23 Here are David’s last words:

⁸ Following are the names of David’s warrior-heroes:

Yoshev-Bashevet the Tach’kmoni, chief of the three, also known as ‘Adino the ‘Etzni; he is the one who came against 800 men, whom he killed in a single encounter.

⁹ After him was El‘azar the son of Dodo the son of Achochi, one of the three warriors with David when they put their lives in jeopardy against the P’lishtim who were there assembled for battle, while the men of Isra’el had gone away. ¹⁰ He stood firm and attacked the P’lishtim until his hand went into spasm, so that he couldn’t let go of his sword. Adonai accomplished a great victory that day; but the people didn’t return until he had finished, and then only to plunder the bodies of the dead.

¹¹ After him was Shammah the son of Age the Harari. The P’lishtim had assembled at Lechi, where there was a plot of ground full of lentils; and the people fled from the P’lishtim. ¹² But he stood in the middle of the plot and defended it, killing the P’lishtim; and Adonai brought about a great victory.

¹³ During harvest season three of the thirty leaders went down and came to David at the cave of ‘Adulam when a company of P’lishtim had set up camp in the Refa’im Valley. ¹⁴ At that time David was in the fortress, and the garrison of the P’lishtim was in Beit-Lechem. ¹⁵ David had a craving and said, “I wish someone could give me water to drink from the well by the gate of Beit-Lechem!” ¹⁶ The three warrior-heroes broke through the army of the P’lishtim, drew water from the well by the gate of Beit-Lechem, took it and brought it to David. But he wouldn’t drink it. Instead, he poured it out to Adonai ¹⁷ and said, “Adonai! Heaven forbid that I should do such a thing! Am I to drink the blood of men who went and put their lives in jeopardy?”— and he would not consent to drink it. These are the things the three warrior-heroes did. ¹⁸ Avishai the brother of Yo’av, the son of Tz’ruyah, was chief of these three. He raised his spear against 300 men and killed them; thus he had a reputation even among the three. ¹⁹ He had the most honor of these three and was therefore made their leader; however, he did not achieve the status of the first three.

²⁰ B’nayah the son of Y’hoyada, the son of a valiant man of Kavtze’el, was a man of many exploits. He struck down two lion-hearted men of Mo’av. One day when it was snowing, he went down into a pit and killed a lion. ²¹ Here is how he killed an Egyptian, a man of intimidating appearance: the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, and he went down to him with only a stick, seized the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear. ²² These are things that B’nayah the son of Y’hoyada did that earned him a name among the three warrior-heroes. ²³ He had more honor than the thirty, but he did not achieve the status of the first three. David put him in command of his personal guard.

thirty-seven in all.

24 The anger of Adonai blazed up against Isra’el, so he moved David to act against them by saying, “Go, take a census of Isra’el and Y’hudah.” ² The king said to Yo’av the commander of the army, who was with him, “Go systematically through all the tribes of Isra’el, from Dan to Be’er-Sheva; and take a census of the population; so that I can know how many people there are.” ³ Yo’av said to the king, “May Adonai your God add to the people a hundredfold, no matter how many there are; and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king take pleasure in doing this?” ⁴ However, the king’s word prevailed against Yo’av and the army officers. So Yo’av and the army officers went out from the king’s presence to take a census of the people of Isra’el.

⁵ They crossed the Yarden and pitched camp in ‘Aro‘er, to the south of the city in the Vadi of Gad; went on to Ya‘zer; ⁶ came to Gil‘ad and continued to the land of Tachtim-Hodshi. Then they arrived at Dan-Ya‘an, went around to Tzidon ⁷ and came to the stronghold of Tzor. They went on to the cities of the Hivi and of the Kena‘ani, and finished in the south of Y’hudah, at Be’er-Sheva. ⁸ When they were done going through all the land, they came back to Yerushalayim; it had taken nine months and twenty days. ⁹ Yo’av reported the results of the census to the king: there were in Isra’el 800,000 valiant men who could handle a sword, while the men of Y’hudah numbered 500,000.

¹⁰ But after he had taken the census, David was conscience-stricken. David said to Adonai, “I have greatly sinned in what I have done. But now, Adonai, please! Put aside your servant’s sin, for I have done a very foolish thing.” ¹¹ When David got up in the morning, this word of Adonai came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer: ¹² “Go and say to David that this is what Adonai says: ‘I am giving you a choice of three punishments. Choose one of them, and I will execute it against you.” ¹³ Gad came to David and told him; he said: “Do you want seven years of famine in your land? or do you want to flee before your enemies for three months while they pursue you? or do you want three days of plague in your land? Think about it, and tell me what to answer the one who sent me.”

¹⁴ David said to Gad, “This is very hard for me. Let us fall into the hand of Adonai, because his mercies are great, rather than have me fall into the hand of man.” ¹⁵ So Adonai sent a plague on Isra’el from that morning until the end of the specified time; 70,000 of the people died between Dan and Be’er-Sheva. ¹⁶ But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Yerushalayim to destroy it, Adonai changed his mind about causing such distress and said to the angel destroying the people, “Enough! Now withdraw your hand.” The angel of Adonai was at the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Y’vusi.

¹⁷ David spoke to Adonai when he saw the angel striking the people; he said, “Here, I have sinned, I have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Please! Let your hand be against me and against my father’s family!”

¹⁸ Gad came to David that day and said to him, “Go, set up an altar to Adonai on the threshing-floor of Aravnah the Y’vusi.” ¹⁹ David went up and did what Gad had said, as Adonai had ordered. ²⁰ Aravnah looked out and saw the king and his servants coming toward him. Aravnah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ Then Aravnah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy your threshing-floor, in order to build an altar to Adonai, so that the plague will be lifted from the people.” ²² Aravnah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up anything that seems good to him. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering; you can use the threshing-sledges and the yokes for the oxen as firewood. ²³ All this, O king, Aravnah gives to the king.” Then Aravnah said to the king, “May Adonai your God accept you.”

²⁴ But the king said to Aravnah, “No; I insist on buying it from you at a price. I refuse to offer to Adonai my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for one-and-a-quarter pounds of silver shekels. ²⁵ Then David built an altar to Adonai there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. After this, Adonai took pity on the land and lifted the plague from Isra’el.