2 Samuel 21-24
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
V. Appendixes
Chapter 21
Gibeonite Vengeance. 1 In David’s time there was a famine for three years, year after year. David sought the presence of the Lord, who said: There is bloodguilt on Saul and his family because he put the Gibeonites to death.(A) 2 So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but survivors of the Amorites; and although the Israelites had given them their oath, Saul had sought to kill them off in his zeal for the Israelites and for Judah.)(B) 3 David said to the Gibeonites, “What must I do for you and how must I make atonement, that you may bless the heritage of the Lord?” 4 The Gibeonites answered him, “We have no claim against Saul and his house for silver or gold, nor is it our place to put anyone to death in Israel.” Then he said, “I will do for you whatever you propose.” 5 They said to the king, “As for the man who was exterminating us and who intended to destroy us that we might have no place in all the territory of Israel, 6 let seven men from among his descendants be given to us, that we may execute them before the Lord in Gibeon, on the Lord’s mountain.” The king replied, “I will give them up.” 7 The king, however, spared Meribbaal, son of Jonathan, son of Saul, because of the Lord’s oath that formed a bond between David and Saul’s son Jonathan.(C) 8 But the king took Armoni and Meribbaal, the two sons that Aiah’s daughter Rizpah had borne to Saul, and the five sons of Saul’s daughter Merob that she had borne to Adriel, son of Barzillai the Meholathite,(D) 9 and delivered them into the power of the Gibeonites, who then executed them on the mountain before the Lord. The seven fell at the one time; they were put to death during the first days of the harvest—that is, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
10 Then Rizpah, Aiah’s daughter, took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on the rock from the beginning of the harvest until rain came down on them from the heavens, fending off the birds of the heavens from settling on them by day, and the wild animals by night.(E) 11 When David was informed of what Rizpah, Aiah’s daughter, the concubine of Saul, had done, 12 he went and obtained the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan from the citizens of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them away secretly from the public square of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them at the time they defeated Saul on Gilboa.(F) 13 When he had brought up from there the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan, the bones of those who had been executed were also gathered up. 14 Then the bones of Saul and of his son Jonathan were buried in the land of Benjamin, at Zela, in the tomb of his father Kish. After all that the king commanded had been carried out, God granted relief to the land.(G)
Exploits in Philistine Wars. 15 There was another battle between the Philistines and Israel. David went down with his servants and fought the Philistines, but David grew tired. 16 Dadu, a descendant of the Rephaim, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels, was about to take him captive. Dadu was girt with a new sword and thought he would kill David, 17 but Abishai, son of Zeruiah, came to help him, and struck and killed the Philistine. Then David’s men swore to him, “You must not go out to battle with us again, lest you quench the lamp of Israel.”(H)
18 (I)After this, there was another battle with the Philistines, in Gob. On that occasion Sibbecai the Hushathite struck down Saph, a descendant of the Rephaim.(J) 19 (K)There was another battle with the Philistines, in Gob, and Elhanan, son of Jair from Bethlehem, killed Goliath of Gath, whose spear shaft was like a weaver’s beam. 20 There was another battle, at Gath, and there was a giant, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from the Rephaim. 21 And when he insulted Israel, Jonathan, son of David’s brother Shimei, struck him down.(L) 22 These four were descended from the Rephaim in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his servants.
Chapter 22
Song of Thanksgiving.[a] 1 David proclaimed the words of this song to the Lord when the Lord had rescued him from the grasp of all his enemies and from the grasp of Saul.(M) 2 He said:(N)
O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer,
3 my God, my rock of refuge!
My shield, my saving horn,[b]
my stronghold, my refuge,
my savior, from violence you keep me safe.(O)
4 Praised be the Lord, I exclaim!
I have been delivered from my enemies.
5 The breakers of death surged round about me,
the menacing floods[c] terrified me;
6 The cords of Sheol tightened;
the snares of death lay in wait for me.
7 In my distress I called out: Lord!
I cried out to my God;
From his temple[d] he heard my voice,
my cry reached his ears.
8 The earth rocked and shook;[e]
the foundations of the heavens trembled;
they shook as his wrath flared up.
9 Smoke rose in his nostrils,
a devouring fire from his mouth;
it kindled coals into flame.
10 He parted the heavens and came down,
a dark cloud under his feet.(P)
11 Mounted on a cherub[f] he flew,
borne along on the wings of the wind.(Q)
12 He made darkness the cover about him,
a mass of water, heavy thunderheads.
