The Daily Audio Bible

³⁷ King David had chosen Asaph and his relatives to serve the Lord at the Covenant Box. They must do that each day, as the rules said that they should do. ³⁸ They included Obed-Edom and 68 men from his clan. Jeduthun's son, Obed-Edom and Hosah were guards at the entrance of the tent.

³⁹ Zadok and the other priests served the Lord at the tabernacle in Gibeon. That was still the place where the Israelites worshipped God. ⁴⁰ Their job was to offer burnt offerings as sacrifices to the Lord on the big altar there. They did that every morning and every evening, as the law of the Lord commanded. The Israelites had to obey that law. ⁴¹ Heman and Jeduthun were with them at the tabernacle in Gibeon. There were also other Levites that David had chosen to help them. Their special job was to give thanks to the Lord with songs, because his faithful love continues for ever. ⁴² Heman and Jeduthun also had authority for the trumpets, the cymbals and the other musical instruments. The musicians used them to praise God with their music. Jeduthun's sons stood as guards at the entrance of the tabernacle.

⁴³ After that, all the people left to return to their homes. David also went home to ask God to bless his family.

The Lord's covenant with David

17 King David was living in his palace. One day, he said to Nathan the prophet, ‘Now I am living in a beautiful palace that is made of cedar wood. But the Lord's Covenant Box is still in a tent.’

² Nathan replied to David, ‘Do what you think is right. God will help you.’

³ But that night God said to Nathan, ⁴ ‘Go and tell my servant David, “The Lord says this: You are not the right man to build a house for me to live in. ⁵ From the time that I brought the Israelites safely out of Egypt until now, I have never lived in a house. I have lived in a tent as my home as I travelled from place to place. ⁶ I have moved about to many different places with the Israelites. I chose leaders to take care of my people, like shepherds take care of their sheep. But I never said to any of them, ‘You should have built a beautiful house of cedar wood for me.’ ”

⁷ So tell my servant David that the Lord Almighty says this: “I took you from the fields where you were taking care of sheep. I took you from there to become the ruler of my people Israel. ⁸ I have been with you everywhere that you have gone. I destroyed all your enemies that were attacking you. Now I will make you famous. Your name will be as great as the names of the earth's greatest men. ⁹ I have chosen a place where my people Israel will live. I have put them in that place, were they can be safe. They will not be afraid of trouble from any enemy. Wicked people will not hurt them any more. That happened in the past, ¹⁰ from the time that I chose leaders to rule my people Israel. But now I will cause all your enemies to be weak.

I say to you, David: the Lord will give you descendants who will rule as kings after you. That will be the royal house that I build for you.^{[a] 11} When you die, people will bury you in the grave of your ancestors. Then I will choose your descendant, one of your own sons, to become king. I will make his kingdom strong. ¹² He is the man who will build a house for me. And I will cause his descendants to rule as kings for ever. ¹³ I will be his father and he will be my son. I will never remove my faithful love from him, as I took it away from the king who ruled before you. ¹⁴ I will cause him to rule my people and my kingdom for ever. Someone from his family will always be king.” ’

¹⁵ Nathan told David the whole message that the Lord had shown to him.

David thanks the Lord

¹⁶ Then King David went into the Lord's tent.^[b] He sat down and he prayed to the Lord. He said, ‘Lord, my God, I am not a special person and my family is not special. You have helped me very much and I do not deserve it. ¹⁷ And you have done more than that, my God. You have made a promise about the descendants of my family in the future. You, Lord God, have spoken to me as if I am a very important man. ¹⁸ I am your servant and you know me completely. You have given great honour to me. There is nothing more that I can say.

¹⁹ Lord, you have chosen to do all these great things for me, your servant. You are telling me what you have promised to do. ²⁰ There is nobody like you, Lord. You alone are God. What we have heard about you is true! ²¹ There is no other nation on earth like your people, Israel. We are the nation that you rescued so that we would belong to you. You did that to show that your name is great. You did great miracles as you rescued your people from Egypt. You chased out the nations who wanted to stop them. ²² You chose Israel to be your own people for all time. You, Lord became our God.

²³ Lord, please do the things that you have promised to do for me, your servant, and for my family. Continue to do for ever what you have promised to do, ²⁴ so that people see your promises are true. Then people will always give honour to your great name. They will say, “The Lord Almighty is Israel's God.” And David's descendants will continue to serve you as kings.

²⁵ My God, you have made this promise to me, your servant. You have said that I will always have descendants who will rule. That is the house that you will build for me. Because you have said that, I was not afraid to pray to you. ²⁶ Lord, you are the true God! You have promised these good things to me, your servant. ²⁷ Now please bless my family and my descendants. Then we will serve you faithfully for ever. Yes, Lord, you have blessed my descendants, and I know that you will continue to bless them for ever.’

David wins against his enemies

18 After some time, David attacked the Philistines and he won against them. He took Gath city and the villages around it from the Philistines.

² David also won a battle against the Moabites. They were now under David's authority and they paid taxes to him.

³ David also won a battle against Hadadezer, king of Zobah. He won land as far as Hamath. That happened when Hadadezer took his army to the Euphrates river to show that he had authority there. ⁴ David took from Hadadezer 1,000 chariots and 7,000 men who drove them. He also caught 20,000 of Hadadezer's other soldiers. David kept 100 horses that pulled chariots. But he cut the legs of the other horses so that they could not run.

