the king, How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 019:035 I am this day eighty years old: can I discern between good and bad? can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? why then should your servant be yet a burden to my lord the king? 019:036 Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king: and why should the king recompense it me with such a reward? 019:037 Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you. 019:038 The king answered, Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you: and whatever you shall require of me, that will I do for you. 019:039 All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over: and the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place. 019:040 So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him: and all the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel. 019:041 Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David's men with him? 019:042 All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, Because the king is a close relative to us: why then are you angry for this matter? have we eaten at all at the king's cost? or has he given us any gift? 019:043 The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more [right] in David than you: why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king? The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. 020:001 There happened to be there a base fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite: and he blew the trumpet, and said, We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to his tents, Israel. 020:002 So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. 020:003 David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn't go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood. 020:004 Then said the king to Amasa, Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present. 020:005 So Amasa went to call [the men of] Judah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him. 020:006 David said to Abishai, Now will Sheba the son of Bichri do us more harm than did Absalom: take your lord's servants, and pursue after him, lest he get him fortified cities, and escape out of our sight. 020:007 There went out after him Joab's men, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 020:008 When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was girded with his apparel of war that he had put on, and thereon was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went forth it fell out. 020:009 Joab said to Amasa, Is it well with you, my brother? Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 020:010 But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab's hand: so he struck him therewith in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn't strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued after Sheba the son of Bichri. 020:011 There stood by him one of Joab's young men, and said, He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab. 020:012 Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the midst of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still. 020:013 When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue after Sheba the son of Bichri. 020:014 He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth Maacah, and all the Berites: and they were gathered together, and went also after him. 020:015 They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down. 020:016 Then cried a wise woman out of the city, "Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, 'Come near here, that I may speak with you.'" 020:017 He came near to her; and the woman said, Are you Joab? He answered, I am. Then she said to him, Hear the words of your handmaid. He answered, I do hear. 020:018 Then she spoke, saying, They were wont to speak in old time, saying, They shall surely ask [counsel] at Abel: and so they ended [the matter]. 020:019 I am of those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel: you seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel: why will you swallow up the inheritance of Yahweh? 020:020 Joab answered, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. 020:021 The matter is not so: but a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David; deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. The woman said to Joab, Behold, his head shall be thrown to you over the wall. 020:022 Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. 020:023 Now Joab was over all the army of Israel; and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites; 020:024 and Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder; 020:025 and Sheva was scribe; and Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 020:026 and also Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David. 021:001 There was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put to death the Gibeonites. 021:002 The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn to them: and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); 021:003 and David said to the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you? And with what shall I make atonement, that you may bless the inheritance of Yahweh? 021:004 The Gibeonites said to him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. He said, What you shall say, that will I do for you. 021:005 They said to the king, The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, [that] we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 021:006 let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh. The king said, I will give them. 021:007 But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 021:008 But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: 021:009 He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before Yahweh, and they fell [all] seven together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. 021:010 Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. 021:011 It was told David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 021:012 David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; 021:013 and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son: and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. 021:014 They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that God was entreated for the land. 021:015 The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint; 021:016 and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred [shekels] of brass in weight, he being girded with a new [sword], thought to have slain David. 021:017 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, You shall go no more out with us to battle, that you don't quench the lamp of Israel. 021:018 It came to pass after this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. 021:019 There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaareoregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite's brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam. 021:020 There was again war at Gath, where was a man of great stature, who had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant. 021:021 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, killed him. 021:022 These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants. 022:001 David 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: 022:002 and he said, Yahweh is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, even mine; 022:003 God, my rock, in him I will take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge. My savior, you save me from violence. 022:004 I will call on Yahweh, who is worthy to be praised: So shall I be saved from my enemies. 022:005 For the waves of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid. 022:006 The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me. 022:007 In 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. 022:008 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, because he was angry. 022:009 Smoke went up out of his nostrils. Fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. 022:010 He bowed the heavens also, and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. 022:011 He rode on a cherub, and flew. Yes, he was seen on the wings of the wind. 022:012 He made darkness pavilions around himself: gathering of waters, and thick clouds of the skies. 022:013 At the brightness before him, coals of fire were kindled. 022:014 Yahweh thundered from heaven. The Most High uttered his voice. 