LESSON LI

NUMBERING THE PEOPLE

Saul's descendants.

On the demand of the Gibeonites David sacrifices seven of The numbering of the people is punished by a plague. David builds an altar on the spot where it stops.

2 SAMUEL XXI., XXIV.

21 1 And there was a famine in the days of David three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, It is for Saul, and for his bloody house,1 because he put to death the Gibeonites. And the king called the Gibeonites, and said unto them; (now the Gibeonites were not of the 5 children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; and the children of Israel had sworn unto them and Saul sought to slay them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah :) and David said unto the Gibeonites, What shall I do for you ? and wherewith shall I make atonement, that ye may bless the inherit- 10 ance of the LORD? And the Gibeonites said unto him, It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, What ye shall say, that will I do for you. And they said unto the king, The man that consumed us, that we should be 15 destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD. And the king said, I will give them. But the king

1 For It is .. house read Upon Saul and upon his house rests the guilt of blood (S).

2 For in Gibeah

LORD (S).

the LORD read in Gibeon, in the hill of the

20 spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of the LORD's oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bare unto Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal 25 the daughter of Saul, whom she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite: and he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them in the mountain before the LORD, and they fell all seven together: and they were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning 30 of barley harvest. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven; and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. And it was told David 35 what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. And David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh-gilead, which had stolen them from the street of Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines slew Saul 40 in Gilboa and they gathered the bones of them that were hanged. And they buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the sepulchre of Kish his father and they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God was intreated for the land.

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24 1 And again the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him,1 Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number 50 ye the people, that I may know the sum of the people. And Joab said unto the king, Now the LORD thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why doth my lord the king

1 For to Joab. . . with him read to Joab and the captains of the host which were with him,

delight in this thing? Notwithstanding the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And 55 Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. And they passed over Jordan, and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and unto Jazer1: then they came to Gilead, and 2 to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and 60 they came to Dan-jaan, and round about to Zidon,2 and came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, at Beer-sheba. So when they had gone to and fro through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine 65 months and twenty days. And Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people unto the king: and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men.

10 And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered 70 the people. And David said unto the LORD, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: but now, O LORD, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And when David rose up in the morning, the word of the LORD came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 75 Go and speak unto David, Thus saith the LORD, I offer thee three things; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said unto him, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue 80 thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? now advise thee, and consider what answer I shall return to him that sent me. And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of the LORD; for his mercies are great :

1 For and pitched . Jazer read and they began with Aroer and with the city which lieth in the midst of the valley, going toward the Gadites and on to Jazer (S).

2 For to the land

Zidon read to the land of the Hittites, towards Kadesh: and they came to Dan, and from Dan they went round to Zidon (S).

85 and let me not fall into the hand of man. So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD repented 90 him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay thine hand. And the angel of the LORD was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David spake unto the LORD when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done per95 versely but these sheep, what have they done? let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.

18 And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto the LORD in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David went up according to the saying of 100 Gad, as the LORD commanded. And Araunah looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming on toward him and Araunah went out, and bowed himself before the king with his face to the ground. And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the 105 threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, the oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the furniture of the oxen for the 10 wood: all this, O king, doth Araunah give unto the king.1 And Araunah said unto the king, The LORD thy God accept thee. And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will verily buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the 115 threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.

...

1 For all this . . the king read all this doth the servant of my lord the king give unto the king.

LESSON LII

DAVID AND URIAH

David defeats the Syrians and conquers the Ammonites. While his troops are besieging Rabbah, he takes the wife of Uriah, one of his officers, and causes him to be killed. He is rebuked by Nathan, and punished with the death of his child.

2 SAMUEL X.-XII.

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10 1 And it came to pass after this, that the king of the children of Ammon died, and Hanun his son reigned in his stead. And David said, I will shew kindness unto Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father shewed kindness unto me. So David sent by the hand of his servants to comfort him concerning his father. And David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon. But the princes of the children of Ammon said unto Hanun their lord, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath sent comforters unto thee? hath not David sent his servants unto thee to search the city, and to spy it out, and 10 to overthrow it? So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, 15 and then return. And when the children of Ammon saw that they were become odious to David, the children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, twenty thousand footmen, and the king of Maacah with a thousand men, and the men of Tob twelve thousand men. And when 20 David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the host. And the