In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried to my God: and he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears.

And the earth will shake and tremble, The foundation of the heavens will be disturbed, And they will shake, for it kindled to him.

Smoke poured out of his nostrils, and fire from his mouth kindling coals to flame by it.

He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.

And He bringeth me out to a large place, He draweth me out for He delighted in me.

The LORD rewarded me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

For I have kept the ways of the Lord
and have not turned from my God to wickedness.

For all His judgments are before me, As to His statutes, I turn not from them.

And I will be blameless to him, and I shall be washed from mine iniquity.

Therefore the LORD hath recompensed me according to my righteousness; according to my cleanness in his eye sight.

On him who has mercy you will have mercy; to the upright you will be upright;

“With the pure You show Yourself pure,
With the perverted You show Yourself astute.

And the poor people Thou dost save, And Thine eyes on the high causest to fall.

For by thee I run upon a troop; By my God do I leap over a wall.

As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him.

GOD, is my fortress of strength, - and shewed to the blameless his way;

Making my feet like hinds, And on my high places causeth me to stand,

He teacheth my hands to war; so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

And Thou givest to me the shield of Thy salvation, And Thy lowliness maketh me great.

You widen a place beneath me for my steps,
and my ankles do not give way.

I pursue my enemies and destroy them;
I do not turn back until they are wiped out.

I wipe them out and crush them,
and they do not rise;
they fall beneath my feet.

For thou hast girded me with strength to battle: them that rose up against me hast thou subdued under me.

And mine enemies didst thou make to turn their backs unto me, And those that hated me I destroyed.

They looked, but there was none to save; even unto the LORD, but he answered them not.

I pulverized them to powder, like the dust of the earth; I crushed them, stomping on them like mud on a street.

Thou also hast delivered me from the strivings of my people, thou hast kept me to be head of the heathen: a people which I knew not shall serve me.

Sons of a stranger feign obedience to me, At the hearing of the ear they hearken to me.

The Lord is living; praise be to my Rock, and let the God of my salvation be honoured:

God -- who is giving vengeance to me, And bringing down peoples under me,

Therefore will I give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among the nations, And will sing psalms to thy name.

He is the tower of salvation for his king: and sheweth mercy to his anointed, unto David, and to his seed for evermore.

The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.

It is as the light of the morning, when the sun comes up, a morning without clouds; making young grass come to life from the earth

Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my desire, although he make it not to grow.

But the ungodly shall be all of them as thorns to be thrust away, Because they cannot be taken with the hand;

And if a man wants to touch them, he must use an iron instrument or the shaft of a spear; then they [are] consumed entirely with fire on the spot."

These are the names of David's men of war: Ishbaal the Hachmonite, chief of the three; his axe was lifted up against eight hundred put to death at one time.

And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away:

He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.

Next to Eleazar was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines were gathered into an army where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the people [of Israel] fled from the Philistines.

And he will stand in the midst of the portion, and he will take it away, and he will strike the rovers: and Jehovah will do a great salvation.

And three of the thirty chief went down, and came to David in the harvest time unto the cave of Adullam: and the troop of the Philistines pitched in the valley of Rephaim.

And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me water to drink of the well of Beth-lehem, which is by the gate!

And the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: nevertheless he would not drink thereof, but poured it out unto the LORD.

And he said, Be it far from me, O LORD, that I should do this: is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives? therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mighty men.

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty. He put to death three hundred with his spear, and he got for himself a name among the thirty.

Was he not most honourable of three? and he was their captain; but he did not attain to the first three.

And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab: he went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow:

And he slew an Egyptian, a goodly man: and the Egyptian had a spear in his hand; but he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.

Benaiah did things like this and gained a reputation comparable to the Three warriors.

He was more honourable than the thirty, but he attained not to the first three. And David set him over his guard.

Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, armourbearer to Joab the son of Zeruiah,

And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go, number Israel and Judah.

For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people.

And Joab said to the king, May Jehovah thy God even add to the people, how many soever they be, a hundredfold, and that the eyes of my lord the king may see it; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?

Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel.

They crossed over the Jordan and camped in Aroer, on the south side of the city which is in the middle of the river valley [of the Arnon] toward Gad, and on toward Jazer.

Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon,

And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.

So when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days.

And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people to the king; and there were of Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

And David's heart smote him after he had numbered the people. And David said to Jehovah, I have sinned greatly in what I have done; and now, I beseech thee, Jehovah, put away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly.

And when David arose in the morning, the word of Jehovah came to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,

Go and say unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me.

And David said to Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall, I pray thee, into the hand of Jehovah; for his mercies are great; but let me not fall into the hand of man.

So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.

And when the angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough: stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshingplace of Araunah the Jebusite.

And David spoke to Jehovah when he saw the angel that smote among the people, and said, Behold, it is I that have sinned, and it is I that have committed iniquity; but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, be on me, and on my father's house!

And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshingfloor of Araunah the Jebusite.

And David, according to the saying of Gad, went up as the LORD commanded.

And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him: and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground.

And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people.

And Araunah said to David, Let my lord the king take and offer up that which is good in his sight: see, here are oxen for the burnt-offering, and the threshing-sledges and implements of the oxen for wood.

All these things, O king, doth Araunah give to the king. And Araunah said to the king, Jehovah thy God accept thee.

And the king said to Araunah, No; but I will in any case buy them of thee at a price: neither will I offer up to Jehovah my God burnt-offerings without cost. And David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered up burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. And Jehovah was propitious to the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

Now king David was old and stricken in years; and they covered him with clothes, but he couldn't keep warm.

And his servants said to him, Let there be found for my lord the king a young virgin; and let her stand before the king, and let her cherish him, and let her lie in thy bosom, that my lord the king may get warm.

So they sought for a fair damsel throughout all the coasts of Israel, and found Abishag a Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

And the damsel was very fair, and cherished the king, and ministered to him: but the king knew her not.

Then Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, I will be king: and he prepared him chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.

His father did not rebuke him {at any time} [by] saying, "Why did you do so?" Now he was also very handsome of appearance; she had borne him after Absalom.

But Zadok the priest, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and Nathan the prophet, and Shimei, and Rei, and the mighty men which belonged to David, were not with Adonijah.

Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fattened cattle near the stone of Zoheleth, which is next to En-rogel. He invited all his royal brothers and all the men of Judah, the servants of the king,

but Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah, and the mighty men, and Solomon his brother, he didn't call.

And Nathan spoke to Bathsheba the mother of Solomon, saying, Hast thou not heard that Adonijah the son of Haggith is king, and David our lord does not know it?

Come now, please let me advise you and save your life and the life of your son Solomon.

Go and get thee in to king David, and say to him, Didst not thou, my lord, O king, swear to thy handmaid saying, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne? why then does Adonijah reign?

Then, while you are still talking to the king, I'll come in after you and verify your statement."

And Bathsheba went in to the king into the chamber; and the king was very old; and Abishag the Shunammite ministered to the king.

And Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king. And the king said, What wouldest thou?

And she said to him, My lord, thou hast sworn by Jehovah thy God to thy handmaid, saying, Solomon thy son shall reign after me, and he shall sit on my throne.

But now, behold, Adonijah is [acting as] king; and now [as things stand], my lord the king, you do not know it.

He has slain cattle and fatlings and sheep in abundance, and has called all the sons of the king, and Abiathar the priest, and Joab the captain of the army; but he hasn't called Solomon your servant.

And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are on thee, to declare to them who doth sit on the throne of my lord the king after him;

Otherwise it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers, that I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders.

While she was still talking to the king, Nathan the prophet arrived.