24:1And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah. 24:2And the king said to Joab the captain of the host, who was with him, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the sum of the people. 24:3And Joab said unto the king, Now Jehovah thy God add unto the people, how many soever they may be, a hundredfold; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it: but why doth my lord the king delight in this thing? 24:4Notwithstanding, 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. 24:5And they passed over the Jordan, and encamped in Aroer, on the right side of the city that is in the middle of the valley of Gad, and unto Jazer: 24:6then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtim-hodshi; and they came to Dan-jaan, and round about to Sidon, 24:7and came to the stronghold 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. 24:8So when they had gone to and from through all the land, they came to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. 24:9And 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.
24:10And David's heart smote him after that he had numbered the people. And David said unto Jehovah, I have sinned greatly in that which I have done: but now, O Jehovah, put away, I beseech thee, the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly. 24:11And when David rose up in the morning, the word of Jehovah came unto the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying, 24:12Go and speak unto David, Thus saith Jehovah, I offer thee three things: choose thee one of them, that I may do it unto thee. 24:13So 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 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. 24:14And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let us fall now into the hand of Jehovah; for his mercies are great; and let me not fall into the hand of man. 24:15So Jehovah sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed; and there died of the people from Dan even to Beer-sheba seventy thousand men. 24:16And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Jehovah repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed the people, It is enough; now stay thy hand. And the angel of Jehovah was by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 24:17And David spake unto Jehovah when he saw the angel that smote the people, and said, Lo, I have sinned, and I have done perversely; but these sheep, what have they done? let thy hand, I pray thee, be against me, and against my father's house.
24:18And Gad came that day to David, and said unto him, Go up, rear an altar unto Jehovah in the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 24:19And David went up according to the saying of Gad, as Jehovah commanded. 24:20And 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. 24:21And 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. 24:22And 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 yokes of the oxen for the wood: 24:23all this, O king, doth Araunah give unto the king. And Araunah said unto the king, Jehovah thy God accept thee. 24:24And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will verily buy it of thee at a price. Neither will I offer burnt-offerings unto Jehovah my God which cost me nothing. So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 24:25And David built there an altar unto Jehovah, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings. So Jehovah was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel.
4:1But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a bondservant though he is lord of all; 4:2but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed of the father. 4:3So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the rudiments of the world: 4:4but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 4:5that he might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 4:6And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 4:7So that thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 4:8Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods: 4:9but now that ye have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? 4:10Ye observe days, and months, and seasons, and years. 4:11I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain. 4:12I beseech you, brethren, become as I am, for I also am become as ye are. Ye did me no wrong: 4:13but ye know that because of an infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you the first time: 4:14and that which was a temptation to you in my flesh ye despised not, nor rejected; but ye received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. 4:15Where then is that gratulation of yourselves? for I bear you witness, that, if possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. 4:16So then am I become your enemy, by telling you the truth? 4:17They zealously seek you in no good way; nay, they desire to shut you out, that ye may seek them. 4:18But it is good to be zealously sought in a good matter at all times, and not only when I am present with you. 4:19My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you-- 4:20but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone; for I am perplexed about you. 4:21Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 4:22For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. 4:23Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. 4:24Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. 4:25Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. 4:26But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. 4:27For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not;
Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not:
For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband.
4:28Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. 4:29But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. 4:30Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. 4:31Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.
31:1And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, 31:2Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness? 31:3Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. 31:4The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: the rivers thereof ran round about its plantation; and it sent out its channels unto all the trees of the field. 31:5Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot them forth. 31:6All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow dwelt all great nations. 31:7Thus was it fair in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. 31:8The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir-trees were not like its boughs, and the plane-trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like unto it in its beauty. 31:9I made it fair by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it. 31:10Therefore thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because thou art exalted in stature, and he hath set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; 31:11I will even deliver him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him; I have driven him out for his wickedness. 31:12And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. 31:13Upon his ruin all the birds of the heavens shall dwell, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches; 31:14to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, even all that drink water: for they are all delivered unto death, to the nether parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. 31:15Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the rivers thereof; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. 31:16I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol with them that descend into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the nether parts of the earth. 31:17They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that are slain by the sword; yea, they that were his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations. 31:18To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.
A Psalm of Asaph.
79:1O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance;
Thy holy temple have they defiled;
They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.
79:2The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be food unto the birds of the heavens,
The flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.
79:3Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem;
And there was none to bury them.
79:4We are become a reproach to our neighbors,
A scoffing and derision to them that are round about us.
79:5How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever?
Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?
79:6Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not,
And upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name.
79:7For they have devoured Jacob,
And laid waste his habitation.
79:8Remember not against us the iniquities of our forefathers:
Let thy tender mercies speedily meet us;
For we are brought very low.
79:9Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name;
And deliver us, and *forgive our sins, for thy name's sake.
79:10Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God?
Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed
Be known among the nations in our sight.
79:11Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee:
According to the greatness *of thy power preserve thou *those that are appointed to death;
79:12And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom
Their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
79:13So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture
Will give thee thanks for ever:
We will show forth thy praise to all generations.