2 Samuel 21

New American Standard Bible

Gibeonite’s Revenge

21 Now there was ^(A)a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and ^(B)David sought the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said, “It is because of Saul and his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” ²So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and ^(C)the sons of Israel had ^[a]made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to ^[b]kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah). ³David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And how can I make amends, so that you will bless ^(D)the inheritance of the Lord?” ⁴Then the Gibeonites said to him, “^(E)For us it is not a matter of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put anyone to death in Israel.” Nevertheless David said, “I will do for you whatever you say.” ⁵So they said to the king, “^(F)The man who destroyed us and who planned ^[c]to eliminate us so that we would not exist within any border of Israel— ⁶let seven men from his sons be given to us, and we will ^[d]hang them ^(G)before the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, ^(H)the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷But the king spared ^(I)Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, ^(J)because of the oath of the Lord which was between them, between David and Saul’s son Jonathan. ⁸So the king took the two sons of ^(K)Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, Armoni and Mephibosheth whom she had borne to Saul, and the five sons of ^[e]^(L)Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she had borne to Adriel the son of Barzillai the ^(M)Meholathite. ⁹Then he handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they ^[f]hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, so that the seven of them fell together; and they were put to death in the first days of harvest at ^(N)the beginning of barley harvest.

¹⁰^(O)And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until ^[g]it rained on them from the sky; and ^(P)she ^[h]allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the wild animals by night. ¹¹When it was reported to David what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, ¹²then David went and took ^(Q)the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of ^(R)Beth-shan, ^(S)where the Philistines had hanged them on the day ^(T)the Philistines struck and killed Saul in Gilboa. ¹³He brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan, and they gathered the bones of those who had been ^[i]hanged. ¹⁴Then they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the country of Benjamin in ^(U)Zela, in the grave of his father Kish; So they did everything that the king commanded, and after that ^(V)God responded to prayer for the land.

¹⁵Now when ^(W)the Philistines were at war with Israel again, David went down, and his servants with him; and when they fought against the Philistines, David became weary. ¹⁶Then Ishbi-benob, who was ^(X)among the descendants of the ^[j]giant, the weight of whose spear was ^[k]three hundred shekels of bronze in weight, ^[l]had strapped on a new sword, and he ^[m]intended to kill David. ¹⁷But ^(Y)Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, saying, “^(Z)You shall not go out again with us to battle, so that you do not extinguish ^(AA)the lamp of Israel.”

¹⁸^(AB)Now it came about after this that there was war again with the Philistines at Gob; then ^(AC)Sibbecai the Hushathite struck and killed Saph, who was among the descendants of the ^[n]giant. ¹⁹And there was war with the Philistines again at Gob, and Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite ^[o]killed ^[p]Goliath the Gittite, ^(AD)the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. ²⁰And there was war at Gath again, where there was a man of great stature who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also had been born ^(AE)to the ^[q]giant. ²¹When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, struck and killed him. ²²^(AF)These four were born to the ^[r]giant at Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

Footnotes

2 Samuel 21:2 Lit sworn to
2 Samuel 21:2 Lit strike
2 Samuel 21:5 Lit against us that we are eliminated from
2 Samuel 21:6 Or expose them
2 Samuel 21:8 As in some ancient versions and two Heb mss; MT Michal
2 Samuel 21:9 Or exposed them
2 Samuel 21:10 Lit water gushed forth
2 Samuel 21:10 Lit gave
2 Samuel 21:13 Or exposed
2 Samuel 21:16 Heb Raphah
2 Samuel 21:16 About 9 lb. or 4 kg
2 Samuel 21:16 Lit and he had strapped
2 Samuel 21:16 Lit said
2 Samuel 21:18 Heb Raphah
2 Samuel 21:19 Lit struck
2 Samuel 21:19 In 1 Chr 20:5, Lahmi, the brother of Goliath
2 Samuel 21:20 Heb Raphah
2 Samuel 21:22 Heb Raphah

