22:1And David spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.

22:2And he said, Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;

22:3God is my rock, in him will I trust -- My shield, and the horn of my salvation, My high tower, and my refuge, My saviour: thou wilt save me from violence.

22:4I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be praised; So shall I be saved from mine enemies.

22:5For the waves of death encompassed me, Torrents of Belial made me afraid.

22:6The bands of Sheol surrounded me; The cords of death encountered me;

22:7In my distress I called upon Jehovah, And I cried to my God; And he heard my voice out of his temple, And my cry came into his ears.

22:8Then the earth shook, and quaked; The foundations of the heavens trembled And shook because he was wroth.

22:9There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, And fire out of his mouth devoured: Coals burned forth from it.

22:10And he bowed the heavens, and came down; And darkness was under his feet.

22:11And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; And he was seen upon the wings of the wind.

22:12And he made darkness round about him a tent, Gatherings of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

22:13From the brightness before him Burned forth coals of fire.

22:14Jehovah thundered from the heavens, And the Most High uttered his voice.

22:15And he sent arrows, and scattered mine enemies; Lightning, and discomfited them.

22:16And the beds of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered At the rebuke of Jehovah, At the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

22:17He reached forth from above, he took me, He drew me out of great waters;

22:18He delivered me from my strong enemy, From them that hated me; For they were mightier than I.

22:19They encountered me in the day of my calamity; But Jehovah was my stay.

22:20And he brought me forth into a large place; He delivered me, because he delighted in me.

22:21Jehovah hath rewarded me according to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

22:22For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, And have not wickedly departed from my God.

22:23For all his ordinances were before me, And his statutes, I did not depart from them,

22:24And I was upright before him, And kept myself from mine iniquity.

22:25And Jehovah hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, According to my cleanness in his sight.

22:26With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; With the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright;

22:27With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; And with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary.

22:28And the afflicted people thou dost save; And thine eyes are upon the haughty, whom thou bringest down.

22:29For thou art my lamp, Jehovah; And Jehovah enlighteneth my darkness.

22:30For by thee I have run through a troop; By my God have I leaped over a wall.

22:31As for *God, his way is perfect; The word of Jehovah is tried: He is a shield to all that trust in him.

22:32For who is *God, save Jehovah? And who is a rock, save our God?

22:33*God is my strong fortress, And he maketh my way perfectly smooth.

22:34He maketh my feet like hinds' feet, And setteth me upon my high places.

22:35He teacheth my hands to war, And mine arms bend a bow of brass.

22:36And thou didst give me the shield of thy salvation, And thy condescending gentleness hath made me great.

22:37Thou enlargedst my steps under me; And mine ankles did not slip.

22:38I pursued mine enemies, and destroyed them, And I turned not again till they were consumed.

22:39And I have consumed them and have crushed them, and they rose not again; Yea, they fell under my feet.

22:40And thou girdedst me with strength to battle: Thou didst subdue under me those that rose up against me.

22:41And mine enemies didst thou make to turn their backs unto me, And those that hated me I destroyed.

22:42They looked, and there was none to save -- Unto Jehovah, and he answered them not.

22:43And I did beat them small as the dust of the earth, I trod them as the mire of the streets; I stamped upon them.

22:44And thou hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, Thou hast kept me to be head of the nations: A people I knew not doth serve me:

22:45Strangers come cringing unto me: At the hearing of the ear, they obey me.

22:46Strangers have faded away, And they come trembling forth from their close places.

22:47Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my rock; And exalted be the God, the rock of my salvation,

22:48The *God who hath avenged me, And hath brought the peoples under me.

22:49He brought me forth from mine enemies: Yea, thou hast lifted me up above them that rose up against me; From the man of violence hast thou delivered me.

22:50Therefore will I give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among the nations, And will sing psalms to thy name.

22:51It is he who giveth great deliverances to his king, And sheweth loving-kindness to his anointed, To David, and to his seed for evermore.

23:1Now these are the last words of David: David the son of Jesse saith, And the man who was raised up on high, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel saith,

23:2The Spirit of Jehovah spoke by me, And his word was on my tongue.

23:3The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me, The ruler among men shall be just, Ruling in the fear of God;

23:4And he shall be as the light or the morning, like the rising of the sun, A morning without clouds; When from the sunshine, after rain, The green grass springeth from the earth.