⁵ The Syrians from Damascus sent an army to help King Hadadezer of Zobah. But David killed 22,000 soldiers of the Syrian army. ⁶ David put some of his soldiers in Damascus to keep his authority over the Syrian people. They had to pay taxes to King David.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

⁷ David took the gold shields that Hadadezer's officers had carried. He brought the shields to Jerusalem. ⁸ David also took a lot of bronze things from Tebah and Cun. Those towns had belonged to Hadadezer towns. Later, Solomon used that bronze to make the big bath in the temple that was called ‘the Sea’. He also used the bronze to make pillars and other things for the temple.

⁹ Tou, the king of Hamath, heard news that David had won the battle against the whole army of King Hadadezer of Zobah. ¹⁰ There had been a war between King Hadadezer and King Tou. So Tou sent his son, Hadoram, to say ‘hello’ to King David. He wanted to praise David because he had won the battle against King Hadadezer. He also sent many gifts of gold, silver and bronze to David.

¹¹ King David took those gifts and he offered them to the Lord. He also offered to the Lord all the silver and gold things that he had taken from other nations. Those nations were Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, the Philistines and the Amalekites.

¹² Zeruiah's son Abishai killed 18,000 men from Edom in the Valley of Salt. ¹³ He put groups of his soldiers in Edom, so that David had authority over all the Edomites.

The Lord helped David to win all the battles that he fought.

David's officers

¹⁴ David ruled over all Israel. He did everything that was right and fair for all his people. ¹⁵ Zeruiah's son Joab was the leader of Israel's army. Ahilud's son Jehoshaphat wrote down the important things that happened. ¹⁶ Ahitub's son Zadok and Abiathar's son Ahimelech were priests. Shavsha was David's secretary. ¹⁷ Jehoiada's son Benaiah was the leader of David's personal guards. David's sons were his most important officers.^[c]

God judges all people in a right way

2 So I say this to each one of you: Do not judge other people. If you decide that someone else has done a bad thing, remember that you also do the same bad things. You are really saying that God should punish you also! When you judge someone, God will not punish them and then forgive you. ² When God judges people, he does it in a way that is right and fair. He punishes people who do those kind of bad things.

³ I ask each of you again: ‘Do you speak against people who do bad things, but you do those same bad things yourself?’ Then God will certainly punish you and you will not go free. ⁴ Remember that God is very kind and patient with us. He waits a long time before he punishes us. Do you not think that that is important? You should understand that God is giving you a chance to change. He waits patiently, so that you may turn away from wrong things.

⁵ But you refuse to change the way that you live. You are not sorry about the wrong things that you have done. As a result, you cause God to become even angrier with you. So he will punish you even more on the day when he will judge everyone. On that day, he will show how angry he is against people who do bad things. Everyone will know that he judges people in a right way. ⁶ He will give to each person what they ought to have because of the things that they have done. ⁷ Some people continue patiently to do good things. They want to do what is right so that God will praise them. They want to live the kind of life which death will not spoil. God will cause people like that to live with him always. ⁸ But other people think only about themselves. They refuse to obey God's true message. Instead, they continue to do things that are wrong. God will be very angry with people like that and he will punish them. ⁹ God will punish everyone who does bad things. He will do that first to the Jews, and he will do it also to the Gentiles. There will be much trouble and pain for every person who does bad things. ¹⁰ But God will praise every person who does good things. He will make them great and they will have peace in their minds. He will do that first for the Jews, and he will do it also for the Gentiles. ¹¹ God is always fair when he judges people, whoever they are.

¹² The Gentiles do not have God's Law that he gave to Moses.^[a] If Gentiles do wrong things, God will punish them. But he will not use his Law when he judges the Gentiles. But the Jews do have God's Law. So, if Jews do wrong things, God will use his Law to judge them. The Law will show that they have done wrong things. ¹³ Who does God accept as right with himself? It is those people who obey his Law. It is not the people who only know his Law but do not obey them.

¹⁴ The Gentiles do not have God's Law. But they may still do the right things that the Law teaches. They do right things because of what they themselves think is right. In that way they are showing that they have a certain law in their minds, even though they do not know God's Law. ¹⁵ Those people show that they know what is right. It is as if God has written his Law deep inside them. Their thoughts tell them the difference between what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes their thoughts say: ‘You did something that is wrong.’ And sometimes their thoughts say: ‘You did what is right.’

¹⁶ That is the message that I tell people. God knows everything that people think secretly. One day he will judge everyone. He has given Jesus Christ the authority to do that.

The Jews and God's Law

¹⁷ Do you say that you are a Jew? Maybe you trust in the Law that God gave to Moses. You are proud that you belong to God. ¹⁸ You know what God wants people to do. His Law teaches you what is good and right. ¹⁹ You are sure that you yourself can teach other people about God. You think that you can be like a guide to blind people. You think that you can be like a light to people who are in the dark. ²⁰ You are sure that you can teach fools and people who do not know very much. You know that God's Law tells you everything about what is true. Because it helps you to know so much, you think that you can be a great teacher!

²¹ So you teach other people, do you? But do you teach yourself? You tell other people, ‘Do not rob anyone.’ But maybe you yourself rob other people. ²² You say, ‘People must not have sex with anyone who is not their wife or their husband.’ But maybe you yourself have sex in a wrong way. You say that you hate idols. But do you rob places where people worship idols? ²³ You are proud that you know God's Law. But you do not obey that Law. As a result, you cause other people to speak against God. ²⁴ This is written in the Bible: