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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.