13 From the brightness of his presence
coals were kindled to flame.
14 The Lord thundered from heaven;
the Most High made his voice resound.
15 He let fly arrows and scattered them;
lightning, and dispersed them.(R)
16 Then the bed of the sea appeared;
the world’s foundations lay bare,
At the roar of the Lord,
at the storming breath of his nostrils.(S)
17 He reached down from on high and seized me,
drew me out of the deep waters.(T)
18 He rescued me from my mighty enemy,
from foes too powerful for me.
19 They attacked me on a day of distress,
but the Lord came to my support.
20 He set me free in the open;
he rescued me because he loves me.
21 The Lord acknowledged my righteousness;
rewarded my clean hands.
22 For I kept the ways of the Lord;
I was not disloyal to my God.
23 His laws were all before me,
his decrees I did not cast aside.
24 I was honest toward him;
I was on guard against sin.
25 So the Lord rewarded my righteousness,
the cleanness of my hands in his sight.
26 (U)Toward the faithful you are faithful;[g]
to the honest you are honest;
27 Toward the sincere you are sincere;
but to the perverse you are devious.
28 Humble people you save,
though on the haughty your eyes look down.
29 You are my lamp, O Lord!
My God brightens the darkness about me.
30 With you I can rush an armed band,
with my God to help I can leap a wall.
31 God’s way is unerring;
the Lord’s promise is tried and true;
he is a shield for all who trust in him.(V)
32 Truly, who is God except the Lord?
Who but our God is the rock?
33 This God who girded me with might,
kept my way unerring,
34 Who made my feet swift as a deer’s,
set me safe on the heights,(W)
35 Who trained my hands for war,
my arms to bend even a bow of bronze.
36 You have given me your protecting shield,
and your help has made me great.
37 You gave me room to stride;
my feet never stumbled.
38 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
I did not turn back till I destroyed them.
39 I struck them down, and they did not rise;
they fell dead at my feet.
40 You girded me with strength for war;
subdued adversaries at my feet.
41 My foes you put to flight before me;
those who hated me I destroyed.
42 They cried for help, but no one saved them,
cried to the Lord but got no answer.
43 I ground them fine as the dust of the earth;
like mud in the streets I trod them down.
44 You rescued me from the strife of my people;
you made me head over nations.
A people I had not known became my slaves;
45 Foreigners cringed before me;
as soon as they heard of me they obeyed.
46 Their courage failed;
they came trembling from their fortresses.
47 The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock!
Exalted be God, the rock of my salvation.
48 O God who granted me vindication,
subdued peoples under me,
49 and helped me escape from my enemies,
Truly you have exalted me above my adversaries,
from the violent you have rescued me.
50 Thus I will proclaim you, Lord, among the nations;
I will sing the praises of your name.(X)
51 You have given great victories to your king,
and shown kindness to your anointed,
to David and his posterity forever.
Chapter 23
The Last Words of David.[h] 1 These are the last words of David:
The oracle of David, son of Jesse;
the oracle of the man God raised up,
Anointed of the God of Jacob,
favorite of the Mighty One of Israel.(Y)
2 The spirit of the Lord spoke through me;
his word was on my tongue.(Z)
3 The God of Israel spoke;
of me the Rock of Israel said,
“One who rules over humankind with justice,
who rules in the fear of God,(AA)
4 Is like the light at sunrise
on a cloudless morning,
making the land’s vegetation glisten after rain.”(AB)
5 Is not my house firm before God?
He has made an eternal covenant with me,
set forth in detail and secured.(AC)
Will he not bring to fruition
all my salvation and my every desire?
6 But the wicked are all like thorns to be cast away;
they cannot be taken up by hand.(AD)
7 One wishing to touch them
must be armed with iron or the shaft of a spear.
They must be utterly consumed by fire.
David’s Warriors. 8 These are the names of David’s warriors.[i] Ishbaal, the son of Hachamoni, chief of the Three. He brandished his spear over eight hundred whom he had slain in a single encounter.(AE) 9 Next to him was Eleazar, the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the Three warriors with David at Ephes-dammim, when they insulted the Philistines who had massed there for battle. The Israelites had retreated,(AF) 10 but he stood there and struck down the Philistines until his hand grew tired from clutching the sword. The Lord brought about a great victory on that day; the army turned back to rejoin Eleazar, but only to strip the slain. 11 Next to him was Shammah, son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had assembled at Lehi, where there was a plot of land full of lentils. The people were fleeing before the Philistines,(AG) 12 but he took his stand in the middle of the plot, kept it safe, and cut down the Philistines. Thus the Lord brought about a great victory. Such deeds as these the Three warriors performed.
