22 And 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.

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

³ God 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.

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

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

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

⁷ In 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

¹⁵ And he sent arrows, and scattered [mine enemies]; Lightning, and discomfited them.

¹⁶ And 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁴⁴ And 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:

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

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

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

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

⁴⁹ He 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.

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

⁵¹ [It 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 Now 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,

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

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

⁴ And [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.

⁵ Although 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.

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

⁷ And 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.

⁸ These 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.

⁹ And 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.

¹⁰ He 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.

¹¹ And 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;

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

¹³ And 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.

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

¹⁵ And 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!

¹⁶ And 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.

¹⁷ And 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.

¹⁸ And 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.

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

²⁰ And 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.

²¹ He 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.

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

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

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

²⁵ Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,

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

²⁷ Abiezer the Anathothite, Mebunnai the Hushathite,

²⁸ Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,

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

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

³¹ Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth the Barhumite,

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

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

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

³⁵ Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Arbite,

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

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

³⁸ Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,

³⁹ Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

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

² And 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.

³ And 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?

⁴ But 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.

⁵ And 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.

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

⁷ and 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.

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

⁹ And 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.

¹⁰ And 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.

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

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

¹³ And 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.

¹⁴ And 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.

¹⁵ And 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.

¹⁶ And 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.

¹⁷ And 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!

¹⁸ And 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.

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

²⁰ And 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.

²¹ And 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.

²² And 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.

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

²⁴ And 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.

²⁵ And 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.