2 Samuel 232 Samuel 242 Peter 22 Samuel 23
1
Now these are the last words of David. David, the son of Jesse, says, the man who was lifted up on high, the man on whom the God of Jacob put the holy oil, the loved one of Israel's songs, says:
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The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word was on my tongue.
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The God of Israel said, the word of the Rock of Israel came to me: When an upright king is ruling over men, when he is ruling in the fear of God,
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It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a morning without clouds making young grass come to life from the earth.
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For is not my house so with God? For he has made with me an eternal agreement, ordered in all things and certain: as for all my salvation and all my desire, will he not give it increase?
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But the evil-doers, all of them, will be like thorns to be pushed away, because they may not be gripped in the hand:
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But anyone touching them has to be armed with iron and the rod of a spear and they will be burned with fire, every one of them.
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These are the names of David's men of war: Ishbaal the Hachmonite, chief of the three his axe was lifted up against eight hundred put to death at one time.
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After him was Eleazar, the son of Dodai the Ahohite, one of the three great fighters, who was with David in Pas-dammim when the Philistines came together there for the fight and when the men of Israel had gone in flight,
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He was with David and went on fighting the Philistines till his hand became tired and stiff from gripping his sword: and that day the Lord gave a great salvation, and the people came back after him only to take the goods of the Philistines.
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After him was Shammah, the son of Ela the Hararite. And the Philistines came together in Lehi, where there was a bit of land full of seed and the people went in flight from the Philistines.
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But he kept his place in the middle of the bit of land, and kept back their attack and overcame the Philistines: and the Lord gave a great salvation.
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And three of the thirty went down at the start of the grain-cutting, and they came to David at the strong place of Adullam and the band of Philistines had taken up their position in the valley of Rephaim.
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And at that time David had taken cover in the strong place, and an armed force of the Philistines was in Beth-lehem.
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And David, moved by a strong desire, said, If only someone would give me a drink of water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town!
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And the three men, forcing their way through the Philistine army, got water from the water-hole of Beth-lehem, by the doorway into the town, and took it back to David: but he would not take it, but, draining it out, made an offering of it to the Lord.
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And he said, Far be it from me, O Lord, to do this how may I take as my drink the life-blood of men who have put their lives in danger? So he would not take it. These things did the three great men of war.
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And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with his spear, and he got for himself a name among the thirty.
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Was he not the noblest of the thirty? so he was made their captain: but he was not equal to the first three.
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And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, a fighting man of Kabzeel, had done great acts he put to death the two sons of Ariel of Moab: he went down into a hole and put a lion to death in time of snow:
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And he made an attack on an Egyptian, a tall man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand but he went down to him with a stick, and pulling the spear out of the hands of the Egyptian, put him to death with that same spear.
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These were the acts of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, who had a great name among the thirty men of war.
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He was honoured over the rest of the thirty, but he was not equal to the first three. And David put him over the fighting men who kept him safe.
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Asahel, the brother of Joab, was one of the thirty and Elhanan, the son of Dodai, of Beth-lehem,
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Shammah the Harodite, Elika the Harodite,
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Helez the Paltite, Ira, the son of Ikkesh the Tekoite,
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Abiezer the Anathothite, Sibbecai the Hushathite,
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Zalmon the Ahohite, Maharai the Netophathite,
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Heldai, the son of Baanah the Netophathite, Ittai, the son of Ribai of Gibeah of the children of Benjamin,
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Benaiah the Pirathonite, Hiddai of the valleys of Gaash,
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Abiel the Arbathite, Azmaveth of Bahurim,
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Eliahba the Shaalbonite, Jashen the Gunite,
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Jonathan, the son of Shammah the Hararite, Ahiam, the son of Sharar the Hararite,
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Eliphelet, the son of Ahasbai the Maacathite, Eliam, the son of Ahithophel the Gilonite,
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Hezrai the Carmelite, Paarai the Archite,
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Igal, the son of Nathan of Zobah, Bani the Gadite,
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Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, who had the care of the arms of Joab, son of Zeruiah,
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Ira the Ithrite, Gareb the Ithrite,
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Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in number.
2 Samuel 24
1
Again the wrath of the Lord was burning against Israel, and moving David against them, he said, Go, take the number of Israel and Judah.
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And the king said to Joab and the captains of the army, who were with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan as far as Beer-sheba, and have all the people numbered, so that I may be certain of the number of the people.
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And Joab said to the king, Whatever the number of the people, may the Lord make it a hundred times as much, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this thing?
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But the king's order was stronger than Joab and the captains of the army. And Joab and the captains of the army went out from the king, to take the number of the children of Israel.
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And they went over Jordan, and starting from Aroer, from the town which is in the middle of the valley, they went in the direction of the Gadites, and on to Jazer
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Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of the Hittites under Hermon and they came to Dan, and from Dan they came round to Zidon,
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And to the walled town of Tyre, and to all the towns of the Hivites and the Canaanites: and they went out to the South of Judah at Beer-sheba.
