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The Last Words of David

23Now these are the last words of David:
The oracle of David, son of Jesse,
   the oracle of the man whom God exalted,^*
the anointed of the God of Jacob,
   the favourite of the Strong One of Israel:

² The spirit of the Lord speaks through me,
   his word is upon my tongue.
³ The God of Israel has spoken,
   the Rock of Israel has said to me:
One who rules over people justly,
   ruling in the fear of God,
⁴ is like the light of morning,
   like the sun rising on a cloudless morning,
   gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.

⁵ Is not my house like this with God?
   For he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
   ordered in all things and secure.
Will he not cause to prosper
   all my help and my desire?
⁶ But the godless are^* all like thorns that are thrown away;
   for they cannot be picked up with the hand;
⁷ to touch them one uses an iron bar
   or the shaft of a spear.
   And they are entirely consumed in fire on the spot.^*

[

13 Towards the beginning of harvest three of the thirty^* chiefs went down to join David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴David was then in the stronghold; and the garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. ¹⁵David said longingly, ‘O that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!’ ¹⁶Then the three warriors broke through the camp of the Philistines, drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate, and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it; he poured it out to the Lord, ¹⁷for he said, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do this. Can I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?’ Therefore he would not drink it. The three warriors did these things.]

David’s Census of Israel and Judah

24Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ‘Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.’ ²So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army,^* who were with him, ‘Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.’

Judgement on David’s Sin

10 But afterwards, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.’ ¹¹When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, ¹²‘Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer^* you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.’ ¹³So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, ‘Shall three^* years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee for three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider, and decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.’ ¹⁴Then David said to Gad, ‘I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but let me not fall into human hands.’

15 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time; and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba. ¹⁶But when the angel stretched out his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil, and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ The angel of the Lord was then by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. ¹⁷When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, ‘I alone have sinned, and I alone have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.’

David’s Altar on the Threshing-Floor

18 That day Gad came to David and said to him, ‘Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.’ ¹⁹Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming towards him; and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹Araunah said, ‘Why has my lord the king come to his servant?’ David said, ‘To buy the threshing-floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.’ ²²Then Araunah said to David, ‘Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. ²³All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.’ And Araunah said to the king, ‘May the Lord your God respond favourably to you.’

24 But the king said to Araunah, ‘No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt-offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.’ So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. ²⁵David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt-offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.