Today's Reading

¹It happened, at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that Joab led forth the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

²David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set on David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.

³He brought forth the people who were therein, and cut them with saws, and with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

⁴It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

⁵There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

⁶There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.

⁷When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed him.

⁸These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

¹Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

²David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, "Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them."

³Joab said, "May the Lord make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"

⁴Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.

⁶But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

⁷God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

⁸David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

⁹The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,

¹⁰"Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"

¹¹So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Take your choice:

¹²either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.'"

¹³David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."

¹⁴So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

¹⁵God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, the Lord saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁶David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

¹⁷David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."

¹⁸Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up, and raise an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

¹⁹David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.

²⁰Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

²¹As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

²²Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to the Lord. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."

²³Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."

²⁴King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."

²⁵So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.

²⁶David built an altar to the Lord there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

²⁷The Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.

²⁸At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

²⁹For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

³⁰But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

¹Then David said, "This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel."

²David gave orders to gather together the foreigners who were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to cut worked stones to build God's house.

³David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the couplings; and brass in abundance without weight;

⁴and cedar trees without number: for the Sidonians and they of Tyre brought cedar trees in abundance to David.

⁵David said, "Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, of fame and of glory throughout all countries. I will therefore make preparation for it." So David prepared abundantly before his death.

⁶Then he called for Solomon his son, and commanded him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel.

⁷David said to Solomon his son, "As for me, it was in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God.

⁸But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'You have shed blood abundantly, and have made great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

⁹Behold, a son shall be born to you, who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his enemies all around; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days.

¹⁰He shall build a house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.'

¹¹Now, my son, may the Lord be with you and prosper you, and build the house of the Lord your God, as he has spoken concerning you.

¹²May the Lord give you discretion and understanding, and put you in charge of Israel; that so you may keep the law of the Lord your God.

¹³Then you will prosper, if you observe to do the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord gave Moses concerning Israel. Be strong, and courageous. Do not be afraid, neither be dismayed.

¹⁴Now, behold, in my affliction I have prepared for the house of the Lord one hundred thousand talents of gold, one million talents of silver, and brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance. I have also prepared timber and stone; and you may add to them.

¹⁵There are also workmen with you in abundance, cutters and workers of stone and timber, and all kinds of men who are skillful in every kind of work:

¹⁶of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise and be doing, and may the Lord be with you."

¹⁷David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,

¹⁸"Isn't the Lord your God with you? Hasn't he given you rest on every side? For he has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hand; and the land is subdued before the Lord, and before his people.

¹⁹Now set your heart and your soul to seek after the Lord your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord."

¹Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision?

²Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God.

³For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God?

⁴May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, "That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment."

⁵But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.

⁶May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

⁷For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

⁸Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), "Let us do evil, that good may come?" Those who say so are justly condemned.

⁹What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin.

¹⁰As it is written, "There is no one righteous; no, not one.

¹¹There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God.

¹²They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not, so much as one."

¹³"Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit." "The poison of vipers is under their lips;"

¹⁴"Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."

¹⁵"Their feet are swift to shed blood.

¹⁶Destruction and misery are in their ways.

¹⁷The way of peace, they have not known."

¹⁸"There is no fear of God before their eyes."

¹⁹Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.

²⁰Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

²¹But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets;

²²even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all those who believe. For there is no distinction,

²³for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

²⁴being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;

²⁵whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God's forbearance;

²⁶to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus.

²⁷Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what manner of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

²⁸We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

²⁹Or is God the God of Jews only? Is not he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

³⁰since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.

³¹Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

¹ In my distress, I cried to the Lord. He answered me.

²Deliver my soul, Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue.

³What will be given to you, and what will be done more to you, you deceitful tongue?

⁴Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals of juniper.

⁵Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

⁶My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace.

⁷I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.

¹Do not boast about tomorrow; for you do not know what a day may bring forth.

²Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy, and sand is a burden; but a fool's provocation is heavier than both.

⁴Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before jealousy?

⁵Better is open rebuke than hidden love.

⁶Faithful are the wounds of a friend; although the kisses of an enemy are profuse.

⁷A full soul loathes a honeycomb; but to a hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.

⁸As a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home.

⁹Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart; so does earnest counsel from a man's friend.

¹⁰Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. Do not go to your brother's house in the day of your disaster: better is a neighbor who is near than a distant brother.

¹¹Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart, then I can answer my tormentor.

¹²A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it.

¹³Take his garment when he puts up collateral for a stranger. Hold it for a wayward woman!

¹⁴He who blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse by him.

¹⁵A continual dropping on a rainy day and a contentious wife are alike:

¹⁶restraining her is like restraining the wind, or like grasping oil in his right hand.

¹⁷Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens his friend's countenance.

¹⁸Whoever tends the fig tree shall eat its fruit. He who looks after his master shall be honored.

¹⁹As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.

²⁰Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied; and a man's eyes are never satisfied.

²¹The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.

²²Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.

²³Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds:

²⁴for riches are not forever, nor does even the crown endure to all generations.

²⁵The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in.

²⁶The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field.

²⁷There will be plenty of goats' milk for your food, for your family's food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.