David and Ziba

¹When David had gone a little beyond the top of the hill, he was suddenly met by Ziba, the servant of Mephibosheth, who had with him a couple of donkeys loaded with two hundred loaves of bread, a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred bunches of fresh fruit, and a leather bag full of wine.

²King David asked him, “What are you going to do with all that?” Ziba answered, “The donkeys are for Your Majesty's family to ride, the bread and the fruit are for the men to eat, and the wine is for them to drink when they get tired in the wilderness.”

³“Where is Mephibosheth, the grandson of your master Saul?” the king asked him. “He is staying in Jerusalem,” Ziba answered, “because he is convinced that the Israelites will now restore to him the kingdom of his grandfather Saul.”

⁴The king said to Ziba, “Everything that belonged to Mephibosheth is yours.” “I am your servant,” Ziba replied. “May I always please Your Majesty!”

David and Shimei

⁵When King David arrived at Bahurim, one of Saul's relatives, Shimei son of Gera, came out to meet him, cursing him as he came.

⁶Shimei started throwing stones at David and his officials, even though David was surrounded by his men and his bodyguards.

⁷Shimei cursed him and said, “Get out! Get out! Murderer! Criminal!

⁸You took Saul's kingdom, and now the Lord is punishing you for murdering so many of Saul's family. The Lord has given the kingdom to your son Absalom, and you are ruined, you murderer!”

⁹Abishai, whose mother was Zeruiah, said to the king, “Your Majesty, why do you let this dog curse you? Let me go over there and cut off his head!”

¹⁰“This is none of your business,” the king said to Abishai and his brother Joab. “If he curses me because the Lord told him to, who has the right to ask why he does it?”

¹¹And David said to Abishai and to all his officials, “My own son is trying to kill me; so why should you be surprised at this Benjaminite? The Lord told him to curse; so leave him alone and let him do it.

¹²Perhaps the Lord will notice my misery and give me some blessings to take the place of his curse.”

¹³So David and his men continued along the road. Shimei kept up with them, walking on the hillside; he was cursing and throwing stones and dirt at them as he went.

¹⁴The king and all his men were worn out when they reached the Jordan, and there they rested.

Absalom in Jerusalem

¹⁵Absalom and all the Israelites with him entered Jerusalem, and Ahithophel was with them.

¹⁶When Hushai, David's trusted friend, met Absalom, he shouted, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

¹⁷“What has happened to your loyalty to your friend David?” Absalom asked him. “Why didn't you go with him?”

¹⁸Hushai answered, “How could I? I am for the one chosen by the Lord, by these people, and by all the Israelites. I will stay with you.

¹⁹After all, whom should I serve, if not my master's son? As I served your father, so now I will serve you.”

²⁰Then Absalom turned to Ahithophel and said, “Now that we are here, what do you advise us to do?”

²¹Ahithophel answered, “Go and have intercourse with your father's concubines whom he left behind to take care of the palace. Then everyone in Israel will know that your father regards you as his enemy, and your followers will be greatly encouraged.”

²²So they set up a tent for Absalom on the palace roof, and in the sight of everyone Absalom went in and had intercourse with his father's concubines.

²³Any advice that Ahithophel gave in those days was accepted as though it were the very word of God; both David and Absalom followed it.

David Takes a Census

¹Satan wanted to bring trouble on the people of Israel, so he made David decide to take a census.

²David gave orders to Joab and the other officers, “Go through Israel, from one end of the country to the other, and count the people. I want to know how many there are.”

³Joab answered, “May the Lord make the people of Israel a hundred times more numerous than they are now! Your Majesty, they are all your servants. Why do you want to do this and make the whole nation guilty?”

⁴But the king made Joab obey the order. Joab went out, traveled through the whole country of Israel, and then returned to Jerusalem.

⁵He reported to King David the total number of men capable of military service: 1,100,000 in Israel and 470,000 in Judah.

⁶Because Joab disapproved of the king's command, he did not take any census of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin.

⁷God was displeased with what had been done, so he punished Israel.

⁸David said to God, “I have committed a terrible sin in doing this! Please forgive me. I have acted foolishly.”

⁹Then the Lord said to Gad, David's prophet,

¹⁰“Go and tell David that I am giving him three choices. I will do whichever he chooses.”

¹¹Gad went to David, told him what the Lord had said, and asked, “Which is it to be?

¹²Three years of famine? Or three months of running away from the armies of your enemies? Or three days during which the Lord attacks you with his sword and sends an epidemic on your land, using his angel to bring death throughout Israel? What answer shall I give the Lord?”

¹³David replied to Gad, “I am in a desperate situation! But I don't want to be punished by people. Let the Lord himself be the one to punish me, because he is merciful.”

¹⁴So the Lord sent an epidemic on the people of Israel, and seventy thousand of them died.

¹⁵Then he sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem, but he changed his mind and said to the angel, “Stop! That's enough!” The angel was standing by the threshing place of Araunah, a Jebusite.

¹⁶David saw the angel standing in midair, holding his sword in his hand, ready to destroy Jerusalem. Then David and the leaders of the people—all of whom were wearing sackcloth—bowed low, with their faces touching the ground.

¹⁷David prayed, “O God, I am the one who did wrong. I am the one who ordered the census. What have these poor people done? Lord, my God, punish me and my family, and spare your people.”

¹⁸The angel of the Lord told Gad to command David to go and build an altar to the Lord at Araunah's threshing place.

¹⁹David obeyed the Lord's command and went, as Gad had told him to.

²⁰There at the threshing place Araunah and his four sons were threshing wheat, and when they saw the angel, the sons ran and hid.

²¹As soon as Araunah saw King David approaching, he left the threshing place and bowed low, with his face touching the ground.

²²David said to him, “Sell me your threshing place, so that I can build an altar to the Lord, to stop the epidemic. I'll give you the full price.”

²³“Take it, Your Majesty,” Araunah said, “and do whatever you wish. Here are these oxen to burn as an offering on the altar, and here are the threshing boards to use as fuel, and wheat to give as an offering. I give it all to you.”

²⁴But the king answered, “No, I will pay you the full price. I will not give as an offering to the Lord something that belongs to you, something that costs me nothing.”

²⁵And he paid Araunah six hundred gold coins for the threshing place.

²⁶He built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He prayed, and the Lord answered him by sending fire from heaven to burn the sacrifices on the altar.

²⁷The Lord told the angel to put his sword away, and the angel obeyed.

²⁸David saw by this that the Lord had answered his prayer, so he offered sacrifices on the altar at Araunah's threshing place.

²⁹The Tent of the Lord's presence which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar on which sacrifices were burned were still at the place of worship at Gibeon at this time;

³⁰but David was not able to go there to worship God, because he was afraid of the sword of the Lord's angel.

What God Requires

¹Lord, who may enter your Temple? Who may worship on Zion, your sacred hill?

²Those who obey God in everything and always do what is right, whose words are true and sincere,

³and who do not slander others. They do no wrong to their friends nor spread rumors about their neighbors.

⁴They despise those whom God rejects, but honor those who obey the Lord. They always do what they promise, no matter how much it may cost.

⁵They make loans without charging interest and cannot be bribed to testify against the innocent. Whoever does these things will always be secure.