1 ^sNow when the king lived in his house and the Lord ^thad given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, 2 the king said to ^uNathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell ^vin a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells ^win a tent.” 3 And Nathan said to the king, ^x“Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”

4 But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, 5 “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^yWould you build me a house to dwell in? 6 I have not lived in a house ^zsince the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about ^ain a tent for my dwelling. 7 In all places where ^bI have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with ^cany of the judges¹ of Israel, whom I commanded ^dto shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ 8 Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, ^eI took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince² over my people Israel. 9 ^fAnd I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel ^gand will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place ^hand be disturbed no more. ⁱAnd violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 ^jfrom the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And ^kI will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that ^lthe Lord will make you a house. 12 ^mWhen your days are fulfilled and ⁿyou lie down with your fathers, ^oI will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body,³ and I will establish his kingdom. 13 ^pHe shall build a house for my name, and ^qI will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 ^rI will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, ^sI will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 ^sbut my steadfast love will not depart from him, ^tas I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 ^uAnd your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me.^{4 u}Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, ^v“Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord God. ^wYou have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord God! 20 And what more can David say to you? ^xFor you know your servant, O Lord God! 21 Because of your promise, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make your servant know it. 22 ^yTherefore you are great, O Lord God. ^zFor there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 ^aAnd who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name ^band doing for them⁵ great and awesome things by driving out before your people,⁶ whom ^cyou redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods? 24 ^dAnd you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O Lord, became their God. 25 And now, O Lord God, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken. 26 And your name will be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. 27 For you, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. 28 And now, O Lord God, you are God, and ^eyour words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. 29 Now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant, so that it may continue forever before you. For you, O Lord God, have spoken, ^fand with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever.”

1 Now these are the last words of David:

8 ^rThese are the names of the mighty men whom David had: ^sJosheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite; he was chief of the three.⁵ He wielded his spear⁶ against eight hundred whom he killed at one time.

9 And next to him among the three mighty men was Eleazar the son of ^tDodo, son of ^uAhohi. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew. 10 He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword. And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the men returned after him only to strip the slain.

11 And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the ^vHararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi,⁷ where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked a great victory.

13 And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the ^wcave of Adullam, when a band of Philistines was encamped ^xin the Valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then ^yin the stronghold, and ^zthe garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. 15 And David said longingly, “Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” 16 Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord 17 and said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink ^athe blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

18 Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty.⁸ And he wielded his spear against three hundred men⁹ and killed them and won a name beside the three. 19 He was the most renowned of the thirty¹⁰ and became their commander, but he did not attain to ^bthe three.

20 And ^cBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man¹¹ of ^dKabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels¹² of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. 21 And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. 23 He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.

24 ^eAsahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25 ^fShammah of Harod, Elika of Harod, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh ^gof Tekoa, 27 Abiezer ^hof Anathoth, Mebunnai ⁱthe Hushathite, 28 Zalmon ^jthe Ahohite, Maharai ^kof Netophah, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah ^kof Netophah, Ittai the son of Ribai of ^lGibeah of the people of Benjamin, 30 Benaiah ^mof Pirathon, Hiddai of the brooks of ⁿGaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth of ^oBahurim, 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 ^pShammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite, 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai ^qof Maacah, ^rEliam the son of ^sAhithophel the Gilonite, 35 Hezro^{13 t}of Carmel, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan ^uof Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai ^vof Beeroth, the armor-bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 ^wIra the ^xIthrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 ^yUriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

1 ^zaAgain the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, ^b“Go, number Israel and Judah.” 2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army,¹⁴ who was with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, ^cfrom Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people.” 3 But Joab said to the king, ^d“May the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?” 4 But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. 5 They crossed the Jordan and began from ^eAroer,¹⁵ and from the city that is in the middle of the ^fvalley, toward Gad and on to ^gJazer. 6 Then they came to Gilead, and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites;¹⁶ and they came to Dan, and from Dan¹⁷ they went around to ^hSidon, 7 and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the ⁱHivites and ⁱCanaanites; and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beersheba. 8 So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 9 And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to the king: in Israel there were 800,000 valiant men ^jwho drew the sword, and the men of Judah were 500,000.

10 But ^kDavid’s heart struck him after he had numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, ^l“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done ^mvery foolishly.” 11 And when David arose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to ⁿthe prophet Gad, David’s ^oseer, saying, 12 “Go and say to David, ‘Thus says the Lord, Three things I offer¹⁸ you. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.’” 13 So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, “Shall ^pthree¹⁹ years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee 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 him who sent me.” 14 Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress. Let us fall into the hand of the Lord, ^qfor his mercy is great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.”

15 ^rSo the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from the morning until the appointed time. And there died of the people from ^sDan to Beersheba 70,000 men. 16 And when ^tthe angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem ^uto destroy it, ^vthe Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel ^uwho was working destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” And ^tthe angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of ^wAraunah the Jebusite. 17 Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, “Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house.”

18 And Gad came that day to David and said to him, “Go up, raise an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of ^xAraunah the Jebusite.” 19 So David went up at Gad’s word, as the Lord commanded. 20 And when Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming on toward him. And Araunah went out and paid homage to the king with his face to the ground. 21 And Araunah 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, that the plague ^ymay be averted from the people.” 22 Then 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 ^zthreshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood. 23 All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God ^aaccept you.” 24 But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it 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 shekels²⁰ of silver. 25 And David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. ^bSo the Lord responded to the plea for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.