022:015 He sent out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, and confused them. 022:016 Then 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. 022:017 He sent from on high and he took me. He drew me out of many waters. 022:018 He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. 022:019 They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support. 022:020 He also brought me out into a large place. He delivered me, because he delighted in me. 022:021 Yahweh rewarded me according to my righteousness. He rewarded me according to the cleanness of my hands. 022:022 For I have kept the ways of Yahweh, and have not wickedly departed from my God. 022:023 For all his ordinances were before me. As for his statutes, I did not depart from them. 022:024 I was also perfect toward him. I kept myself from my iniquity. 022:025 Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his eyesight. 022:026 With the merciful you will show yourself merciful. With the perfect man you will show yourself perfect. 022:027 With the pure you will show yourself pure. With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd. 022:028 You will save the afflicted people, But your eyes are on the haughty, that you may bring them down. 022:029 For you are my lamp, Yahweh. Yahweh will light up my darkness. 022:030 For by you, I run against a troop. By my God, I leap over a wall. 022:031 As for God, his way is perfect. The word of Yahweh is tested. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. 022:032 For who is God, besides Yahweh? Who is a rock, besides our God? 022:033 God is my strong fortress. He makes my way perfect. 022:034 He makes his feet like hinds' [feet], and sets me on my high places. 022:035 He teaches my hands to war, so that my arms bend a bow of brass. 022:036 You have also given me the shield of your salvation. Your gentleness has made me great. 022:037 You have enlarged my steps under me. My feet have not slipped. 022:038 I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them. I didn't turn again until they were consumed. 022:039 I have consumed them, and struck them through, so that they can't arise. Yes, they have fallen under my feet. 022:040 For you have armed me with strength for the battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. 022:041 You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, that I might cut off those who hate me. 022:042 They looked, but there was none to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn't answer them. 022:043 Then I beat them as small as the dust of the earth. I crushed them as the mire of the streets, and spread them abroad. 022:044 You 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 will serve me. 022:045 The foreigners will submit themselves to me. As soon as they hear of me, they will obey me. 022:046 The foreigners will fade away, and will come trembling out of their close places. 022:047 Yahweh lives! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation, 022:048 even the God who executes vengeance for me, who brings down peoples under me, 022:049 who brings me away from my enemies. Yes, you lift me up above those who rise up against me. You deliver me from the violent man. 022:050 Therefore I will give thanks to you, Yahweh, among the nations. Will sing praises to your name. 022:051 He gives great deliverance to his king, and shows loving kindness to his anointed, to David and to his seed, forevermore. 023:001 Now 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: 023:002 The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue. 023:003 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me, one who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, 023:004 [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. 023:005 Most certainly 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. 023:006 But all of the ungodly shall be as thorns to be thrust away, because they can't be taken with the hand, 023:007 But 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. 023:008 These 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. 023:009 After 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. 023:010 He 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. 023:011 After 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. 023:012 But he stood in the midst of the plot, and defended it, and killed the Philistines; and Yahweh worked a great victory. 023:013 Three 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. 023:014 David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. 023:015 David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate! 023:016 The three mighty men broke through the army 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. 023:017 He 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. 023:018 Abishai, 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. 023:019 Wasn't he most honorable of the three? therefore he was made their captain: however he didn't attain to the [first] three. 023:020 Benaiah 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. 023:021 He 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. 023:022 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had a name among the three mighty men. 023:023 He was more honorable than the thirty, but he didn't attain to the [first] three. David set him over his guard. 023:024 Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 023:025 Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite, 023:026 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite, 023:027 Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, 023:028 Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite, 023:029 Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin, 023:030 Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash. 023:031 Abialbon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite, 023:032 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 023:033 Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, 023:034 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maacathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite, 023:035 Hezro the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, 023:036 Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 023:037 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armor bearers to Joab the son of Zeruiah, 023:038 Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 023:039 Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all. 024:001 Again the anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 024:002 The king said to Joab the captain of the army, 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. 024:003 Joab 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? 024:004 Notwithstanding, the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. 024:005 They 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: 024:006 then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim Hodshi; and they came to Dan Jaan, and round about to Sidon, 024:007 and 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. 024:008 So when they had gone back and forth through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 024:009 Joab 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. 024:010 David'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. 024:011 When David rose up in the morning, the word of Yahweh came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 024:012 Go and speak to David, Thus says Yahweh, I offer you three things: choose you one of them, that I may do it to you. 024:013 So 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. 024:014 David 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. 024:015 So 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. 024:016 When 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. 024:017 David 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. 024:018 Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Yahweh in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 024:019 David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Yahweh commanded. 024:020 Araunah 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. 024:021 Araunah 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. 024:022 Araunah 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: 024:023 all this, king, does Araunah give to the king. Araunah said to the king, Yahweh your God accept you. 024:024 The king said to Araunah, No; but I will most certainly 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. 024:025 David 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.

THE END