Chapter 4

¹In those days a man from Bethlehem, the city of David, went to Jerusalem to pay the vow which he had vowed to AO. His name was Zebad the florist, and he was of the family of the Perizzites.

²For Zebad’s father was very sick, even unto the point of death, so Zebad vowed: “When AO heals my father of his sickness, I will weigh out two talents of silver and give them to the House of AO, into the hand of King David.”

³And it came to pass, when he was at the house of the shepherds along the way, he lost the pouch with the money in it and he was upset.

⁴He came to the city of Jerusalem, into the inner city, and he wrote on all the gates these words: “Anyone who finds a lost pouch with two talents of silver and brings it to me I will give him a talent of silver as a reward.”

⁵After a while, a man from the tribe of Dan came and had in his hand the pouch with the silver talents that he found along the way and he gave it to the owner of the pouch.

⁶And the Danite said to Zebad: “Give me the talent of silver as you promised.”

⁷And the Perizzite said: “No, for there were actually three talents in my pouch and you have already stolen one talent; I mistakenly wrote down the wrong number.”

⁸So both of them came and stood before the king. And the king said to the Perizzite: “Swear to me by AO, that you truly had three talents of silver in your pouch.” And Zebad swore to him.1

⁹And the king continued, saying to the Danite: “Swear to me by AO, that you only found two talents of silver the pouch.” And he swore to him by AO.

¹⁰And David said to Zebad: “Give the pouch with the talents back to the Danite, because this is his money that AO has given to him by chance.

¹¹Now, go and write on the city gates: ‘Whoever finds the pouch with three talents should bring it to me,’ because this is not your pouch.”

¹²And David took the pouch with the talents of silver from the hand of the Perizzite and gave it to the Danite.

¹³And the Danite bowed his head and prostrated himself to the earth and said, “Long live my lord, King David, for ever!”

¹⁴And all Israel heard of this judgment and they marveled over David and were overjoyed; because they saw that he was full of the wisdom of AO.