2 Samuel 22

1David spoke to Yahweh the words of this song in the day that Yahweh delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul: 2and he said, Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 3God, my rock, in him will I take refuge; My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge; My savior, you save me from violence. 4I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies. 5For the waves of death compassed me; The floods of ungodliness made me afraid: 6The cords of Sheol were round about me; The snares of death came on me. 7In my distress I called on Yahweh; Yes, I called to my God: He heard my voice out of his temple, My cry [came] into his ears. 8Then the earth shook and trembled, The foundations of heaven quaked Were shaken, because he was angry. 9There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, Fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals were kindled by it. 10He bowed the heavens also, and came down; Thick darkness was under his feet. 11He rode on a cherub, and did fly; Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind. 12He made darkness pavilions round about him, Gathering of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 13At the brightness before him Coals of fire were kindled. 14Yahweh thundered from heaven, The Most High uttered his voice. 15He sent out arrows, and scattered them; Lightning, and confused them. 16Then the channels of the sea appeared, The foundations of the world were laid bare, By the rebuke of Yahweh, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils. 17He sent from on high, he took me; He drew me out of many waters; 18He delivered me from my strong enemy, From those who hated me; for they were too mighty for me. 19They came on me in the day of my calamity; But Yahweh was my stay. 20He brought me forth also into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 21Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness; According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me. 22For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, And have not wickedly departed from my God. 23For all his ordinances were before me; As for his statutes, I did not depart from them. 24I was also perfect toward him; I kept myself from my iniquity. 25Therefore has Yahweh recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. 26With the merciful you will show yourself merciful; With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect; 27With the pure you will show yourself pure; With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 28The afflicted people you will save; But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down. 29For you are my lamp, Yahweh; Yahweh will lighten my darkness. 30For by you I run on a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall. 31As for God, his way is perfect: The word of Yahweh is tried; He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 32For who is God, save Yahweh? Who is a rock, save our God? 33God is my strong fortress; He guides the perfect in his way. 34He makes his feet like hinds' [feet], Sets me on my high places. 35He teaches my hands to war, So that my arms do bend a bow of brass. 36You have also given me the shield of your salvation; Your gentleness has made me great. 37You have enlarged my steps under me; My feet have not slipped. 38I have pursued my enemies, and destroyed them; Neither did I turn again until they were consumed. 39I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can't arise: Yes, they are fallen under my feet. 40For you have girded me with strength to the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 41You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, That I might cut off those who hate me. 42They looked, but there was none to save; Even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them. 43Then did I beat them small as the dust of the earth, I did crush them as the mire of the streets, and did spread them abroad. 44You also have delivered me from the strivings of my people; You have kept me to be the head of the nations: A people whom I have not known shall serve me. 45The foreigners shall submit themselves to me: As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me. 46The foreigners shall fade away, Shall come trembling out of their close places. 47Yahweh lives; Blessed be my rock; Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 48Even the God who executes vengeance for me, Who brings down peoples under me, 49Who brings me forth from my enemies: Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me; You deliver me from the violent man. 50Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations, Will sing praises to your name. 51Great deliverance gives he to his king, Shows loving kindness to his anointed, To David and to his seed, forevermore.

2 Samuel 23

1Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse says, The man who was raised on high says, The anointed of the God of Jacob, The sweet psalmist of Israel: 2The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me, His word was on my tongue. 3The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me: One who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God, 4[He shall be] as the light of the morning, when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, [When] the tender grass [springs] out of the earth, Through clear shining after rain. 5Most assuredly my house is not so with God; Yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in all things, and sure: For it is all my salvation, and all [my] desire, Although he doesn't make it grow. 6But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away, Because they can't be taken with the hand 7But the man who touches them Must be armed with iron and the staff of a spear: They shall be utterly burned with fire in [their] place 8These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb Basshebeth a Tahchemonite, chief of the captains; the same was Adino the Eznite, against eight hundred slain at one time. 9After him was Eleazar the son of Dodai the son of an Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines who were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away. 10He arose, and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand froze to the sword; and Yahweh worked a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to take spoil. 11After him was Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite. The Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the Philistines. 12But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory. 13Three of the thirty chief men went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam; and the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. 14David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 15David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! 16The three mighty men broke through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Yahweh. 17He said, Be it far from me, Yahweh, that I should do this: [shall I drink] the blood of the men who went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men. 18Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the three. He lifted up his spear against three hundred and killed them, and had a name among the three. 19Wasn't he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain: however he didn't attain to the [first] three. 20Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done mighty deeds, he killed the two [sons of] Ariel of Moab: he went down also and killed a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow. 21He killed an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and killed him with his own spear. 22These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men. 23He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the [first] three. David set him over his guard. 24Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 26Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 27Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 28Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 29Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, 30Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash. 31Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 32Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 34Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 35Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 36Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

2 Samuel 24

1Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 2The king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now back and forth through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number you the people, that I may know the sum of the people. 3Joab said to the king, Now Yahweh your God add to the people, however many they may be, one hundred times; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king delight in this thing? 4Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. 5They passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and to Jazer: 6then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and round about to Sidon, 7and came to the stronghold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites; and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beersheba. 8So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men who drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men. 10David's heart struck him after that he had numbered the people. David said to Yahweh, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly. 11When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 12Go and speak to David, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 13So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to you in 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 advise you, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me. 14David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Yahweh; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. 15So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. 16When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh repented him of the evil, and said to the angel who destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay your hand. The angel of Yahweh was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17David spoke to Yahweh when he saw the angel who struck the people, and said, Behold, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me, and against my father's house. 18Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 20Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. 21Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his servant? David said, To buy the threshing floor of you, to build an altar to Yahweh, that the plague may be stayed from the people. 22Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him: behold, the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the yokes of the oxen for the wood: 23all this, king, does Araunah give to the king. Araunah said to the king, Yahweh your God accept you. 24The king said to Araunah, No; but I will most assuredly buy it of you at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 25David built there an altar to Yahweh, and offered burnt offerings and peace-offerings. So Yahweh was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.