Study Desk

Then David's heart struck him after he had counted the people. So David said to Yahweh, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Yahweh, please take away the iniquity of Your slave, for I have acted very foolishly."

So Gad came to David and told him, and said to him, "Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your adversaries while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days' pestilence in your land? Now, know and see what word I should return to Him who sent me."

So Yahweh sent a pestilence against Israel from the morning until the appointed time, and 70,000 men of the people from Dan to Beersheba died.

So Gad came to David that day and said to him, "Go up, erect an altar to Yahweh on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite."

So David went up according to the word of Gad, just as Yahweh had commanded.

However, the king said to Araunah, "No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price, for I will not offer burnt offerings to Yahweh my God which cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

So his servants said to him, "Let them seek a young virgin for my lord the king, and let her stand before the king and become his nurse; and let her lie in your bosom, that my lord the king may keep warm."

So they sought for a beautiful young woman throughout all the territory of Israel, and found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to the king.

Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, "I will be king." So he prepared for himself a chariot and horsemen and fifty men as runners before him.

But his father had never grieved him at any time by asking, "Why have you done so?" And he was also a very handsome man in form, and he was born after Absalom.

So now come, please let me give you counsel and provide escape for your life and the life of your son Solomon.

So Bathsheba went in to the king in the bedroom. Now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was ministering to the king.

surely as I swore to you by Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, ‘Surely your son Solomon shall be king after me, and he shall sit on my throne in my place'; I will surely do so this day."

As Yahweh has been with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon, and make his throne greater than the throne of my lord King David!"

So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the Cherethites, and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David's mule, and brought him to Gihon.

And all the people went up after him, and the people were playing on flutes and were glad with great gladness, so that the earth shook at their sound.

And Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet have anointed him king in Gihon, and they have come up from there with gladness, so that the city is in an uproar. This is the sound which you have heard.

So King Solomon sent, and they brought him down from the altar. And he came and prostrated himself before King Solomon, and Solomon said to him, "Go to your house."

Then David's time to die drew near, so he commanded Solomon his son, saying,

"I am going the way of all the earth. So you shall be strong, and be a man.