1 Samuel 25
1 Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
2 There was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. This man was very wealthy; he owned 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. 3 The man’s name was Nabal, and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was both wise and beautiful, but the man was harsh and his deeds were evil. He was a Calebite.
4 When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, 5 he sent ten servants, saying to them, “Go up to Carmel to see Nabal and give him greetings in my name. 6 Then you will say to my brother, ‘Peace to you and your house! Peace to all that is yours! 7 Now I hear that they are shearing sheep for you. When your shepherds were with us, we neither insulted them nor harmed them the whole time they were in Carmel. 8 Ask your own servants; they can tell you! May my servants find favor in your sight, for we have come at the time of a holiday. Please provide us—your servants and your son David—with whatever you can spare.’”
9 So David’s servants went and spoke all these words to Nabal in David’s name. Then they paused. 10 But Nabal responded to David’s servants, “Who is David, and who is this son of Jesse? This is a time when many servants are breaking away from their masters! 11 Should I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers and give them to these men? I don’t even know where they came from!”
12 So David’s servants went on their way. When they had returned, they came and told David all these things. 13 Then David instructed his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So each one strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About 400 men followed David, while 200 stayed behind with the equipment.
14 But one of the servants told Nabal’s wife Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our lord, but he screamed at them. 15 These men were very good to us. They did not insult us, nor did we sustain any loss during the entire time we were together in the field. 16 Both night and day they were a protective wall for us the entire time we were with them, while we were tending our flocks. 17 Now be aware of this, and see what you can do. For disaster has been planned for our lord and his entire household. He is such a wicked person that no one tells him anything!”
18 So Abigail quickly took 200 loaves of bread, two containers of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, 100 bunches of raisins, and 200 lumps of pressed figs. She loaded them on donkeys 19 and said to her servants, “Go on ahead of me. I will come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them. 21 Now David had been thinking, “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil. 22 God will severely punish David, if I leave alive until morning even one male from all those who belong to him!”
23 When Abigail saw David, she got down quickly from the donkey, threw herself facedown before David, and bowed to the ground. 24 Falling at his feet, she said, “My lord, I accept all the guilt! But please let your female servant speak to you! Please listen to the words of your servant! 25 My lord should not pay attention to this wicked man Nabal. He simply lives up to his name! His name means ‘fool,’ and he is indeed foolish! But I, your servant, did not see the servants my lord sent.
26 “Now, my lord, as surely as the Lord lives and as surely as you live, it is the Lord who has kept you from shedding blood and taking matters into your own hands. Now may your enemies and those who seek to harm my lord be like Nabal. 27 Now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the servants who follow my lord. 28 Please forgive the sin of your servant, for the Lord will certainly establish a lasting dynasty for my lord, because my lord fights the battles of the Lord. May no evil be found in you all your days! 29 When someone sets out to chase you and to take your life, the life of my lord will be wrapped securely in the bag of the living by the Lord your God. But he will sling away the lives of your enemies from the sling’s pocket! 30 The Lord will do for my lord everything that he promised you, and he will make you a leader over Israel. 31 Your conscience will not be overwhelmed with guilt for having poured out innocent blood and for having taken matters into your own hands. When the Lord has granted my lord success, please remember your servant.”
32 Then David said to Abigail, “Praised be the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you this day to meet me! 33 Praised be your good judgment! May you yourself be rewarded for having prevented me this day from shedding blood and taking matters into my own hands! 34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—he who has prevented me from harming you—if you had not come so quickly to meet me, by morning’s light not even one male belonging to Nabal would have remained alive!” 35 Then David took from her hand what she had brought to him. He said to her, “Go back to your home in peace. Be assured that I have listened to you and responded favorably.”
36 When Abigail went back to Nabal, he was holding a banquet in his house like that of the king. Nabal was having a good time and was very intoxicated. She told him absolutely nothing until morning’s light. 37 In the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him about these matters. He had a stroke and was paralyzed. 38 After about ten days the Lord struck Nabal down and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal had died, he said, “Praised be the Lord who has vindicated me and avenged the insult that I suffered from Nabal! The Lord has kept his servant from doing evil, and he has repaid Nabal for his evil deeds.” Then David sent word to Abigail and asked her to become his wife.
40 So the servants of David went to Abigail at Carmel and said to her, “David has sent us to you to bring you back to be his wife.” 41 She arose, bowed her face toward the ground, and said, “Your female servant, like a lowly servant, will wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” 42 Then Abigail quickly went and mounted her donkey, with five of her female servants accompanying her. She followed David’s messengers and became his wife.
43 David had also married Ahinoam from Jezreel; the two of them became his wives. 44 (Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David’s wife, to Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.)
1 Corinthians 6
1 When any of you has a legal dispute with another, does he dare go to court before the unrighteous rather than before the saints? 2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you not competent to settle trivial suits? 3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary matters! 4 So if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the church? 5 I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians? 6 Instead, does a Christian sue a Christian, and do this before unbelievers? 7 The fact that you have lawsuits among yourselves demonstrates that you have already been defeated. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? 8 But you yourselves wrong and cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters!