23:5Although my house be not so before *God, Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, Ordered in every way and sure; For this is all my salvation, and every desire, Although he make it not to grow.

23:6But the sons of Belial are all of them as thorns thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with hands;

23:7And the man that will touch them provideth himself with iron and the staff of a spear; And they shall be utterly burned with fire in their place.

23:8These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Joseb-Bassebeth, Tachkemonite the chief of the captains: he was Adino the Eznite; he fought against eight hundred, slain by him at one time.

23:9And after him, Eleazar the son of Dodo the son of an Ahohite: he was one of the three mighty men with David, when they had defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone up.

23:10He arose and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave to the sword; and Jehovah wrought a great deliverance that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.

23:11And after him, Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite: the Philistines were gathered into a troop, and there was there a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people had fled before the Philistines;

23:12and he stood in the midst of the plot and delivered it, and smote the Philistines, and Jehovah wrought a great deliverance.

23:13And three of the thirty chiefs went down, and came to David in the harvest time to the cave of Adullam, when the troop of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

23:14And David was then in the stronghold; and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem.

23:15And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate!

23:16And the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate, and took it, and brought it to David; however he would not drink of it, but poured it out to Jehovah.

23:17And he said, Be it far from me, Jehovah, that I should do this thing! is it not the blood of the men that went at the risk of their lives? Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

23:18And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was the chief of three; and he brandished his spear against three hundred and slew them; and he had a name among the three.

23:19Was he not most honourable of three? and he was their captain; but he did not attain to the first three.

23:20And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, son of a valiant man, great in exploits, of Kabzeel: he it was that smote two lions of Moab; and he went down and smote a lion in the midst of a pit on a snowy day.

23:21He also smote the Egyptian, an imposing man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.

23:22These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and he had a name among the three mighty men.

23:23He was honoured above the thirty, but he did not attain to the first three. And David set him in his council.

23:24Asahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem,

23:25Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

23:26Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,

23:27Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

23:28Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

23:29Heleb the son of Baanah, the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,

23:30Benaiah a Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of Gaash,

23:31Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

23:32Eliahba the Shaalbonite, of the sons of Jashen, Jonathan,

23:33Shammah the Ararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite,

23:34Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of the Maachathite, Eliam the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,

23:35Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

23:36Igal the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,

23:37Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, the armour-bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah,

23:38Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

23:39Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

24:1And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.

24:2And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go, I pray thee, through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people.

24:3And Joab said to the king, May Jehovah thy God even add to the people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

24:4But the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the presence of the king to count the people of Israel.

24:5And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the midst of the ravine of Gad, and toward Jaazer.

24:6And they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and came to Dan-jaan, and to the environs of Sidon;

24:7and they came to the fortified city of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites and of the Canaanites; and went out to the south of Judah, to Beer-sheba.

24:8And they went through all the land, and came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

24:9And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king; and there were of Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

24:10And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Jehovah, I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, I beseech thee, Jehovah, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

24:11And when David arose in the morning, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

24:12Go and say to David, Thus saith Jehovah: I impose on thee three things; choose one of them that I may do it unto thee.

24:13And Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, Shall seven years of famine come to thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine adversaries while they pursue thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Now be aware and consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.

24:14And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah; for his mercies are great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.

24:15And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the set time; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men.

24:16And the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it; but Jehovah repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed among the people, It is enough: withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

24:17And David spoke to Jehovah when he saw the angel that smote among the people, and said, Behold, it is I that have sinned, and it is I that have committed iniquity; but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, be on me, and on my father's house!

24:18And Gad came that day to David, and said to him, Go up, rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

24:19And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as Jehovah had commanded.

24:20And Araunah looked, and saw the king and his servants coming on towards him; and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

24:21And Araunah said, Why is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar to Jehovah, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

24:22And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up that which is good in his sight: see, here are oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges and implements of the oxen for wood.

24:23All these things, O king, doth Araunah give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, Jehovah thy God accept thee.

24:24And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will in any case buy them of thee at a price: neither will I offer up to Jehovah my God burnt-offerings without cost. And David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

24:25And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. And Jehovah was propitious to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.