Study Desk

And King David called the Gabaonites, and said to them; �(now the Gabaonites are not the children of Israel, but are of the remnant of the Amorite, and the children of Israel had sworn to them: but Saul sought to smite them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Juda.)

And the Gabaonites said to him, We have no question about silver or gold with Saul and with his house; and there is no man for us to put to death in Israel.

And he said, What say ye? speak, and I will do it for you. And they said to the king, The man who would have made an end of us, and persecuted us, who plotted against us to destroy us, let us utterly destroy him, so that he shall have no standing in all the coasts of Israel.

Let one give us seven men of his sons, and let us hang them up in the sun to the Lord in Gabaon of Saul, as chosen out for the Lord. And the king said, I will give them.

And Respha the daughter of Aia took sackcloth, and fixed it for herself on the rock in the beginning of barley harvest, until water dropped upon them out of heaven: and she did not suffer the birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night.

And David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the men of the sons of Jabis Galaad, who stole them from the street of Baethsan; for the Philistines set them there in the day in which the Philistines smote Saul in Gelbue.

For the troubles of death compassed me, the floods of iniquity amazed me:

He delivered me from my strong enemies, from them that hated me, for they were stronger than I.

For all his judgments and his ordinances were before me: I departed not from them.

For thou, Lord, art my lamp, and the Lord shall shine forth to me in my darkness.

For by thee shall I run as a girded man, and by my God shall I leap over a wall.

As for the Mighty One, his way is blameless: the word of the Lord is strong and tried in the fire: he is a protector to all that put their trust in him.

so as to make room under me for my going, and my legs did not totter.

And thou shalt strengthen me with power for the war; thou shalt cause them that rise up against me to bow down under me.

He magnifies the salvation of his king, and works mercy for his anointed, even for David and for his seed for ever.

For my house is not so with the Mighty One: for he has made an everlasting covenant with me, ready, guarded at every time; for all my salvation and all my desire is, that the wicked should not flourish.

All these are as a thorn thrust forth, for they shall not be taken with the hand,

And the heart of David smote him after he had numbered the people; and David said to the Lord, I have sinned grievously, O Lord, in what I have now done: remove, I pray thee, the iniquity of thy servant, for I have been exceedingly foolish.

And Gad went in to David, and told him, and said to him, Choose one of these things to befall thee, whether there shall come upon thee for three years famine in thy land; or that thou shouldest flee three months before thine enemies, and they should pursue thee; or that there should be for three days mortality in thy land. Now then decide, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And David said to Gad, On every side I am much straitened: let me fall now into the hands of the Lord, for his compassions are very many; and let me not fall into the hands of man.