2 Samuel 22

New American Standard Bible

David’s Psalm of Deliverance

22 ^(A)Now David spoke ^(B)the words of this song to the Lord on the day that the Lord had saved him from the ^[a]hand of all his enemies and from the ^[b]hand of Saul. ²He said,

“^(C)The Lord is my ^[c]rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
³^[d]^(D)My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
My ^(E)shield and ^(F)the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and ^(G)my refuge;
My savior, You save me from violence.
⁴I call upon the Lord, ^(H)who is worthy to be praised,
And I am saved from my enemies.
⁵For ^(I)the waves of death encompassed me;
^(J)The floods of ^[e]destruction terrified me;
⁶^(K)The ropes of ^[f]Sheol surrounded me;
The snares of death confronted me.
⁷^(L)In my distress I called upon the Lord,
Yes, I called out to my God;
And from His temple He heard my voice,
And my cry for help came into His ears.
⁸Then ^(M)the earth shook and quaked,
^(N)The foundations of heaven were trembling
And were shaken, because He was angry.
⁹Smoke went up ^[g]out of His nostrils,
^(O)And fire from His mouth was devouring;
^(P)Coals were kindled by it.
¹⁰He also bowed the heavens down low, and came down
With ^(Q)thick darkness under His feet.
¹¹^(R)He rode on a cherub and flew;
He ^[h]appeared on ^(S)the wings of the wind.
¹²^(T)He made darkness canopies around Him,
A mass of waters, thick clouds of the sky.
¹³From the brightness before Him
^(U)Coals of fire were kindled.
¹⁴^(V)The Lord thundered from heaven,
And the Most High uttered His voice.
¹⁵^(W)And He shot arrows and scattered them,
Lightning, and ^[i]routed them.
¹⁶Then the channels of the sea appeared,
The foundations of the world were exposed
By the rebuke of the Lord,
^(X)From the blast of the breath of His nostrils.
¹⁷^(Y)He sent from on high, He took me;
^(Z)He drew me out of many waters.
¹⁸He rescued me from my strong enemy,
From those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.
¹⁹They confronted me on the day of my disaster,
^(AA)But the Lord was my support.
²⁰^(AB)He also brought me out into an open place;
He rescued me, ^(AC)because He delighted in me.
²¹^(AD)The Lord has treated me in accordance with my righteousness;
^(AE)In accordance with the cleanliness of my hands He has repaid me.
²²^(AF)For I have kept the ways of the Lord,
And have not acted wickedly against my God.
²³^(AG)For all His ordinances were before me,
And as for His statutes, I did not deviate from ^[j]them.
²⁴^(AH)I was also ^[k]blameless toward Him,
And I have kept myself from my wrongdoing.
²⁵^(AI)So the Lord has repaid me in accordance with my righteousness,
In accordance with my cleanliness before His eyes.
²⁶^(AJ)With the one who is faithful You show Yourself faithful,
With the ^[l]blameless one You prove Yourself ^[m]blameless;
²⁷^(AK)With the one who is pure You show Yourself pure,
^(AL)But with the perverted You ^[n]show Yourself astute.
²⁸^(AM)And You save an afflicted people;
^(AN)But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You humiliate.
²⁹^(AO)For You are my lamp, Lord;
And the Lord illuminates my darkness.
³⁰^(AP)For by You I can run at a ^[o]troop of warriors;
By my God I can leap over a wall.
³¹^(AQ)As for God, His way is ^[p]blameless;
^(AR)The word of the Lord is refined;
^(AS)He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
³²^(AT)For who is God, except the Lord?
^(AU)And who is a rock, except our God?
³³^(AV)God is my strong fortress;
And He ^[q]sets the ^[r]blameless on ^[s]His way.
³⁴^(AW)He makes ^[t]my feet like deer’s feet,
^(AX)And sets me on my high places.
³⁵^(AY)He trains my hands for battle,
^(AZ)So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
³⁶You have also given me ^(BA)the shield of Your salvation,
And Your ^[u]help makes me great.
³⁷^(BB)You enlarge my steps under me,
And my ^[v]feet have not slipped.
³⁸I pursued my enemies and ^(BC)eliminated them,
And I did not turn back until they were finished off.
³⁹And I have devoured them and smashed them, so that they would not rise;
And ^(BD)they fell under my feet.
⁴⁰For You have encircled me with strength for battle;
You have forced ^(BE)those who rose up against me to bow down under me.
⁴¹You have also ^(BF)made my enemies turn their backs to me,
And I ^[w]destroyed those who hated me.
⁴²^(BG)They looked, but there was no one to save them;
^(BH)Even to the Lord, but He did not answer them.
⁴³^(BI)Then I pulverized them as the dust of the earth;
^(BJ)I crushed and trampled them like the mud of the streets.
⁴⁴^(BK)You have also saved me from the contentions of my people;
^(BL)You have kept me as head of the nations;
^(BM)A people I have not known serve me.
⁴⁵^(BN)Foreigners pretend to obey me;
As soon as they hear, they obey me.
⁴⁶Foreigners lose heart,
^(BO)And ^[x]come trembling out of their fortresses.
⁴⁷The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock;
And exalted be ^[y]^(BP)my God, the rock of my salvation,
⁴⁸^(BQ)The God who executes vengeance for me,
^(BR)And brings down peoples under me,
⁴⁹Who also brings me out from my enemies;
You also raise me above ^(BS)those who rise up against me;
^(BT)You rescue me from the violent person.
⁵⁰^(BU)Therefore I will ^[z]give thanks to You, Lord, among the nations,
And I will sing praises to Your name.
⁵¹^(BV)He is a tower of ^[aa]salvation to His king,
And ^(BW)shows favor to His anointed,
^(BX)To David and his ^[ab]descendants forever.”

