23These are the last words of David, the declaration of David the son of Jesse, and the declaration of the man exalted by the Most High, the anointed one of the God of Jacob and the darling of the songs of Israel. ²“The spirit of Yahweh speaks through me, and his word is upon my tongue. ³The God of Israel said to me, the rock of Israel has spoken; ‘He who rules over mankind rules righteously, in the fear of God. ⁴Like the light of the morning when the sun rises, shining with no clouds, bringing vegetation from the earth apart from rain.’^a ⁵Yet not so is my house with God, for he made an everlasting covenant for me, arranging everything. He has secured all my deliverance, and all my desire he will cause to happen. ⁶But evil persons are like thorns cast aside; all of them, because they cannot be picked up in the hand. ⁷And 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.”

David’s Faithful Soldiers

⁸These are the names of the mighty warriors who were David’s: Josheb-Basshebeth a Tahkemonite was chief of three officers; first Adino, whose spear was against eight hundred slain on one occurrence. ⁹Next to him Eleazar, the son of Dodo the son of an Ahohite, was among the three mighty warriors with David when they defied the Philistines and they gathered there for the battle and the men of Israel withdrew. ¹⁰He stood up and struck down the Philistines until his hand grew tired and his hand clung to the sword, and Yahweh brought about a great victory on that day. Then the army returned back to him only for stripping the dead. ¹¹Next to him was Shamma, the son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines assembled at Lehi, a plot of the field was there filled with lentils, and the army fled there from the presence of the Philistines. ¹²But he took a stand in the middle of the plot of land and defended it. He killed the Philistines, and Yahweh brought about a great victory. ¹³Then three^b of the thirty leaders went down and came to David at the time of the harvest^c to the cave of Adullam, while a group of the Philistines were camping in the valley of the Rephaim. ¹⁴Now at that time, David was in the stronghold, and a garrison of the Philistines was in Bethlehem at that same time. ¹⁵David said longingly,^d “Oh that someone would bring me a drink^e of water from the well of Bethlehem that is at the gate.” ¹⁶So three of the mighty warriors broke into the camp of the Philistines, and they drew water from the well of Bethlehem that was at the gate, and they carried it and brought it to David. But he was not willing to drink it, but poured it out to Yahweh. ¹⁷He said, “Far be it from me before Yahweh that I should do this. Is this not the blood of the men who went at the risk of their lives?” So he was not willing to drink it. These things the three mighty warriors did.

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Footnotes

aIn other words, even men who rule rightly pass like the dew of the morning
bSo Qere; Kethib reads “thirty”
cLiterally “to the harvest”
dLiterally “desired and said”
eLiterally “Who will let me drink …?”