¹There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish the son of Abiel, the son of Zeror, the son of Bechorath, the son of Aphiah, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. ²And he had a choice and handsome son whose name was Saul. There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. ³Now the donkeys of Kish, Saul’s father, were lost. And Kish said to his son Saul, “Please, take one of the servants with you, and arise, go and look for the donkeys.” ⁴So he passed through the mountains of Ephraim and through the land of Shalisha, but they did not find them. Then they passed through the land of Shaalim, and they were not there. Then he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they did not find them. ⁵When they had come to the land of Zuph, Saul said to his servant who was with him, “Come, let us return, lest my father cease caring about the donkeys and become worried about us.” ⁶And he said to him, “Look now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man; all that he says surely comes to pass. So let us go there; perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.” ⁷Then Saul said to his servant, “But look, if we go, what shall we bring the man? For the bread in our vessels is all gone, and there is no present to bring to the man of God. What do we have?” ⁸And the servant answered Saul again and said, “Look, I have here at hand one fourth of a shekel of silver. I will give that to the man of God, to tell us our way.” ⁹(Formerly in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, he spoke thus: “Come, let us go to the seer”; for he who is now called a prophet was formerly called a seer.) ¹⁰Then Saul said to his servant, “Well said; come, let us go.” So they went to the city where the man of God was. ¹¹As they went up the hill to the city, they met some young women going out to draw water, and said to them, “Is the seer here?” ¹²And they answered them and said, “Yes, there he is, just ahead of you. Hurry now; for today he came to this city, because there is a sacrifice of the people today on the high place. ¹³As soon as you come into the city, you will surely find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. For the people will not eat until he comes, because he must bless the sacrifice; afterward those who are invited will eat. Now therefore, go up, for about this time you will find him.” ¹⁴So they went up to the city. As they were coming into the city, there was Samuel, coming out toward them on his way up to the high place. ¹⁵Now the Lᴏʀᴅ had told Samuel in his ear the day before Saul came, saying, ¹⁶“Tomorrow about this time I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him commander over My people Israel, that he may save My people from the hand of the Philistines; for I have looked upon My people, because their cry has come to me.” ¹⁷And when Samuel saw Saul, the Lᴏʀᴅ said to him, “There he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over My people.” ¹⁸Then Saul drew near to Samuel in the gate, and said, “Please tell me, where is the seer’s house?” ¹⁹And Samuel answered Saul and said, “I am the seer. Go up before me to the high place, for you shall eat with me today; and tomorrow I will let you go and will tell you all that is in your heart. ²⁰But as for your donkeys that were lost three days ago, do not be anxious about them, for they have been found. And on whom is all the desire of Israel? Is it not on you and on all your father’s house?” ²¹And Saul answered and said, “Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?” ²²Now Samuel took Saul and his servant and brought them into the hall, and had them sit in the place of honor among those who were invited; there were about thirty persons. ²³And Samuel said to the cook, “Bring the portion which I gave you, of which I said to you, ‘Set it apart.’ ” ²⁴So the cook took up the thigh with its upper part and set it before Saul. And Samuel said, “Here it is, what was kept back. It was set apart for you. Eat; for until this time it has been kept for you, since I said I invited the people.” So Saul ate with Samuel that day. ²⁵When they had come down from the high place into the city, Samuel spoke with Saul on the top of the house. ²⁶They arose early; and it was about the dawning of the day that Samuel called to Saul on the top of the house, saying, “Get up, that I may send you on your way.” And Saul arose, and both of them went outside, he and Samuel. ²⁷As they were going down to the outskirts of the city, Samuel said to Saul, “Tell the servant to go on ahead of us.” And he went on. “But you stand here awhile, that I may announce to you the word of God.”

¹Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? ²For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. ³So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. ⁴Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. ⁵For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. ⁶But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. ⁷What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. ⁹I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. ¹⁰And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. ¹¹For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. ¹²Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. ¹³Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. ¹⁴For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. ¹⁵For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. ¹⁶If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. ¹⁷But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ¹⁸For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. ¹⁹For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. ²⁰Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. ²¹I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. ²²For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. ²³But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