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
12 “All things are lawful for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “All things are lawful for me”—but I will not be controlled by anything. 13 “Food is for the stomach and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both.” The body is not for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 Now God indeed raised the Lord and he will raise us by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Should I take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that anyone who is united with a prostitute is one body with her? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But the one united with the Lord is one spirit with him. 18 Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin a person commits is outside of the body”—but the immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body.
Ezekiel 4
1 “And you, son of man, take a brick and set it in front of you. Inscribe a city on it—Jerusalem. 2 Lay siege to it! Build siege works against it. Erect a siege ramp against it! Post soldiers outside it and station battering rams around it. 3 Then for your part take an iron frying pan and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.
4 “Also for your part lie on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel on it. For the number of days you lie on your side you will bear their iniquity. 5 I have determined that the number of the years of their iniquity are to be the number of days for you—390 days. So bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.
6 “When you have completed these days, then lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah 40 days—I have assigned one day for each year. 7 You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 8 Look here: I will tie you up with ropes, so you cannot turn from one side to the other until you complete the days of your siege.
9 “As for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, put them in a single container, and make food from them for yourself. For the same number of days that you lie on your side—390 days—you will eat it. 10 The food you eat will be eight ounces a day by weight; you must eat it at fixed times. 11 And you must drink water by measure, a pint and a half; you must drink it at fixed times. 12 And you must eat the food as you would a barley cake. You must bake it in front of them over a fire made with dried human excrement.” 13 And the Lord said, “This is how the people of Israel will eat their unclean food among the nations where I will banish them.”
14 And I said, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, I have never been ceremonially defiled before. I have never eaten a carcass or an animal torn by wild beasts; from my youth up, unclean meat has never entered my mouth.”
15 So he said to me, “All right then, I will substitute cow’s manure instead of human excrement. You will cook your food over it.”
16 Then he said to me, “Son of man, I am about to remove the bread supply in Jerusalem. They will eat their bread ration anxiously, and they will drink their water ration in terror 17 because they will lack bread and water. Each one will be terrified, and they will rot for their iniquity.
Psalms 40-41
1 I relied completely on the Lord,
and he turned toward me
and heard my cry for help.
2 He lifted me out of the watery pit,
out of the slimy mud.
He placed my feet on a rock
and gave me secure footing.
3 He gave me reason to sing a new song,
praising our God.
May many see what God has done,
so that they might swear allegiance to him and trust in the Lord.
4 How blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord
and does not seek help from the proud or from liars.
5 O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things;
you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us.
No one can thwart you.
I want to declare your deeds and talk about them,
but they are too numerous to recount.
6 Receiving sacrifices and offerings are not your primary concern.
You make that quite clear to me.
You do not ask for burnt sacrifices and sin offerings.
7 Then I say,
“Look, I come!
What is written in the scroll pertains to me.
8 I want to do what pleases you, my God.
Your law dominates my thoughts.”
9 I have told the great assembly about your justice.
Look, I spare no words.
O Lord, you know this is true.
10 I have not failed to tell about your justice;
I spoke about your reliability and deliverance.
I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness.
11 O Lord, you do not withhold your compassion from me.
May your loyal love and faithfulness continually protect me!
12 For innumerable dangers surround me.
My sins overtake me
so I am unable to see;
they outnumber the hairs of my head
so my strength fails me.
13 Please be willing, O Lord, to rescue me!
O Lord, hurry and help me!
14 May those who are trying to snatch away my life
be totally embarrassed and ashamed.
May those who want to harm me
be turned back and ashamed.
15 May those who say to me, “Aha! Aha!”
be humiliated and disgraced.
16 May all those who seek you be happy and rejoice in you.
May those who love to experience your deliverance say continually,
“May the Lord be praised!”
17 I am oppressed and needy.
May the Lord pay attention to me.
You are my helper and my deliverer.
O my God, do not delay.
1 How blessed is the one who treats the poor properly.
When trouble comes, may the Lord deliver him.
2 May the Lord protect him and save his life.
May he be blessed in the land.
Do not turn him over to his enemies.
3 The Lord supports him on his sickbed;
you have healed him from his illness.
4 As for me, I said:
“O Lord, have mercy on me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you.
5 My enemies ask this cruel question about me,
‘When will he finally die and be forgotten?’
6 When someone comes to visit, he pretends to be friendly;
he thinks of ways to defame me,
and when he leaves he slanders me.
7 All who hate me whisper insults about me to one another;
they plan ways to harm me.
8 They say,
‘An awful disease overwhelms him,
and now that he is bedridden he will never recover.’
9 Even my close friend whom I trusted,
he who shared meals with me, has turned against me.
10 As for you, O Lord, have mercy on me and raise me up,
so I can pay them back!”
11 By this I know that you are pleased with me,
for my enemy does not triumph over me.
12 As for me, you uphold me because of my integrity;
you allow me permanent access to your presence.
13 The Lord God of Israel deserves praise
in the future and forevermore.
We agree! We agree!
