1 Samuel 19–21
1 And Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul’s son, delighted very much in David. 2 Jonathan told David, saying, “My father Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, be on guard in the morning; stay in a secret place and hide yourself. 3 And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. Then I will speak about you to my father, and what I observe I will report to you.”
4 Jonathan spoke positively of David to Saul his father and said to him, “Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David, because he has not sinned against you, and because his deeds have been very good toward you. 5 For he took his life in his hand and struck down the Philistine, and the Lord made a great salvation for all Israel. You saw it and rejoiced. Now why then would you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without cause?”
6 So Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan and Saul vowed, “As the Lord lives, he will not be killed.”
7 Jonathan called David, and Jonathan reported to him all these words. Then Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as previously.
8 Then there was war again, and David went out and fought with the Philistines. He slew them with a great slaughter and they fled from him.
9 Now an evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. And David was playing the lyre. 10 Then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he escaped from Saul’s presence. He struck the spear into the wall. But David fled and escaped that night.
11 Saul also sent messengers to the house of David, to watch him and to slay him in the morning. But Michal, wife of David, told him, saying, “If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be dead.” 12 So Michal let David down through a window, and he went and fled to safety. 13 Michal took an idol and laid it in the bed, and put a braided goat hair pillow for its head and covered it with clothes.
14 When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”
15 Saul sent the messengers again to see David, saying, “Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him.” 16 When the messengers came in, there was the idol in the bed with a goat hair pillow for its head.
17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you betrayed me and sent away my enemy, so that he escaped?”
And Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go. Why should I kill you?’”
18 Now David fled, and he escaped and came to Samuel at Ramah. And he reported to him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and stayed in Naioth. 19 It was told Saul, saying, “David is at Naioth in Ramah.” 20 Then Saul sent messengers to take David, but when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying and Samuel taking his stand over them, the Spirit of God came upon the messengers of Saul and they also prophesied. 21 When it was reported to Saul, he sent other messengers. And they also prophesied. So Saul sent messengers again a third time, and they too prophesied. 22 Then he also went to Ramah and came to the great well that is in Seku. And he asked and said, “Where are Samuel and David?”
And one said, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.”
23 He went there to Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God came upon him also. And he went on and he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. 24 He stripped off his clothes and he also prophesied before Samuel. And he lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
Chapter 20
1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my offense? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”
2 And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Look, my father does nothing either great or small that he does not reveal to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.”
3 David vowed again and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your sight. And he says, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be distressed.’ However, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”
4 Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do it for you.”
5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go that I may hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day. 6 If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David asked for leave from me that he might run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7 If he says, ‘Good,’ it will be well for your servant. But if he gets angry, know that evil is determined by him. 8 Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any guilt in me, kill me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father?”
9 Then Jonathan said, “Far be it from you. For if I indeed knew that my father had determined evil against you, would I not tell it you?”
10 David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me? Or what if your father answers you roughly?”
11 So Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” And the two of them went out to the field.
12 Then Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or by the third day, and if he is favorable toward David, then will I not send and reveal it to you? 13 May the Lord do so to Jonathan and much more. If it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will reveal it you and send you away that you may go in peace. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father. 14 And if I live, not only will you show me the kindness of the Lord, that I shall not die, 15 but you will not cut off your faithfulness from my house forever, even when the Lord has cut off each one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, “May the Lord require it at the hand of the enemies of David.” 17 Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18 Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 When you have stayed three days, you will surely go down and come to the place where you hid yourself on the day this happened, and wait there beside the stone Ezel. 20 And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as though I shot at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the boy, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then come, for it will be safe for you. And as the Lord lives, it is nothing of concern. 22 But if I say to the young man, ‘See, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for the Lord has sent you away. 23 As for the matter upon which you and I have spoken, the Lord is between you and me forever.”
24 So David hid himself in the field. And when the New Moon appeared, the king sat down over food to eat. 25 Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on a seat by the wall. Then Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Nevertheless Saul did not say anything that day. For he thought, “Something has happened. He is not clean; surely he is not clean.” 27 It happened on the following day, which was the second day of the month, that David’s place remained empty. So Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why has the son of Jesse not come to eat food either yesterday or today?”