Footnotes

2 Samuel 22:1 Lit palm
2 Samuel 22:1 Lit palm
2 Samuel 22:2 Lit crag
2 Samuel 22:3 As in LXX; MT God of my rock
2 Samuel 22:5 Or wickedness; Heb Belial
2 Samuel 22:6 I.e., the netherworld
2 Samuel 22:9 I.e., in his anger
2 Samuel 22:11 Many mss glided
2 Samuel 22:15 Lit confused
2 Samuel 22:23 Lit it
2 Samuel 22:24 Lit complete; or having integrity
2 Samuel 22:26 Lit complete; or having integrity
2 Samuel 22:26 Lit complete; or having integrity
2 Samuel 22:27 As in two Heb mss and Ps 18:26; MT pretend stupidity
2 Samuel 22:30 Or wall
2 Samuel 22:31 Lit complete; or having integrity
2 Samuel 22:33 Or sets free
2 Samuel 22:33 Lit complete; or having integrity
2 Samuel 22:33 Another reading is my
2 Samuel 22:34 Another reading is His
2 Samuel 22:36 Lit answering
2 Samuel 22:37 Lit ankles
2 Samuel 22:41 Or silenced
2 Samuel 22:46 Reading based on Ps 18:45; MT belt up themselves
2 Samuel 22:47 As in LXX; MT the God of the rock
2 Samuel 22:50 Or praise
2 Samuel 22:51 Lit acts of salvation
2 Samuel 22:51 Lit seed

2 Samuel 23

New American Standard Bible

David’s Last Song

23 Now these are the last words of David.

David the son of Jesse declares,
^(A)The man who was raised on high,
^(B)The anointed of the God of Jacob
And the sweet psalmist of Israel, declares,
²“^(C)The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me,
And His word was on my tongue.
³The God of Israel said it;
^(D)The Rock of Israel spoke to me:
‘^(E)He who rules over mankind righteously,
^(F)Who rules in the fear of God,
⁴^(G)Is like the light of the morning when the sun rises,
A morning without clouds,
When the fresh grass springs out of the earth
From sunshine after rain.’
⁵Is my house not indeed so with God?
For ^(H)He has made an everlasting covenant with me,
Properly ordered in all things, and secured;
For will He not indeed make
All my salvation and all my delight grow?
⁶^(I)But the worthless, every one of them, are like scattered thorns,
Because they cannot be taken in hand;
⁷Instead, the man who touches them
Must be ^[a]armed with iron and the shaft of a spear,
And ^(J)they will be completely burned with fire in their ^[b]place.”

