The Living Bible (106 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
These are the last words of David:
“David, the son of Jesse, speaks.
David, the man to whom God gave such wonderful success;
David, the anointed of the God of Jacob;
David, sweet psalmist of Israel:
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The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me,
And his word was on my tongue.
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The Rock of Israel said to me:
‘One shall come who rules righteously,
Who rules in the fear of God.
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He shall be as the light of the morning;
A cloudless sunrise
When the tender grass
Springs forth upon the earth;
As sunshine after rain.’
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And it is my family
He has chosen!
Yes, God has made
An everlasting covenant with me;
His agreement is eternal, final, sealed.
He will constantly look after
My safety and success.
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But the godless are as thorns to be thrown away,
For they tear the hand that touches them.
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One must be armed to chop them down;
They shall be burned.”
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These are the names of the Top Three—the most heroic men in David’s army: the first was Josheb-basshebeth from Tahchemon, known also as Adino, the Eznite. He once killed eight hundred men in one battle.
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Next in rank was Eleazar, the son of Dodo and grandson of Ahohi. He was one of the three men who, with David, held back the Philistines that time when the rest of the Israeli army fled.
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He killed the Philistines until his hand was too tired to hold his sword; and the Lord gave him a great victory. (The rest of the army did not return until it was time to collect the loot!)
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After him was Shammah, the son of Agee from Harar. Once during a Philistine attack, when all his men deserted him and fled, he stood alone at the center of a field of lentils and beat back the Philistines; and God gave him a great victory.
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One time when David was living in the cave of Adullam and the invading Philistines were at the valley of Rephaim, three of the Thirty—the top-ranking officers of the Israeli army—went down at harvest time to visit him.
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David was in the stronghold at the time, for Philistine marauders had occupied the nearby city of Bethlehem.
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David remarked, “How thirsty I am for some of that good water in the city well!” (The well was near the city gate.)
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So the three men broke through the Philistine ranks and drew water from the well and brought it to David. But he refused to drink it! Instead, he poured it out before the Lord.
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“No, my God,” he exclaimed, “I cannot do it! This is the blood of these men who have risked their lives.”
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Of those three men, Abishai, the brother of Joab (son of Zeruiah), was the greatest. Once he took on three hundred of the enemy single-handed and killed them all. It was by such feats that he earned a reputation equal to the Three, though he was not actually one of them. But he was the greatest of the Thirty—the top-ranking officers of the army—and was their leader.
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There was also Benaiah (son of Jehoiada), a heroic soldier from Kabzeel. Benaiah killed two giants,
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sons of Ariel of Moab. Another time he went down into a pit and, despite the slippery snow on the ground, took on a lion that was caught there and killed it.
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Another time, armed only with a staff, he killed an Egyptian warrior who was armed with a spear; he wrenched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with it.
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These were some of the deeds that gave Benaiah almost as much renown as the Top Three.
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He was one of the greatest of the Thirty, but was not actually one of the Top Three. And David made him chief of his bodyguard.
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Asahel, the brother of Joab, was also one of the Thirty. Others were:
Elhanan (son of Dodo) from Bethlehem;
Shammah from Harod;
Elika from Harod;
Helez from Palti;
Ira (son of Ikkesh) from Tekoa;
Abiezer from Anathoth;
Mebunnai from Hushath;
Zalmon from Ahoh;
Maharai from Netophah;
Heleb (son of Baanah) from Netophah;
Ittai (son of Ribai) from Gibeah, of the tribe of Benjamin;
Benaiah of Pirathon;
Hiddai from the brooks of Gaash;
Abi-albon from Arbath;
Azmaveth from Bahurim;
Eliahba from Shaalbon;
The sons of Jashen;
Jonathan;
Shammah from Harar;
Ahiam (the son of Sharar) from Harar;
Eliphelet (son of Ahasbai) from Maacah;
Eliam (the son of Ahithophel) from Gilo;
Hezro from Carmel;
Paarai from Arba;
Igal (son of Nathan) from Zobah;
Bani from Gad;
Zelek from Ammon;
Naharai from Beeroth, the armor bearer of Joab (son of Zeruiah);
Ira from Ithra;
Gareb from Ithra;
Uriah the Hittite—thirty-seven in all.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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But the king’s command overcame Joab’s remonstrance; so Joab and the other army officers went out to count the people of Israel.
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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;
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then they went to Gilead in the land of Tahtim-hodshi and to Dan-jaan and around to Sidon;
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and then to the stronghold of Tyre, and all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and south to Judah as far as Beersheba.
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Having gone through the entire land, they completed their task in nine months and twenty days.
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And Joab reported the number of the people to the king—800,000 men of conscription age in Israel and 500,000 in Judah.
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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.”
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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,
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“Tell David that I will give him three choices.”
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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.”
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“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.”
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So the Lord sent a plague upon Israel that morning, and it lasted for three days; and seventy thousand men died throughout the nation.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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So David went to do what the Lord had commanded him.
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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.
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“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.”
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“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.
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I will give it all to you, and may the Lord God accept your sacrifice.”
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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
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for the threshing floor and the oxen.
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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.