The Daily Audio Bible

^24-39 Asahel, the brother of Joab, was also one of the Thirty. Others were:

24 Once again the anger of the Lord flared against Israel, and he caused David to harm them by taking a national census. “Go and count the people of Israel and Judah,” the Lord told him.

² So the king said to Joab, commander-in-chief of his army, “Take a census of all the people from one end of the nation to the other, so that I will know how many of them there are.”

³ But Joab replied, “God grant that you will live to see the day when there will be a hundred times as many people in your kingdom as there are now! But you have no right to rejoice in their strength.”^[b]

⁴ But the king’s command overcame Joab’s remonstrance; so Joab and the other army officers went out to count the people of Israel. ⁵ First they crossed the Jordan and camped at Aroer, south of the city that lies in the middle of the valley of Gad, near Jazer; ⁶ then they went to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon; ⁷ and then to the stronghold of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and south to Judah as far as Beersheba. ⁸ Having gone through the entire land, they completed their task in nine months and twenty days. ⁹ And Joab reported the number of the people to the king—800,000 men of conscription age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.

¹⁰ But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him, and he said to the Lord, “What I did was very wrong. Please forgive this foolish wickedness of mine.”

¹¹ The next morning the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, who was David’s contact with God.

The Lord said to Gad, ¹² “Tell David that I will give him three choices.”

¹³ So Gad came to David and asked him, “Will you choose seven years of famine across the land, or to flee for three months before your enemies, or to submit to three days of plague? Think this over and let me know what answer to give to God.”

¹⁴ “This is a hard decision,” David replied, “but it is better to fall into the hand of the Lord (for his mercy is great) than into the hands of men.”

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation. ¹⁶ But as the death angel was preparing to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was sorry for what was happening and told him to stop. He was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite at the time.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “Look, I am the one who has sinned! What have these sheep done? Let your anger be only against me and my family.”

¹⁸ That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” ¹⁹ So David went to do what the Lord had commanded him. ²⁰ When Araunah saw the king and his men coming toward him, he came forward and fell flat on the ground with his face in the dust.

²¹ “Why have you come?” Araunah asked.

And David replied, “To buy your threshing floor, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, and he will stop the plague.”

²² “Use anything you like,” Araunah told the king. “Here are oxen for the burnt offering, and you can use the threshing instruments and ox yokes for wood to build a fire on the altar. ²³ I will give it all to you, and may the Lord God accept your sacrifice.”

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, I will not have it as a gift. I will buy it, for I don’t want to offer to the Lord my God burnt offerings that have cost me nothing.”

So David paid him^[c] for the threshing floor and the oxen. ²⁵ And David built an altar there to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And the Lord answered his prayer, and the plague was stopped.

3 Peter and John went to the Temple one afternoon to take part in the three o’clock daily prayer meeting. ² As they approached the Temple, they saw a man lame from birth carried along the street and laid beside the Temple gate—the one called The Beautiful Gate—as was his custom every day. ³ As Peter and John were passing by, he asked them for some money.

⁴ They looked at him intently, and then Peter said, “Look here!”

⁵ The lame man looked at them eagerly, expecting a gift.

⁶ But Peter said, “We don’t have any money for you! But I’ll give you something else! I command you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!”

^7-8 Then Peter took the lame man by the hand and pulled him to his feet. And as he did, the man’s feet and ankle bones were healed and strengthened so that he came up with a leap, stood there a moment and began walking! Then, walking, leaping, and praising God, he went into the Temple with them.

⁹ When the people inside saw him walking and heard him praising God, ¹⁰ and realized he was the lame beggar they had seen so often at The Beautiful Gate, they were inexpressibly surprised! ¹¹ They all rushed out to Solomon’s Hall, where he was holding tightly to Peter and John! Everyone stood there awed by the wonderful thing that had happened.

¹² Peter saw his opportunity and addressed the crowd. “Men of Israel,” he said, “what is so surprising about this? And why look at us as though we by our own power and godliness had made this man walk? ¹³ For it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of all our ancestors who has brought glory to his servant Jesus by doing this. I refer to the Jesus whom you rejected before Pilate, despite Pilate’s determination to release him. ¹⁴ You didn’t want him freed—this holy, righteous one. Instead you demanded the release of a murderer. ¹⁵ And you killed the Author of Life; but God brought him back to life again. And John and I are witnesses of this fact, for after you killed him we saw him alive!

¹⁶ “Jesus’ name has healed this man—and you know how lame he was before. Faith in Jesus’ name—faith given us from God—has caused this perfect healing.

¹⁷ “Dear brothers, I realize that what you did to Jesus was done in ignorance; and the same can be said of your leaders. ¹⁸ But God was fulfilling the prophecies that the Messiah must suffer all these things. ¹⁹ Now change your mind and attitude to God and turn to him so he can cleanse away your sins and send you wonderful times of refreshment from the presence of the Lord ²⁰ and send Jesus your Messiah back to you again. ^21-22 For he must remain in heaven until the final recovery of all things from sin, as prophesied from ancient times. Moses, for instance, said long ago, ‘The Lord God will raise up a Prophet among you, who will resemble me!^[a] Listen carefully to everything he tells you. ²³ Anyone who will not listen to him shall be utterly destroyed.’^[b]

²⁴ “Samuel and every prophet since have all spoken about what is going on today. ²⁵ You are the children of those prophets; and you are included in God’s promise to your ancestors to bless the entire world through the Jewish race—that is the promise God gave to Abraham. ²⁶ And as soon as God had brought his servant to life again, he sent him first of all to you men of Israel, to bless you by turning you back from your sins.”

123 O God enthroned in heaven, I lift my eyes to you.

² We look to Jehovah our God for his mercy and kindness just as a servant keeps his eyes upon his master or a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.

^3-4 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy. For we have had our fill of contempt and of the scoffing of the rich and proud.

²¹ The wise man is known by his common sense, and a pleasant teacher is the best.

²² Wisdom is a fountain of life to those possessing it, but a fool’s burden is his folly.

²³ From a wise mind comes careful and persuasive speech.