The Daily Audio Bible
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19 And it came to pass after this that Nahash king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his stead.
2 And David said, I will shew kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father shewed kindness to me. And David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him.
3 And the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, Is it, in thine eyes, to honour thy father that David has sent comforters to thee? Is it not to search and overthrow, and to spy out the land that his servants are come to thee?
4 And Hanun took David's servants, and had them shaved, and their raiment cut off in the midst, as far as the hip, and sent them away.
5 And [certain] went and told David concerning the men; and he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Abide at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.
6 And the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David; and Hanun and the children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and from the Syrians of Maacah, and from Zobah.
7 And they hired thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people; and they came and encamped before Medeba. And the children of Ammon gathered together from their cities, and came to battle.
8 And David heard [of it], and he sent Joab, and all the host, the mighty men.
9 And the children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entrance of the city; and the kings that had come were by themselves on the field.
10 And Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind; and he chose out of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians;
11 and the rest of the people he gave into the hand of Abishai his brother, and they set themselves in array against the children of Ammon.
12 And he said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me; and if the children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee.
13 Be strong, and let us shew ourselves valiant for our people, and for the cities of our God; and Jehovah will do what is good in his sight.
14 And Joab and the people that were with him drew near in front of the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him.
15 And when the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. And Joab came to Jerusalem.
16 And when the Syrians saw that they were routed before Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians that were beyond the river; and Shophach the captain of the host of Hadarezer [went] before them.
17 And it was told David; and he gathered all Israel, and passed over the Jordan, and came upon them, and set [the battle] in array against them. And David put the battle in array against the Syrians, and they fought with him.
18 And the Syrians fled from before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand [in] chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and slew Shophach the captain of the host.
19 And the servants of Hadarezer saw that they were routed before Israel, and they made peace with David, and became his servants. And the Syrians would no more help the children of Ammon.
20 And it came to pass at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go forth, that Joab led forth the power of the army, and laid waste the land of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David abode at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah, and overthrew it.
2 And David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was [set] upon David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance.
3 And he brought out the people that were in it, and cut them with the saw, and with harrows of iron, and with saws. And so David did to all the cities of the children of Ammon. And David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
4 And it came to pass after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines; then Sibbechai the Hushathite smote Sippai, one of the children of Rapha; and they were subdued.
5 And there was again a battle with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair smote Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite; now the shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam.
6 And there was again a battle, at Gath; and there was a man [there] of great stature, whose fingers [and toes] were four and twenty, six [on each hand], and six [on each foot]; and he also was born to Rapha.
7 And he defied Israel; but Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother smote him.
8 These were born to Rapha in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.
21 And Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.
2 And David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, Go, number Israel from Beer-sheba even to Dan; and bring the number of them to me, that I may know it.
3 And Joab said, Jehovah add to his people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold: are they not all, my lord O king, my lord's servants? why does my lord require this thing? why should he become a trespass to Israel?
4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab; and Joab departed, and went through all Israel, and came [again] to Jerusalem.
5 And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to David. And all they of Israel were eleven hundred thousand men that drew sword; and of Judah, four hundred and seventy thousand men that drew sword.
6 But Levi and Benjamin he did not count among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.
7 And God was displeased on account of this thing, and he smote Israel.
8 And David said to God, I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing; and now, I beseech thee, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.
9 And Jehovah spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,
10 Go and speak to David saying, Thus saith Jehovah: I offer thee three [things]; choose one of them, that I may do it unto thee.
11 And Gad came to David, and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah:
12 Choose thee, either three years of famine, or three months to be destroyed before thine adversaries while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee, or three days the sword of Jehovah and the pestilence in the land, and the angel of Jehovah destroying through all the borders of Israel. And now consider what word I shall bring again to him that sent me.
13 And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are very great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.
14 And Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there fell of Israel seventy thousand men.
15 And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; and as he was destroying, Jehovah beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough; withdraw now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah stood by the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
16 And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of Jehovah stand between the earth and the heavens, and his sword drawn in his hand, stretched out over Jerusalem. And David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.
17 And David said to God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? It is I that have sinned and done evil; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thy hand, I pray thee, Jehovah my God, be on me and on my father's house; but not on thy people, that they should be smitten.
18 And the angel of Jehovah commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and rear an altar to Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
19 And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he had spoken in the name of Jehovah.
20 And Ornan turned back and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.
21 And David came to Ornan, and Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing-floor, and bowed himself to David with [his] face to the ground.
22 And David said to Ornan, Grant me the place of the threshing-floor, that I may build an altar in it to Jehovah: grant it to me for the full money, that the plague may be stayed from the people.
23 And Ornan said to David, Take it to thee, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his sight: see, I give the oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges for wood, and the wheat for the oblation; I give it all.
24 And king David said to Ornan, No; but I will in any case buy [them] for the full money; for I will not take that which is thine for Jehovah, to offer up a burnt-offering without cost.
25 And David gave to Ornan for the place in shekels of gold the weight of six hundred [shekels].
26 And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, and called upon Jehovah; and he answered him from the heavens by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.
27 And Jehovah spoke to the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.
28 At that time when David saw that Jehovah had answered him in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.
29 And the tabernacle of Jehovah, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt-offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.
30 But David could not go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of Jehovah.
25 For circumcision indeed profits if thou keep [the] law; but if thou be a law-transgressor, thy circumcision is become uncircumcision.
26 If therefore the uncircumcision keep the requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision,
27 and uncircumcision by nature, fulfilling the law, judge thee, who, with letter and circumcision, [art] a law-transgressor?
28 For he is not a Jew who [is] one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in flesh;
29 but he [is] a Jew [who is so] inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise [is] not of men, but of God.
3 What then [is] the superiority of the Jew? or what the profit of circumcision?
2 Much every way: and first, indeed, that to them were entrusted the oracles of God.
3 For what? if some have not believed, shall their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect?
4 Far be the thought: but let God be true, and every man false; according as it is written, So that thou shouldest be justified in thy words, and shouldest overcome when thou art in judgment.
5 But if our unrighteousness commend God's righteousness, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man.
6 Far be the thought: since how shall God judge the world?
7 For if the truth of God, in my lie, has more abounded to his glory, why yet am *I* also judged as a sinner?
8 and not, according as we are injuriously charged, and according as some affirm that we say, Let us practise evil things, that good ones may come? whose judgment is just.
To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David.
11 In Jehovah have I put my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee [as] a bird to your mountain?
2 For behold, the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may in darkness shoot at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the righteous do?
4 Jehovah [is] in the temple of his holiness; Jehovah,—his throne is in the heavens: his eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.
5 Jehovah trieth the righteous one; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.
6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone; and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For righteous is Jehovah; he loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright.
10 Good living beseemeth not a fool; how much less for a servant to have rule over princes.
11 The discretion of a man maketh him slow to anger, and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.
12 The king's displeasure is as the roaring of a lion; but his favour is as dew upon the grass.
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