13 Three of the Thirty chiefs went down to David in the cave of Adullam during the harvest, while a Philistine clan was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.(AH) 14 David was then in the stronghold, and there was a garrison of Philistines in Bethlehem. 15 Now David had a craving and said, “If only someone would give me a drink of water from the cistern by the gate of Bethlehem!” 16 Thereupon the three warriors broke through the encampment of the Philistines, drew water from the cistern by the gate of Bethlehem, and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it, and instead poured it out[j] to the Lord, 17 saying: “The Lord forbid that I do such a thing! Could I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he refused to drink it.
18 Abishai, the brother of Joab, son of Zeruiah, was the chief of the Thirty; he brandished his spear over three hundred whom he had slain. He made a name among the Thirty, 19 but was more famous than any of the Thirty, becoming their leader. However, he did not attain to the Three.
20 Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, a valiant man of mighty deeds, from Kabzeel, killed the two sons of Ariel of Moab. Also, he went down and killed the lion in the cistern on a snowy day.(AI) 21 He likewise slew an Egyptian, a huge man. The Egyptian carried a spear, but Benaiah came against him with a staff; he wrested the spear from the Egyptian’s hand, and killed him with that spear. 22 Such deeds as these Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, performed; and he made a name among the Thirty warriors 23 but was more famous than any of the Thirty. However, he did not attain to the Three. David put him in charge of his bodyguard.(AJ) 24 Asahel,(AK) brother of Joab, was among the Thirty; Elhanan, son of Dodo, from Bethlehem; 25 Shammah, from En-harod; Elika, from En-harod; 26 Helez, from Beth-pelet; Ira, son of Ikkesh, from Tekoa; 27 Abiezer, from Anathoth; Sibbecai, from Husha;(AL) 28 Zalmon, from Ahoh; Maharai, from Netophah; 29 Heled, son of Baanah, from Netophah; Ittai, son of Ribai, from Gibeah of Benjamin; 30 Benaiah, from Pirathon; Hiddai, from the valley of Gaash; 31 Abibaal, from Beth-arabah; Azmaveth, from Bahurim; 32 Eliahba, from Shaalbon; Jashen the Gunite; Jonathan, 33 son of Shammah the Hararite; Ahiam, son of Sharar the Hararite; 34 Eliphelet, son of Ahasbai, from Beth-maacah; Eliam, son of Ahithophel, from Gilo; 35 Hezrai, from Carmel; Paarai the Arbite; 36 Igal, son of Nathan, from Zobah; Bani the Gadite; 37 Zelek the Ammonite; Naharai, from Beeroth, the armor-bearer of Joab, son of Zeruiah; 38 Ira, from Jattir; Gareb, from Jattir; 39 Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.(AM)
Chapter 24
David’s Census; the Plague. 1 The Lord’s anger against Israel flared again,(AN) and he incited David against them: “Go, take a census of Israel and Judah.” 2 The king therefore said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number.” 3 But Joab replied to the king: “May the Lord your God increase the number of people a hundredfold for my lord the king to see it with his own eyes. But why does it please my lord to do a thing of this kind?” 4 However, the king’s command prevailed over Joab and the leaders of the army, so they left the king’s presence in order to register the people of Israel. 5 Crossing the Jordan, they began near Aroer, south of the city in the wadi, and turned in the direction of Gad toward Jazer. 6 They continued on to Gilead and to the district below Mount Hermon. Then they proceeded to Dan; from there they turned toward Sidon, 7 going to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and ending up in the Negeb of Judah, at Beer-sheba. 8 Thus they toured the whole land, reaching Jerusalem again after nine months and twenty days. 9 Joab then reported the census figures to the king: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in Israel eight hundred thousand, and in Judah five hundred thousand.
10 Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people. David said to the Lord: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done.(AO) Take away, Lord, your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.”[k] 11 When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying: 12 Go, tell David: Thus says the Lord: I am offering you three options; choose one of them, and I will give you that. 13 Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: “Should three years of famine come upon your land; or three months of fleeing from your enemy while he pursues you; or is it to be three days of plague in your land? Now consider well: what answer am I to give to him who sent me?”(AP) 14 David answered Gad: “I am greatly distressed. But let us fall into the hand of God, whose mercy is great, rather than into human hands.” 15 Thus David chose the plague. At the time of the wheat harvest it broke out among the people. The Lord sent plague over Israel from morning until the time appointed, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand of the people died. 16 But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people: Enough now! Stay your hand.(AQ) The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.(AR) 17 When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he said to the Lord: “It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Strike me and my father’s family!”