28 And Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked leave from me to go to Bethlehem. 29 And he said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city and my brother has commanded me to come. Now, if I have found favor in your sight, please let me leave and see my brothers.’ This is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul was angry with Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you are choosing the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now, send and bring him to me, for he is a dead man.”
32 Jonathan answered Saul his father and said to him, “Why should he be killed? What has he done?” 33 So Saul cast a spear at him to strike him. Therefore Jonathan knew that his father was determined to kill David.
34 And Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger and did not eat food on the second day of the month. For he was grieved for David, because his father had dishonored him.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out to the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy was with him. 36 And he said to his boy, “Run, find the arrows which I shoot.” He ran, and he shot the arrow over him. 37 When the boy came to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan called after the boy and said, “Is not the arrow beyond you?” 38 Then Jonathan cried after the boy, “Hurry quickly! Do not stay!” And Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrow and came to his master. 39 But the boy did not know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.”
41 When the boy had gone, David arose from the south side of the stone, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another and wept together, but David wept more.
42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since the two of us swore in the name of the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will be between me and you, and between my descendants and your descendants forever.’” So he arose and departed, but Jonathan went into the city.
Chapter 21
1 Then David came to Nob to Ahimelek the priest. And Ahimelek trembled coming to meet David and said to him, “Why are you alone and no man is with you?”
2 And David said to Ahimelek the priest, “The king commanded me a matter and said to me, ‘Let no man know anything of the business which I am sending you and what I have commanded you.’ But to the young men I made known a certain place to meet. 3 Now therefore what is in your hand? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever can be found.”
4 The priest answered David and said, “There is no common bread at hand. But there is holy bread, if the young men have indeed been kept from women.”
5 David answered the priest and said to him, “Indeed women have been kept from us. As previously, when I went out the vessels of the young men were holy even if it was an ordinary journey. How much more then today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him holy bread. For there was no bread there but the showbread that was removed from before the Lord, in order to place hot bread there on the day when it was taken away.
7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg, the Edomite, chief of the shepherds of Saul.
8 David said to Ahimelek, “Is there not a spear or a sword here at hand? For neither my sword nor my weapons did I bring with me, because the king’s business was urgent.”
9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, is here, wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it. For there is none other but that here.”
And David said, “There is none like it. Give it me.”
10 David arose and fled that day from Saul. And he went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 The servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing with dances for him, saying,
‘Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”
12 And David took these words to heart and greatly feared Achish the king of Gath. 13 Therefore he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands. And he scratched on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.
14 Then said Achish to his servants, “You see the man is acting like a madman. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Am I one who lacks lunatics, that you brought this one to behave as a madman in my presence? Will this man come into my house?”
Luke 11:29–54
29 When the crowds pressed upon Him, He began to say, “This is an evil generation. It looks for a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. 30 For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. 31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And now one greater than Solomon is here. 32 The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And now one greater than Jonah is here.
33 “No one, when he has lit a candle, puts it in a secret place or under a basket, but on a candlestick, that those who come in may see the light. 34 The eye is the lamp of the body. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light. But when your eye is bad, your body also is full of darkness. 35 Take heed therefore lest the light which is in you is darkness. 36 If your whole body, then, is full of light, no part being dark, the whole body will be full of light, as when the shining candle gives you light.”
37 As He spoke, a Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and sat down to eat. 38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that He had not first washed before dinner.
39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish. But inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give alms from what is within. And then all things are clean to you.
42 “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb and pass over justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
43 “Woe to you, Pharisees! For you love the prominent seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.
44 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like unseen graves, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
45 One of the lawyers answered, “Teacher, by saying these things You insult us also.”
46 He said, “Woe to you also, you lawyers! For you load men with burdens difficult to carry, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48 So you are witnesses and entirely approve the deeds of your fathers, because they killed them, and you build their tombs. 49 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute,’ 50 that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the beginning of the world, may be required from this generation, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it shall be required from this generation.
52 “Woe to you, lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”
53 As He said these things to them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to incite Him vehemently and angrily draw Him out concerning many things, 54 lying in wait for Him and seeking to catch something out of His mouth, that they might accuse Him.