¹Now it happened, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, “Take note! David is in the Wilderness of En Gedi.” ²Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel, and went to seek David and his men on the Rocks of the Wild Goats. ³So he came to the sheepfolds by the road, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to attend to his needs. (David and his men were staying in the recesses of the cave.) ⁴Then the men of David said to him, “This is the day of which the Lᴏʀᴅ said to you, ‘Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hand, that you may do to him as it seems good to you.’ ” And David arose and secretly cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. ⁵Now it happened afterward that David’s heart troubled him because he had cut Saul’s robe. ⁶And he said to his men, “The Lᴏʀᴅ forbid that I should do this thing to my master, the Lᴏʀᴅ’s anointed, to stretch out my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lᴏʀᴅ.” ⁷So David restrained his servants with these words, and did not allow them to rise against Saul. And Saul got up from the cave and went on his way. ⁸David also arose afterward, went out of the cave, and called out to Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David stooped with his face to the earth, and bowed down. ⁹And David said to Saul: “Why do you listen to the words of men who say, ‘Indeed David seeks your harm’? ¹⁰Look, this day your eyes have seen that the Lᴏʀᴅ delivered you today into my hand in the cave, and someone urged me to kill you. But my eye spared you, and I said, ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is the Lᴏʀᴅ’s anointed.’ ¹¹Moreover, my father, see! Yes, see the corner of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the corner of your robe, and did not kill you, know and see that there is neither evil nor rebellion in my hand, and I have not sinned against you. Yet you hunt my life to take it. ¹²Let the Lᴏʀᴅ judge between you and me, and let the Lᴏʀᴅ avenge me on you. But my hand shall not be against you. ¹³As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Wickedness proceeds from the wicked.’ But my hand shall not be against you. ¹⁴After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom do you pursue? A dead dog? A flea? ¹⁵Therefore let the Lᴏʀᴅ be judge, and judge between you and me, and see and plead my case, and deliver me out of your hand.” ¹⁶So it was, when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, that Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” And Saul lifted up his voice and wept. ¹⁷Then he said to David: “You are more righteous than I; for you have rewarded me with good, whereas I have rewarded you with evil. ¹⁸And you have shown this day how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lᴏʀᴅ delivered me into your hand, you did not kill me. ¹⁹For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him get away safely? Therefore may the Lᴏʀᴅ reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. ²⁰And now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. ²¹Therefore swear now to me by the Lᴏʀᴅ that you will not cut off my descendants after me, and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s house.” ²²So David swore to Saul. And Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

¹It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles—that a man has his father’s wife! ²And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you. ³For I indeed, as absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged (as though I were present) him who has so done this deed. ⁴In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁵deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. ⁶Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? ⁷Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. ⁸Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. ⁹I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. ¹⁰Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. ¹¹But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone named a brother, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. ¹²For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? ¹³But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

¹Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” ²So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll. ³And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your stomach with this scroll that I give you.” So I ate, and it was in my mouth like honey in sweetness. ⁴Then He said to me: “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. ⁵For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, but to the house of Israel, ⁶not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. ⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you, because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. ⁸Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your forehead strong against their foreheads. ⁹Like adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.” ¹⁰Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears. ¹¹And go, get to the captives, to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God,’ whether they hear, or whether they refuse.” ¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a great thunderous voice: “Blessed is the glory of the Lᴏʀᴅ from His place!” ¹³I also heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, and a great thunderous noise. ¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the Lᴏʀᴅ was strong upon me. ¹⁵Then I came to the captives at Tel Abib, who dwelt by the River Chebar; and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days. ¹⁶Now it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lᴏʀᴅ came to me, saying, ¹⁷“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me: ¹⁸When I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. ¹⁹Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul. ²⁰Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; also you will have delivered your soul.” ²²Then the hand of the Lᴏʀᴅ was upon me there, and He said to me, “Arise, go out into the plain, and there I shall talk with you.” ²³So I arose and went out into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lᴏʀᴅ stood there, like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell on my face. ²⁴Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and spoke with me and said to me: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. ²⁵And you, O son of man, surely they will put ropes on you and bind you with them, so that you cannot go out among them. ²⁶I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and not be one to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious house. ²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lᴏʀᴅ God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

¹To the Chief Musician. To Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.” ²I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; And my sorrow was stirred up. ³My heart was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke with my tongue: ⁴“Lord, make me to know my end, And what is the measure of my days, That I may know how frail I am. ⁵Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah ⁶Surely every man walks about like a shadow; Surely they busy themselves in vain; He heaps up riches, And does not know who will gather them. ⁷“And now, Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in You. ⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions; Do not make me the reproach of the foolish. ⁹I was mute, I did not open my mouth, Because it was You who did it. ¹⁰Remove Your plague from me; I am consumed by the blow of Your hand. ¹¹When with rebukes You correct man for iniquity, You make his beauty melt away like a moth; Surely every man is vapor. Selah ¹²“Hear my prayer, O Lᴏʀᴅ, And give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner, as all my fathers were. ¹³Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, Before I go away and am no more.”