Study Desk

"In all places where I have walked with all Israel, have I spoken a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people, saying, 'Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?'"'

"I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have eliminated all your enemies from you; and I will make for you a name like the name of the great ones who are on the earth.

"And I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them there, so that they may live in their own place and not tremble with anxiety again; and the wicked will not make them waste away anymore as they did previously,

even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel. And I will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I tell you that the LORD will build a house for you.

"He shall build for Me a house, and I will establish his throne forever.

"This was a small thing in Your eyes, God; but You have spoken of Your servant's house for a great while to come, and have viewed me according to the standard of a person of high degree, LORD God.

"And what one nation on the earth is like Your people Israel, whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for You a name by great and awesome things, by driving out nations from before Your people, whom You redeemed from Egypt?

"Let Your name be established and be great forever, saying, 'The LORD of armies is the God of Israel, a God to Israel; and the house of Your servant David is established before You.'

"For You, my God, have revealed to Your servant that You will build him a house; therefore Your servant has found courage to pray before You.

David took from him a thousand chariots and seven thousand horsemen and twenty thousand foot soldiers, and David hamstrung almost all the chariot horses, but left enough of them for a hundred chariots.

Also from Tibhath and Cun, cities of Hadadezer, David took a very large amount of bronze, with which Solomon made the bronze Sea and the pillars and the bronze utensils.

When the sons of Ammon saw that they had made themselves repulsive to David, Hanun and the sons of Ammon sent a thousand talents of silver to hire for themselves chariots and horsemen from Mesopotamia, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.

David took the crown of their king from his head, and he found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there was a precious stone in it; and it was placed on David's head. And he brought out the spoils of the city, a very great amount.

And there was war with the Philistines again, and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

Again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature who had twenty-four fingers and toes, six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot; and he also was descended from the giants.

But Joab said, "May the LORD add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! My lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"

three years of famine, or three months to be swept away before your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD: a plague in the land, and the angel of the LORD destroying throughout the territory of Israel.' Now, therefore, consider what answer I shall bring back to Him who sent me."

So the LORD sent a plague on Israel; seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

And David said to God, "Is it not I who commanded to count the people? Indeed, I am the one who has sinned and acted very wickedly, but these sheep, what have they done? LORD, my God, just let Your hand be against me and my father's household, and not against Your people as a plague."

Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the site of this threshing floor, so that I may build on it an altar to the LORD; you shall give it to me for the full price, so that the plague may be brought to a halt from the people."