The Gospel of Mark (Part Seven)

The Other Five Prayer Journey

Fully Devoted

The Gospel of Mark (Part Six)

Prayer - Empowered to Go

Why Do We Slander?

The Effective Mom 5-Day Devotional for the Busy Mom

Workplace Witness

God in 60 Seconds - Workplace

Evangelistic Prayer Team Study - How to Be an Authentic Christian at Work

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">19</div><div class="s1">David Defeats the Ammonites</div><div class="p"> 1In the course of time, Nahash king of the Ammonites died, and his son succeeded him as king. 2David thought, &#8220;I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.&#8221; So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father.</div><div class="p">When David&#8217;s envoys came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to express sympathy to him, 3the Ammonite commanders said to Hanun, &#8220;Do you think David is honoring your father by sending envoys to you to express sympathy? Haven&#8217;t his envoys come to you only to explore and spy out the country and overthrow it?&#8221; 4So Hanun seized David&#8217;s envoys, shaved them, cut off their garments at the buttocks, and sent them away.</div><div class="p"> 5When someone came and told David about the men, he sent messengers to meet them, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, &#8220;Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6When the Ammonites realized that they had become obnoxious to David, Hanun and the Ammonites sent a thousand talents#19:6 That is, about 38 tons or about 34 metric tons of silver to hire chariots and charioteers from Aram Naharaim,#19:6 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia Aram Maakah and Zobah. 7They hired thirty-two thousand chariots and charioteers, as well as the king of Maakah with his troops, who came and camped near Medeba, while the Ammonites were mustered from their towns and moved out for battle.</div><div class="p"> 8On hearing this, David sent Joab out with the entire army of fighting men. 9The Ammonites came out and drew up in battle formation at the entrance to their city, while the kings who had come were by themselves in the open country.</div><div class="p"> 10Joab saw that there were battle lines in front of him and behind him; so he selected some of the best troops in Israel and deployed them against the Arameans. 11He put the rest of the men under the command of Abishai his brother, and they were deployed against the Ammonites. 12Joab said, &#8220;If the Arameans are too strong for me, then you are to rescue me; but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will rescue you. 13Be strong, and let us fight bravely for our people and the cities of our God. The Lord will do what is good in his sight.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14Then Joab and the troops with him advanced to fight the Arameans, and they fled before him. 15When the Ammonites realized that the Arameans were fleeing, they too fled before his brother Abishai and went inside the city. So Joab went back to Jerusalem.</div><div class="p"> 16After the Arameans saw that they had been routed by Israel, they sent messengers and had Arameans brought from beyond the Euphrates River, with Shophak the commander of Hadadezer&#8217;s army leading them.</div><div class="p"> 17When David was told of this, he gathered all Israel and crossed the Jordan; he advanced against them and formed his battle lines opposite them. David formed his lines to meet the Arameans in battle, and they fought against him. 18But they fled before Israel, and David killed seven thousand of their charioteers and forty thousand of their foot soldiers. He also killed Shophak the commander of their army.</div><div class="p"> 19When the vassals of Hadadezer saw that they had been routed by Israel, they made peace with David and became subject to him.</div><div class="p">So the Arameans were not willing to help the Ammonites anymore.</div>
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 <div class="label">20</div><div class="s1">The Capture of Rabbah</div><div class="p"> 1In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, Joab led out the armed forces. He laid waste the land of the Ammonites and went to Rabbah and besieged it, but David remained in Jerusalem. Joab attacked Rabbah and left it in ruins. 2David took the crown from the head of their king#20:2 Or of Milkom, that is, Molek&#8212;its weight was found to be a talent#20:2 That is, about 75 pounds or about 34 kilograms of gold, and it was set with precious stones&#8212;and it was placed on David&#8217;s head. He took a great quantity of plunder from the city 3and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.</div><div class="s1">War With the Philistines</div><div class="p"> 4In the course of time, war broke out with the Philistines, at Gezer. At that time Sibbekai the Hushathite killed Sippai, one of the descendants of the Rephaites, and the Philistines were subjugated.</div><div class="p"> 5In another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, who had a spear with a shaft like a weaver&#8217;s rod.</div><div class="p"> 6In still another battle, which took place at Gath, there was a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot&#8212;twenty-four in all. He also was descended from Rapha. 7When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David&#8217;s brother, killed him.</div><div class="p"> 8These were descendants of Rapha in Gath, and they fell at the hands of David and his men.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="chapter ch21" data-usfm="1CH.21">
 <div class="label">21</div><div class="s1">David Counts the Fighting Men</div><div class="p"> 1Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, &#8220;Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3But Joab replied, &#8220;May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord&#8217;s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4The king&#8217;s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah.</div><div class="p"> 6But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king&#8217;s command was repulsive to him. 7This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel.</div><div class="p"> 8Then David said to God, &#8220;I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9The Lord said to Gad, David&#8217;s seer, 10&#8220;Go and tell David, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11So Gad went to David and said to him, &#8220;This is what the Lord says: &#8216;Take your choice: 12three years of famine, three months of being swept away#21:12 Hebrew; Septuagint and Vulgate (see also 2 Samuel 24:13) of fleeing before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord&#8212;days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.&#8217; Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 13David said to Gad, &#8220;I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, &#8220;Enough! Withdraw your hand.&#8221; The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah#21:15 Hebrew Ornan, a variant of Araunah; also in verses 18-28 the Jebusite.</div><div class="p"> 16David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.</div><div class="p"> 17David said to God, &#8220;Was it not I who ordered the fighting men to be counted? I, the shepherd,#21:17 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text (see 2 Samuel 24:17 and note); Masoretic Text does not have the shepherd. have sinned and done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Lord my God, let your hand fall on me and my family, but do not let this plague remain on your people.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">David Builds an Altar</div><div class="p"> 18Then the angel of the Lord ordered Gad to tell David to go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 19So David went up in obedience to the word that Gad had spoken in the name of the Lord.</div><div class="p"> 20While Araunah was threshing wheat, he turned and saw the angel; his four sons who were with him hid themselves. 21Then David approached, and when Araunah looked and saw him, he left the threshing floor and bowed down before David with his face to the ground.</div><div class="p"> 22David said to him, &#8220;Let me have the site of your threshing floor so I can build an altar to the Lord, that the plague on the people may be stopped. Sell it to me at the full price.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23Araunah said to David, &#8220;Take it! Let my lord the king do whatever pleases him. Look, I will give the oxen for the burnt offerings, the threshing sledges for the wood, and the wheat for the grain offering. I will give all this.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24But King David replied to Araunah, &#8220;No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25So David paid Araunah six hundred shekels#21:25 That is, about 15 pounds or about 6.9 kilograms of gold for the site. 26David built an altar to the Lord there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. He called on the Lord, and the Lord answered him with fire from heaven on the altar of burnt offering.</div><div class="p"> 27Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath. 28At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, he offered sacrifices there. 29The tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses had made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. 30But David could not go before it to inquire of God, because he was afraid of the sword of the angel of the Lord.</div>
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