David’s Mighty Men

⁸^(K)These are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-basshebeth, a Tahchemonite, chief of the ^[c]captains; he was called Adino the Eznite because of eight hundred who were killed by him at one time. ⁹And after him was Eleazar the son of ^(L)Dodo the ^(M)Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there to battle and the men of Israel had ^[d]withdrawn. ¹⁰^(N)He rose up and struck the Philistines until his hand was weary and ^[e]it clung to the sword, and ^(O)the Lord brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder the dead.

¹¹Now after him was Shammah the son of Agee, a ^(P)Hararite. And the Philistines were gathered ^[f]into an army where there was a plot of land full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. ¹²But he took his stand in the midst of the plot, defended it, and struck the Philistines; and ^(Q)the Lord brought about a great victory.

¹³Then three of the thirty chief men went down and came to David at harvest time to the ^(R)cave of Adullam, while the army of the Philistines was camping in ^(S)the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴David was then ^(T)in the stronghold, while the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. ¹⁵And ^(U)David had a craving and said, “Oh that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” ¹⁶^(V)So the three mighty men forced their way into the camp of the Philistines, and drew water from the well of Bethlehem which was by the gate, and carried it and brought it to David. Yet he would not drink it, but ^(W)poured it out as an offering to the Lord; ¹⁷and he said, “Far be it from me, Lord, that I would do this! ^(X)Should I drink the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

¹⁸Now ^(Y)Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was ^(Z)chief of the ^[g]thirty. And he swung his spear against three hundred ^[h]and killed them, and had a name ^[i]as well as the three. ¹⁹He was the most honored among the thirty, so he became their commander; however, he did not attain to the reputation of the three.

²⁰Then ^(AA)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of ^(AB)Kabzeel, who had done great deeds, ^[j]killed the ^[k]two sons of Ariel of Moab. He also went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day. ²¹And he ^[l]killed an Egyptian, ^[m]an impressive man. Now the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a club and snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with his own spear. ²²These things ^(AC)Benaiah the son of Jehoiada did, and had a name ^[n]as well as the three mighty men. ²³He was honored among the thirty, but he did not attain the reputation of the three. And David appointed him over his bodyguard.

²⁴^(AD)Asahel the brother of Joab was among the thirty; and there was Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, ²⁵^(AE)Shammah the ^(AF)Harodite, Elika the Harodite, ²⁶Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh the ^(AG)Tekoite, ²⁷Abiezer the ^(AH)Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite, ²⁸Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the ^(AI)Netophathite, ²⁹^(AJ)Heleb the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai the son of Ribai of ^(AK)Gibeah of the sons of Benjamin, ³⁰Benaiah a ^(AL)Pirathonite, Hiddai of the brooks of ^(AM)Gaash, ³¹Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the ^(AN)Barhumite, ³²Eliahba the ^(AO)Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, ³³^(AP)Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Ararite, ³⁴Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai, the son of ^(AQ)the Maacathite, ^(AR)Eliam the son of ^(AS)Ahithophel the Gilonite, ³⁵^(AT)Hezro the ^(AU)Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite, ³⁶Igal the son of Nathan of ^(AV)Zobah, Bani the Gadite, ³⁷Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the ^(AW)Beerothite, armor bearers of Joab the son of Zeruiah, ³⁸Ira the ^(AX)Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite, ³⁹and ^(AY)Uriah the Hittite; thirty-seven in all.