And there was a famine in the days of David for three years successively: and David consulted the oracle of the Lord. And the Lord said: It is for Saul, and his bloody house, because he slew the Gabaonites.

²Then the king, calling for the Gabaonites, said to them: (Now the Gabaonites were not of the children of Israel, but the remains of the Amorrhites: and the children of Israel had sworn to them, and Saul sought to slay them out of zeal, as it were for the children of Israel and Juda:)

³David therefore said to the Gabaonites: What shall I do for you? and what shall be the atonement for you, that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?

⁴And the Gabaonites said to him: We have no contest about silver and gold, but against Saul and against his house: neither do we desire that any man be slain of Israel. And the king said to them: What will you then that I should do for you?

⁵And they said to the king: The man that crushed us and oppressed us unjustly, we must destroy in such manner that there be not so much as one left of his stock in all the coasts of Israel.

⁶Let seven men of his children be delivered unto us, that we may crucify them to the Lord in Gabaa of Saul, once the chosen of the Lord. And the king said: I will give them.

⁷And the king spared Miphiboseth the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the oath of the Lord, that had been between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.

⁸So the king took the two sons of Respha the daughter of Aia, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni, and Miphiboseth: and the five sons of Michol the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Hadriel the son of Berzellai, that was of Molathi:

⁹And gave them into the hands of the Gabaonites: and they crucified them on a hill before the Lord: and these seven died together in the first days of the harvest, when the barley began to be reaped.

¹⁰And Respha the daughter of Aia took haircloth, and spread it under her upon the rock from the beginning of the harvest, till water dropped upon them out of heaven: and suffered neither the birds to tear them by day, nor the beasts by night.

¹¹And it was told David, what Respha the daughter of Aia, the concubine of Saul, had done.

¹²And David went, and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabes Galaad, who had stolen them from the street of Bethsan, where the Philistines had hanged them when they had slain Saul in Gelboe.

¹³And he brought from thence the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, and they gathered up the bones of them that were crucified,

¹⁴And they buried them with the bones of Saul, and of Jonathan his son in the land of Benjamin, in the side, in the sepulchre of Cis his father: and they did all that the king had commanded, and God shewed mercy again to the land after these things.

¹⁵And the Philistines made war again against Israel, and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. And David growing faint,

¹⁶Jesbibenob, who was of the race of Arapha, the iron of whose spear weighed three hundred ounces, being girded with a new sword, attempted to kill David.

¹⁷And Abisai the son of Sarvia rescued him, and striking the Philistine killed him. Then David’s men swore unto him saying: Thou shalt go no more out with us to battle, lest thou put out the lamp of Israel.

¹⁸There was also a second battle in Gob against the Philistines: then Sobochai of Husathi slew Saph of the race of Arapha of the family of the giants.

¹⁹And there was a third battle in Gob against the Philistines, in which Adeodatus the son of the Forrest an embroiderer of Bethlehem slew Goliath the Gethite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

²⁰A fourth battle was in Geth: where there was a man of great stature, that had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, four and twenty in all, and he was of the race of Arapha.

²¹And he reproached Israel: and Jonathan the son of Samae the brother of David slew him.

²²These four were born of Arapha in Geth, and they fell by the hand of David, and of his servants.

Chapter 22

And David spoke to the Lord the words of this canticle, in the day that the Lord delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies, and out of the hand of Saul,

²And he said: The Lord is my rock, and my strength, and my saviour.

³God is my strong one, in him will I trust: my shield, and the horn of my salvation: he lifteth me up, and is my refuge: my saviour, thou wilt deliver me from iniquity.

⁴I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised: and I shall be saved from my enemies.

⁵For the pangs of death have surrounded me: the floods of Belial have made me afraid.

⁶The cords of hell compassed me: the snares of death prevented me.

⁷In my distress I will call upon the Lord, and I will cry to my God: and he will hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry shall come to his ears.

⁸The earth shook and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were moved, and shaken, because he was angry with them.

⁹A smoke went up from his nostrils, and a devouring fire out of his mouth: coals were kindled by it.

¹⁰He bowed the heavens, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.

¹¹And he rode upon the cherubims, and flew: and slid upon the wings of the wind.

¹²He made darkness a covering round about him: dropping waters out of the clouds of the heavens.

¹³By the brightness before him, the coals of fire were kindled.

¹⁴The Lord shall thunder from heaven: and the most high shall give forth his voice.

¹⁵He shot arrows and scattered them: lightning, and consumed them.

¹⁶And the overflowings of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid open at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of the spirit of his wrath.

¹⁷He sent from on high, and took me, and drew me out of many waters.

¹⁸He delivered me from my most mighty enemy, and from them that hated me: for they were too strong for me.

¹⁹He prevented me in the day of my affliction, and the Lord became my stay.

²⁰And he brought me forth into a large place, he delivered me, because I pleased him.

²¹The Lord will reward me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands he will render to me.

²²Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

²³For all his judgments are in my sight: and his precepts I have not removed from me.

²⁴And I shall be perfect with him: and shall keep myself from my iniquity.

²⁵And the Lord will recompense me according to my justice: and according to the cleanness of my hands in the sight of his eyes.

²⁶With the holy one thou wilt be holy: and with the valiant perfect.

²⁷With the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.

²⁸And the poor people thou wilt save: and with thy eyes thou shalt humble the haughty.

²⁹For thou art my lamp O Lord: and thou, O Lord, wilt enlighten my darkness.

³⁰For in thee I will run girded: in my God I will leap over the wall.

³¹God, his way is immaculate, the word of the Lord is tried by fire: he is the shield of all that trust in him.

³²Who is God but the Lord: and who is strong but our God?

³³God who hath girded me with strength, and made my way perfect.

³⁴Making my feet like the feet of harts, and setting me upon my high places.

³⁵He teacheth my hands to war: and maketh my arms like a bow of brass.

³⁶Thou hast given me the shield of my salvation: and thy mildness hath multiplied me.

³⁷Thou shalt enlarge my steps under me: and my ankles shall not fail.

³⁸I will pursue after my enemies, and crush them: and will not return again till I consume them.

³⁹I will consume them and break them in pieces, so that they shall not rise: they shall fall under my feet.

⁴⁰Thou hast girded me with strength to battle: thou hast made them that resisted me to bow under me.

⁴¹My enemies thou hast made to turn their back to me: them that hated me, and I shall destroy them.

⁴²They shall cry, and there shall be none to save: to the Lord, and he shall not hear them.

⁴³I shall beat them as small as the dust of the earth: I shall crush them and spread them abroad like the mire of the streets.

⁴⁴Thou wilt save me from the contradictions of my people: thou wilt keep me to be the head of the Gentiles: the people which I know not, shall serve me,

⁴⁵The sons of the stranger will resist me, at the hearing of the ear they will obey me.

⁴⁶The strangers are melted away, and shall be straitened in their distresses.

⁴⁷The Lord liveth, and my God is blessed: and the strong God of my salvation shall be exalted:

⁴⁸God who giveth me revenge, and bringest down people under me,

⁴⁹Who bringest me forth from my enemies, and liftest me up from them that resist me: from the wicked man thou shalt deliver me.

⁵⁰Therefore will I give thanks to thee, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name.

⁵¹Giving great salvation to his king, and shewing mercy to David his anointed, and to his seed for ever.

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