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So after going through all the land in every direction, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.
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And Joab gave the king the number of all the people: there were in Israel eight hundred thousand fighting men able to take up arms and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand.
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And after the people had been numbered, David's heart was troubled. And David said to the Lord, Great has been my sin in doing this but now, O Lord, be pleased to take away the sin of your servant, for I have done very foolishly
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And David got up in the morning now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
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Go and say to David, The Lord says, Three things are offered to you: say which of them you will have, and I will do it to you.
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So Gad came to David, and gave him word of this and said to him, Are there to be three years when there is not enough food in your land? or will you go in flight from your haters for three months, while they go after you? or will you have three days of violent disease in your land? take thought and say what answer I am to give to him who sent me.
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And David said to Gad, This is a hard decision for me to make: let us come into the hands of the Lord, for great are his mercies: let me not come into the hands of men.
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So David made selection of the disease and the time was the days of the grain-cutting, when the disease came among the people, causing the death of seventy thousand men from Dan as far as Beer-sheba.
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And when the hand of the angel was stretched out in the direction of Jerusalem, for its destruction, the Lord had regret for the evil, and said to the angel who was sending destruction on the people, It is enough do no more. And the angel of the Lord was by the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
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And when David saw the angel who was causing the destruction of the people, he said to the Lord, Truly, the sin is mine I have done wrong: but these are only sheep what have they done? let your hand be against me and against my family.
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And that day Gad came to David and said to him, Go up, and put up an altar to the Lord on the grain-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.
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So David went up, as Gad had said and as the Lord had given orders.
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And Araunah, looking out, saw the king and his servants coming to him: and Araunah went out, and went down on his face to the earth before the king.
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And Araunah said, Why has my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To give you a price for your grain-floor, so that I may put up an altar to the Lord, and the disease may be stopped among the people.
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And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take whatever seems right to him, and make an offering of it: see, here are the oxen for the burned offering, and the grain-cleaning instruments and the ox-yokes for wood:
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All this does the servant of my lord the king give to the king. And Araunah said, May the Lord your God be pleased with your offering!
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And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will give you a price for it I will not give to the Lord my God burned offerings for which I have given nothing. So David got the grain-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
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And there David put up an altar to the Lord, making burned offerings and peace-offerings. So the Lord gave ear to his prayer for the land, and the disease came to an end in Israel.
2 Peter 2
1
But there were false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly put forward wrong teachings for your destruction, even turning away from the Lord who gave himself for them whose destruction will come quickly, and they themselves will be the cause of it.
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And a great number will go with them in their evil ways, through whom the true way will have a bad name.
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And in their desire for profit they will come to you with words of deceit, like traders doing business in souls: whose punishment has been ready for a long time and their destruction is watching for them.
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For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged
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And did not have mercy on the world which then was, but only kept safe Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he let loose the waters over the world of the evil-doers
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And sent destruction on Sodom and Gomorrah, burning them up with fire as an example to those whose way of life might in the future be unpleasing to him
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And kept safe Lot, the upright man, who was deeply troubled by the unclean life of the evil-doers
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(Because the soul of that upright man living among them was pained from day to day by seeing and hearing their crimes):
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The Lord is able to keep the upright safe in the time of testing, and to keep evil-doers under punishment till the day of judging
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But specially those who go after the unclean desires of the flesh, and make sport of authority. Ready to take chances, uncontrolled, they have no fear of saying evil of those in high places:
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Though the angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not make use of violent language against them before the Lord.
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But these men, like beasts without reason, whose natural use is to be taken and put to death, crying out against things of which they have no knowledge, will undergo that same destruction which they are designing for others
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For the evil which overtakes them is the reward of their evil-doing: such men take their pleasure in the delights of the flesh even in the daytime they are like the marks of a disease, like poisoned wounds among you, feasting together with you in joy
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Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin turning feeble souls out of the true way they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy
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Turning out of the true way, they have gone wandering in error, after the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who was pleased to take payment for wrongdoing
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But his wrongdoing was pointed out to him: an ass, talking with a man's voice, put a stop to the error of the prophet.
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These are fountains without water, and mists before a driving storm for whom the eternal night is kept in store.
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For with high-sounding false words, making use of the attraction of unclean desires of the flesh, they get into their power those newly made free from those who are living in error
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Saying that they will be free, while they themselves are the servants of destruction because whatever gets the better of a man makes a servant of him.
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For if, after they have got free from the unclean things of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again taken in the net and overcome, their last condition is worse than their first.
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For it would have been better for them to have had no knowledge of the way of righteousness, than to go back again from the holy law which was given to them, after having knowledge of it.
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They are an example of that true saying, The dog has gone back to the food it had put out, and the pig which had been washed to its rolling in the dirty earth.
