David’s Song of Deliverance

22 And David spoke zto the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. 2 aHe said,

b“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

3  cmy1 God, my rock, din whom I take refuge,

emy shield, and fthe horn of my salvation,

gmy stronghold and hmy refuge,

my savior; you save me from violence.

4  I call upon the Lord, who is iworthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

5  j“For the waves of death encompassed me,

the torrents of destruction assailed me;2

6  kthe cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

7  l“In my distress I called upon the Lord;

to my God I called.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry mcame to his ears.

8  “Then nthe earth reeled and rocked;

othe foundations of the heavens trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

9  Smoke went up from his nostrils,3

and devouring fire from his mouth;

pglowing coals flamed forth from him.

10  qHe bowed the heavens and rcame down;

sthick darkness was under his feet.

11  He rode on a cherub and flew;

he was seen on tthe wings of the wind.

12  He made sdarkness around him uhis canopy,

thick clouds, a gathering of water.

13  Out of the brightness before him

vcoals of fire flamed forth.

14  wThe Lord thundered from heaven,

and the Most High uttered his voice.

15  And he sent out xarrows and scattered them;

lightning, and routed them.

16  Then the channels of the sea were seen;

the foundations of the world were laid bare,

at the rebuke of the Lord,

at the yblast of the breath of his nostrils.

17  z“He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

18  He rescued me from my strong enemy,

from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

19  They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the Lord was my support.

20  aHe brought me out into a broad place;

he rescued me, because bhe delighted in me.

21  “The Lord cdealt with me according to my righteousness;

according to the dcleanness of my hands he rewarded me.

22  eFor I have kept the ways of the Lord

and have not wickedly departed from my God.

23  fFor all his rules were before me,

and from his statutes I did not turn aside.

24  I was gblameless before him,

and I kept myself from guilt.

25  dAnd the Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness,

according to my cleanness in his sight.

26  h“With the merciful you show yourself merciful;

with the gblameless man you show yourself blameless;

27  with the purified you deal purely,

and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.

28  iYou save a humble people,

jbut your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.

29  kFor you are my lamp, O Lord,

and my God lightens my darkness.

30  For by you I can run against a troop,

and by my God I can leap over a wall.

31  This God—lhis way is perfect;

the mword of the Lord proves true;

he is na shield for all those who take refuge in him.

32  “For who is God, but the Lord?

oAnd who is a rock, except our God?

33  This God is my pstrong refuge

and has made my4 way blameless.5

34  qHe made my feet like the feet of a deer

and set me secure ron the heights.

35  sHe trains my hands for war,

so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

36  You have given me the shield of your salvation,

and your gentleness made me great.

37  tYou gave a wide place for my steps under me,

and my feet6 did not slip;

38  I pursued my enemies and destroyed them,

and did not turn back until they were consumed.

39  I consumed them; I thrust them through, so that they did not rise;

they fell uunder my feet.

40  For you equipped me with strength for the battle;

you made vthose who rise against me sink under me.

41  You wmade my enemies turn their backs to me,7

those who hated me, and I destroyed them.

42  They looked, but there was none to save;

they cried to the Lord, but xhe did not answer them.

43  I beat them fine yas the dust of the earth;

I crushed them and stamped them down zlike the mire of the streets.

44  “You delivered me from strife with my people;8

you kept me as the head of athe nations;

bpeople whom I had not known served me.

45  Foreigners came cringing to me;

as soon as they heard of me, they obeyed me.

46  Foreigners lost heart

and came trembling9 cout of their fortresses.

47  “The Lord lives, and blessed be my rock,

and exalted be dmy God, ethe rock of my salvation,

48  the God who gave me vengeance

and fbrought down peoples under me,

49  who brought me out from my enemies;

you exalted me above vthose who rose against me;

you delivered me from gmen of violence.

50  h“For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,

and sing praises to your name.

51  iGreat salvation he brings10 to his king,

and shows steadfast love to jhis anointed,

to David and his offspring kforever.”

