Day 211 of 365

1 Chr 19:1–21:30

19:1 It happened after this, that Nahash the king of the children of Ammon died, and his son reigned in his place.

19:2 David said, "I will show kindness to Hanun the son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me." So David sent messengers to comfort him concerning his father. David's servants came into the land of the children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him.

19:3 But the princes of the children of Ammon said to Hanun, "Do you think that David honors your father, in that he has sent comforters to you? Haven't his servants come to you to search, to overthrow, and to spy out the land?"

19:4 So Hanun took David's servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away.

19:5 Then there went certain persons, and told David how the men were served. He sent to meet them; for the men were greatly ashamed. The king said, "Stay at Jericho until your beards have grown, and then return."

19:6 When the children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the children of Ammon sent one thousand talents of silver to hire them chariots and horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Arammaacah, and out of Zobah.

19:7 So they hired for themselves thirty-two thousand chariots, and the king of Maacah and his people, who came and encamped before Medeba. The children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their cities, and came to battle.

19:8 When David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the army of the mighty men.

19:9 The children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the gate of the city: and the kings who had come were by themselves in the field.

19:10 Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians.

19:11 The rest of the people he committed into the hand of Abishai his brother; and they put themselves in array against the children of Ammon.

19:12 He said, "If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you are to help me; but if the children of Ammon are too strong for you, then I will help you.

19:13 Be courageous, and let us be strong for our people, and for the cities of our God. May the Lord do that which seems good to him."

19:14 So Joab and the people who were with him drew near before the Syrians to the battle; and they fled before him.

19:15 When the children of Ammon saw that the Syrians had fled, they likewise fled before Abishai his brother, and entered into the city. Then Joab came to Jerusalem.

19:16 When the Syrians saw that they were defeated by Israel, they sent messengers, and drew forth the Syrians who were beyond the River, with Shophach the captain of the army of Hadadezer at their head.

19:17 It was told David; and he gathered all Israel together, and passed over the Jordan, and came on them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him.

19:18 The Syrians fled before Israel; and David killed of the Syrians the men of seven thousand chariots, and forty thousand footmen, and killed Shophach the captain of the army.

19:19 When the servants of Hadadezer saw that they were defeated by Israel, they made peace with David, and served him: neither would the Syrians help the children of Ammon any more.

20:1 It happened, at the time of the return of the year, at the time when kings go out, that Joab led forth the army, and wasted the country of the children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Joab struck Rabbah, and overthrew it.

20:2 David took the crown of their king from off his head, and found it to weigh a talent of gold, and there were precious stones in it; and it was set on David's head: and he brought forth the spoil of the city, a very great amount.

20:3 He brought forth the people who were therein, and cut them with saws, and with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

20:4 It happened after this, that there arose war at Gezer with the Philistines: then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Sippai, of the sons of the giant; and they were subdued.

20:5 There was again war with the Philistines; and Elhanan the son of Jair killed Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

20:6 There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, whose fingers and toes were twenty-four, six on each hand, and six on each foot; and he also was born to the giant.

20:7 When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea David's brother killed him.

20:8 These were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

21:1 Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.

21:2 David said to Joab and to the princes of the people, "Go, number Israel from Beersheba even to Dan; and bring me word, that I may know the sum of them."

21:3 Joab said, "May the Lord make his people a hundred times as many as they are. But, my lord the king, aren't they all my lord's servants? Why does my lord require this thing? Why will he be a cause of guilt to Israel?"

21:4 Nevertheless the king's word prevailed against Joab. Therefore Joab departed, and went throughout all Israel, and came to Jerusalem.

21:5 Joab gave up the sum of the numbering of the people to David. All those of Israel were one million one hundred thousand men who drew sword: and in Judah were four hundred seventy thousand men who drew sword.

21:6 But he did not count Levi and Benjamin among them; for the king's word was abominable to Joab.

21:7 God was displeased with this thing; therefore he struck Israel.

21:8 David said to God, "I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly."

21:9 The Lord spoke to Gad, David's seer, saying,

21:10 "Go and speak to David, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you."'"

21:11 So Gad came to David, and said to him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Take your choice:

21:12 either three years of famine; or three months to be consumed before your foes, while the sword of your enemies overtakes you; or else three days the sword of the Lord, even pestilence in the land, and the angel of the Lord destroying throughout all the borders of Israel. Now therefore consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.'"

21:13 David said to Gad, "I am in distress. Let me fall, I pray, into the hand of the Lord; for his mercies are very great. Let me not fall into the hand of man."

21:14 So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel; and seventy thousand men of Israel fell.

21:15 God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, the Lord saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the destroying angel, "It is enough; now stay your hand." The angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

21:16 David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and the sky, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.

21:17 David said to God, "Isn't it I who commanded the people to be numbered? It is even I who have sinned and done very wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me, and against my father's house; but not against your people, that they should be plagued."

21:18 Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to tell David that David should go up, and raise an altar to the Lord in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

21:19 David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spoke in the name of the Lord.

21:20 Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons who were with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.

21:21 As David came to Ornan, Ornan looked and saw David, and went out of the threshing floor, and bowed himself to David with his face to the ground.

21:22 Then David said to Ornan, "Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build thereon an altar to the Lord. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people."

21:23 Ornan said to David, "Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all."

21:24 King David said to Ornan, "No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for the Lord, nor offer a burnt offering without cost."

21:25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels of gold by weight for the place.

21:26 David built an altar to the Lord there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

21:27 The Lord commanded the angel; and he put up his sword again into its sheath.

21:28 At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, then he sacrificed there.

21:29 For the tabernacle of the Lord, which Moses made in the wilderness, and the altar of burnt offering, were at that time in the high place at Gibeon.

21:30 But David couldn't go before it to inquire of God; for he was afraid because of the sword of the angel of the Lord.

Acts 26:1–21

1 Agrippa said to Paul, "You may speak for yourself." Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.

2 "I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Judeans,

3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.

4 "Indeed, all Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;

5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

6 Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

7 which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Judeans, O King!

8 Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?

9 "I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

10 This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.

11 Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

12 "Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,

13 at noon, O King, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.

14 When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'

15 "I said, 'Who are you, Lord?' "He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

16 But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;

17 delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,

18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

19 "Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,

20 but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

21 For this reason Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.

Song 8:5–14

5 Who is this who comes up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? Under the apple tree I aroused you. There your mother conceived you. There she was in labor and bore you.

6 Set me as a seal on your heart, as a seal on your arm; for love is strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as Sheol. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a very flame of Yah.

7 Many waters can't quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the wealth of his house for love, he would be utterly scorned. Friends

8 We have a little sister. She has no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she is to be spoken for?

9 If she is a wall, we will build on her a turret of silver. If she is a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. Beloved

10 I am a wall, and my breasts like towers, then I was in his eyes like one who found peace.

11 Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

12 My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit. Lover

13 You who dwell in the gardens, with friends in attendance, let me hear your voice! Beloved

14 Come away, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices!