DEATH OF SHEBA. 315 of Bichri by name, hath lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Deliver him only, and I will depart from the city. And the woman said to Joab: Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall. Then the woman went and spake to all the people in her wisdom. And they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. And he blew the trumpet, and they retired from the city, every man to his So Joab returned to Jerusalem unto the king. tent. CHAPTER XIV. II. SAMUEL, vii., xxiii., xxiv. I. CHRONICLES, xvii., xxi. DAVID AND THE HOUSE OF JEHOVAH. The Census-Gad's Message-The Pestilence-The Angel Stayed- AND again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel. For the king said to Joab and to the princes of the host Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the sum of the people. And Joab said to the king Now Jehovah thy God add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundred-fold, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it; but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? But the king's word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. And when they had gone through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine 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. And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said to Jehovah : I have THE PESTILENCE. 317 sinned greatly in that I have done; but now, O Jehovah, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. And David rose up in the morning, and the word of Jehovah came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying: Go and say to David, Thus saith Jehovah: Three things I lay upon thee; choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him : Shall three years of famine come upon thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thy foes while they pursue thee? or shall there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Consider now, and see what answer I shall return to him that sent me. Then David said to Gad: I am in a great strait. Let us fall into the hand of Jehovah, for his mercies are great, and let me not fall into the hand of man. So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel; and there died. of the people from Dan to Beersheba seventy thousand men. And the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, and Jehovah repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people : It is enough; stay now thine hand. And the angel of Jehovah was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David spake to Jehovah, when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said: Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house. And Gad came that day to David, and said to him: Go up, rear an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Jehovah commanded. And Araunah was threshing wheat, and he looked forth, and saw the king and his servants coming 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 threshing-floor of thee, to build an altar unto Jehovah, that the plague may be stayed from the people. And Araunah said to David: Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth. good to him. Behold, here are oxen for the burnt offering, and the threshing instruments and the trappings of the oxen for the wood. All this giveth the servant of my lord the king unto Jehovah. And Araunah said to the king Jehovah thy God accept thee. But the king said to Araunah: Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price; neither will I offer unto Jehovah my God burnt-offerings which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. And David built there an altar unto Jehovah, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Jehovah was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. And it came to pass afterwards, when David was dead, that Solomon his son built a house for Jehovah, the God of Israel, on the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, which David his father had bought; howbeit David himself built not an house to Jehovah in Jerusalem, but the Ark of God dwelt in a tent all the days of David. For when the king dwelt in his house, and Jehovah had given him rest from all his enemies round about, the king said to Nathan the prophet: See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the Ark of God dwelleth within curtains. And Nathan said to the king: Go, do all that is in thine heart; for Jehovah is with thee. But A PERPETUAL COVENANT. 319 it came to pass the same night, that the word of Jehovah came unto Nathan, saying: Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith Jehovah: Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in an house since the day that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day, but have walked in a tent and in a tabernacle. Wheresoever I have walked with all the children of Israel, spake I a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people Israel, saying, Why have ye not built me an house of cedar? Now therefore thus shalt thou say to my servant David, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts: I took thee from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, and I have been with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee; and I have made thee a great name, like the name of the great ones that are in the earth. And I have appointed a place for my people Israel, and planted them, that they may dwell in their own place, and be moved no more; neither do the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, as in the days when I commanded judges to be over my people Israel; and I have caused thee to rest from all thine enemies. Moreover, Jehovah telleth thee that he will make thee an house after thee. When thy days are fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which proceedeth from thy loins, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men; but I will not take away my mercy from him, |