The Last Words of David

23 Now these are the last words of David:

The oracle of David, the son of Jesse,

the oracle of lthe man who was raised on high,

jthe anointed of the God of Jacob,

the sweet psalmist of Israel:1

2  m“The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me;

his word is on my tongue.

3  The God of Israel has spoken;

nthe Rock of Israel has said to me:

When one rules justly over men,

ruling oin the fear of God,

4  he pdawns on them like the morning light,

like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning,

like rain2 that makes grass to sprout from the earth.

5  “For does not my house stand so with God?

qFor he has made with me an everlasting covenant,

ordered in all things and secure.

For will he not cause to prosper

all my help and my desire?

6  But worthless men3 are all like thorns that are thrown away,

for they cannot be taken with the hand;

7  but the man who touches them

arms himself with iron and the shaft of a spear,

and they are utterly consumed with fire.”4

David’s Mighty Men

8 rThese are the names of the mighty men whom David had: sJosheb-basshebeth a Tahchemonite; he was chief of the three.5 He wielded his spear6 against eight hundred whom he killed at one time.

9 And next to him among the three mighty men was Eleazar the son of tDodo, son of uAhohi. He was with David when they defied the Philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel withdrew. 10 He rose and struck down the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clung to the sword. And the Lord brought about a great victory that day, and the men returned after him only to strip the slain.

11 And next to him was Shammah, the son of Agee the vHararite. The Philistines gathered together at Lehi,7 where there was a plot of ground full of lentils, and the men fled from the Philistines. 12 But he took his stand in the midst of the plot and defended it and struck down the Philistines, and the Lord worked a great victory.

13 And three of the thirty chief men went down and came about harvest time to David at the wcave of Adullam, when a band of Philistines was encamped xin the Valley of Rephaim. 14 David was then yin the stronghold, and zthe garrison of the Philistines was then at Bethlehem. 15 And David said longingly, “Oh, that someone would give me water to drink from the well of Bethlehem that is by the gate!” 16 Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and carried and brought it to David. But he would not drink of it. He poured it out to the Lord 17 and said, “Far be it from me, O Lord, that I should do this. Shall I drink athe blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” Therefore he would not drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

18 Now Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief of the thirty.8 And he wielded his spear against three hundred men9 and killed them and won a name beside the three. 19 He was the most renowned of the thirty10 and became their commander, but he did not attain to bthe three.

20 And cBenaiah the son of Jehoiada was a valiant man11 of dKabzeel, a doer of great deeds. He struck down two ariels12 of Moab. He also went down and struck down a lion in a pit on a day when snow had fallen. 21 And he struck down an Egyptian, a handsome man. The Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but Benaiah went down to him with a staff and snatched the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. 22 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and won a name beside the three mighty men. 23 He was renowned among the thirty, but he did not attain to the three. And David set him over his bodyguard.

24 eAsahel the brother of Joab was one of the thirty; Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem, 25 fShammah of Harod, Elika of Harod, 26 Helez the Paltite, Ira the son of Ikkesh gof Tekoa, 27 Abiezer hof Anathoth, Mebunnai ithe Hushathite, 28 Zalmon jthe Ahohite, Maharai kof Netophah, 29 Heleb the son of Baanah kof Netophah, Ittai the son of Ribai of lGibeah of the people of Benjamin, 30 Benaiah mof Pirathon, Hiddai of the brooks of nGaash, 31 Abi-albon the Arbathite, Azmaveth of oBahurim, 32 Eliahba the Shaalbonite, the sons of Jashen, Jonathan, 33 pShammah the Hararite, Ahiam the son of Sharar the Hararite, 34 Eliphelet the son of Ahasbai qof Maacah, rEliam the son of sAhithophel the Gilonite, 35 Hezro13 tof Carmel, Paarai the Arbite, 36 Igal the son of Nathan uof Zobah, Bani the Gadite, 37 Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai vof Beeroth, the armor-bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah, 38 wIra the xIthrite, Gareb the Ithrite, 39 yUriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.