¹The word of the Lᴏʀᴅ which came to Jeremiah the prophet against the nations. ²Against Egypt. Concerning the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was by the River Euphrates in Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ³“Order the buckler and shield, And draw near to battle! ⁴Harness the horses, And mount up, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets, Polish the spears, Put on the armor! ⁵Why have I seen them dismayed and turned back? Their mighty ones are beaten down; They have speedily fled, And did not look back, For fear was all around,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁶“Do not let the swift flee away, Nor the mighty man escape; They will stumble and fall Toward the north, by the River Euphrates. ⁷“Who is this coming up like a flood, Whose waters move like the rivers? ⁸Egypt rises up like a flood, And its waters move like the rivers; And he says, ‘I will go up and cover the earth, I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.’ ⁹Come up, O horses, and rage, O chariots! And let the mighty men come forth: The Ethiopians and the Libyans who handle the shield, And the Lydians who handle and bend the bow. ¹⁰For this is the day of the Lᴏʀᴅ God of hosts, A day of vengeance, That He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. The sword shall devour; It shall be satiated and made drunk with their blood; For the Lᴏʀᴅ God of hosts has a sacrifice In the north country by the River Euphrates. ¹¹“Go up to Gilead and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt; In vain you will use many medicines; You shall not be cured. ¹²The nations have heard of your shame, And your cry has filled the land; For the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty; They both have fallen together.” ¹³The word that the Lᴏʀᴅ spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon would come and strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴“Declare in Egypt, and proclaim in Migdol; Proclaim in Noph and in Tahpanhes; Say, ‘Stand fast and prepare yourselves, For the sword devours all around you.’ ¹⁵Why are your valiant men swept away? They did not stand Because the Lᴏʀᴅ drove them away. ¹⁶He made many fall; Yes, one fell upon another. And they said, ‘Arise! Let us go back to our own people And to the land of our nativity From the oppressing sword.’ ¹⁷They cried there, ‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. He has passed by the appointed time!’ ¹⁸“As I live,” says the King, Whose name is the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, “Surely as Tabor is among the mountains And as Carmel by the sea, so he shall come. ¹⁹O you daughter dwelling in Egypt, Prepare yourself to go into captivity! For Noph shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant. ²⁰“Egypt is a very pretty heifer, But destruction comes, it comes from the north. ²¹Also her mercenaries are in her midst like fat bulls, For they also are turned back, They have fled away together. They did not stand, For the day of their calamity had come upon them, The time of their punishment. ²²Her noise shall go like a serpent, For they shall march with an army And come against her with axes, Like those who chop wood. ²³“They shall cut down her forest,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ, “Though it cannot be searched, Because they are innumerable, And more numerous than grasshoppers. ²⁴The daughter of Egypt shall be ashamed; She shall be delivered into the hand Of the people of the north.” ²⁵The Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will bring punishment on Amon of No, and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings—Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶And I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of his servants. Afterward it shall be inhabited as in the days of old,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ. ²⁷“But do not fear, O My servant Jacob, And do not be dismayed, O Israel! For behold, I will save you from afar, And your offspring from the land of their captivity; Jacob shall return, have rest and be at ease; No one shall make him afraid. ²⁸Do not fear, O Jacob My servant,” says the Lᴏʀᴅ, “For I am with you; For I will make a complete end of all the nations To which I have driven you, But I will not make a complete end of you. I will rightly correct you, For I will not leave you wholly unpunished.”

¹To the Chief Musician. Set to ‘The Deer of the Dawn.’ A Psalm of David. My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? ²O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the night season, and am not silent. ³But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel. ⁴Our fathers trusted in You; They trusted, and You delivered them. ⁵They cried to You, and were delivered; They trusted in You, and were not ashamed. ⁶But I am a worm, and no man; A reproach of men, and despised by the people. ⁷All those who see Me ridicule Me; They shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, ⁸“He trusted in the Lᴏʀᴅ, let Him rescue Him; Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!” ⁹But You are He who took Me out of the womb; You made Me trust while on My mother’s breasts. ¹⁰I was cast upon You from birth. From My mother’s womb You have been My God. ¹¹Be not far from Me, For trouble is near; For there is none to help. ¹²Many bulls have surrounded Me; Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled Me. ¹³They gape at Me with their mouths, Like a raging and roaring lion. ¹⁴I am poured out like water, And all My bones are out of joint; My heart is like wax; It has melted within Me. ¹⁵My strength is dried up like a potsherd, And My tongue clings to My jaws; You have brought Me to the dust of death. ¹⁶For dogs have surrounded Me; The congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me. They pierced My hands and My feet; ¹⁷I can count all My bones. They look and stare at Me. ¹⁸They divide My garments among them, And for My clothing they cast lots. ¹⁹But You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, do not be far from Me; O My Strength, hasten to help Me! ²⁰Deliver Me from the sword, My precious life from the power of the dog. ²¹Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me. ²²I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will praise You. ²³You who fear the Lᴏʀᴅ, praise Him! All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel! ²⁴For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; Nor has He hidden His face from Him; But when He cried to Him, He heard. ²⁵My praise shall be of You in the great assembly; I will pay My vows before those who fear Him. ²⁶The poor shall eat and be satisfied; Those who seek Him will praise the Lᴏʀᴅ. Let your heart live forever! ²⁷All the ends of the world Shall remember and turn to the Lᴏʀᴅ, And all the families of the nations Shall worship before You. ²⁸For the kingdom is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s, And He rules over the nations. ²⁹All the prosperous of the earth Shall eat and worship; All those who go down to the dust Shall bow before Him, Even he who cannot keep himself alive. ³⁰A posterity shall serve Him. It will be recounted of the Lᴏʀᴅ to the next generation, ³¹They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, That He has done this.