David Offers Sacrifices. 18 On the same day Gad went to David and said to him, “Go and set up an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.” 19 According to Gad’s word, David went up as the Lord had commanded. 20 Now Araunah looked down and saw the king and his servants coming toward him while he was threshing wheat. So he went out and bowed down before the king, his face to the ground. 21 Then Araunah asked, “Why does my lord the king come to his servant?” David replied, “To buy the threshing floor from you, to build an altar to the Lord, that the plague may be withdrawn from the people.” 22 (AS)But Araunah said to David: “Let my lord the king take it and offer up what is good in his sight. See, here are the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing sledges and the yokes of oxen for wood. 23 All this does Araunah give to the king.” Araunah then said to the king, “May the Lord your God accept your offering.” 24 The king, however, replied to Araunah, “No, I will buy it from you at the proper price, for I cannot sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty silver shekels. 25 Then David built an altar to the Lord there, and sacrificed burnt offerings and communion offerings. The Lord granted relief to the land, and the plague was withdrawn from Israel.
Footnotes
- 22:1–51 This psalm of thanksgiving also appears in the Psalter, with a few small variants, as Ps 18. In both places it is attributed to David. Two main sections can be distinguished. In the first part, after an introductory stanza of praise to God (vv. 2–4), the writer describes the peril he was in (vv. 5–7), and then poetically depicts, under the form of a theophany, God’s intervention in his behalf (vv. 8–20), concluding with an acknowledgment of God’s justice (vv. 21–31). In the second part, God is praised for having prepared the psalmist for war (vv. 32–35), given him victory over his enemies (vv. 36–39), whom he put to flight (vv. 40–43), and bestowed on him dominion over many peoples (vv. 44–46). The entire song ends with an expression of grateful praise (vv. 47–51).
- 22:3 My saving horn: my strong savior. The horn, such as that of an enraged bull, was a symbol of strength; cf. Lk 1:69.
- 22:5–6 Breakers…floods: traditional Old Testament imagery for lethal danger, from which the Lord is uniquely able to rescue; cf. Ps 69:2, 15–16; 89:10–11; Jon 2:3–6.
- 22:7 His temple: his heavenly abode.
- 22:8–10 The Lord’s coming is depicted by means of a storm theophany, including earthquake (vv. 8, 16) and thunderstorm (vv. 9–15); cf. Jgs 5:4–5; Ps 29; 97:2–6; Hb 3.
- 22:11 Mounted on a cherub: in the traditional storm theophany, as here, the Lord appears with thunder, lightning, earthquake, rain, darkness, cloud, and wind. Sometimes these are represented as his retinue; sometimes he is said to ride upon the clouds or “the wings of the wind” (Ps 104:3). The parallelism in v. 11 suggests that the winged creatures called cherubim are imagined as bearing the Lord aloft. In the iconography of the ark of the covenant, the Lord was “enthroned upon the cherubim”; cf. Ex 37:7–9; 1 Sm 4:4; 2 Sm 6:2; 2 Kgs 19:15; Ps 80:2; 99:1.
- 22:26–27 People are treated by God in the same way they treat him and other people.
- 23:1–7 The last words of David: the text of this short composition is difficult in places; it views David’s career in retrospect.
- 23:8–39 There are thirty-seven warriors in all named in this list. First there are the Three warriors most noted for single-handed exploits (vv. 8–12). Then comes the story of a daring adventure by three unnamed members of the larger group of the Thirty (vv. 13–17). Next come the commanders of the king’s bodyguard, Abishai (vv. 18–19) and Benaiah (vv. 20–23), with whom must be counted Asahel (v. 24) and Joab (vv. 18, 24, 37), and finally the group of the Thirty (vv. 24–39).
- 23:16 Poured it out: as a libation.
- 24:10 The narrative supposes that since the people belonged to the Lord rather than to the king, only the Lord should know their exact number. Further, since such an exact numbering of the people would make it possible for the king to exercise centralized power, imposing taxation, conscription, and expropriation upon Israel, the story shares the view of monarchy found in 1 Sm 8:4–18. See also Nm 3:44–51, where census taking requires an apotropaic offering.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.