¹Then Samuel died; and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him, and buried him at his home in Ramah. And David arose and went down to the Wilderness of Paran. ²Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel, and the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³The name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. And she was a woman of good understanding and beautiful appearance; but the man was harsh and evil in his doings. And he was of the house of Caleb. ⁴When David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep, ⁵David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. ⁶And thus you shall say to him who lives in prosperity: ‘Peace be to you, peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! ⁷Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds were with us, and we did not hurt them, nor was there anything missing from them all the while they were in Carmel. ⁸Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’ ” ⁹So when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in the name of David, and waited. ¹⁰Then Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, “Who is David, and who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who break away each one from his master. ¹¹Shall I then take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?” ¹²So David’s young men turned on their heels and went back; and they came and told him all these words. ¹³Then David said to his men, “Every man gird on his sword.” So every man girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword. And about four hundred men went with David, and two hundred stayed with the supplies. ¹⁴Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master; and he reviled them. ¹⁵But the men were very good to us, and we were not hurt, nor did we miss anything as long as we accompanied them, when we were in the fields. ¹⁶They were a wall to us both by night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep. ¹⁷Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his household. For he is such a scoundrel that one cannot speak to him.” ¹⁸Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five seahs of roasted grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹And she said to her servants, “Go on before me; see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰So it was, as she rode on the donkey, that she went down under cover of the hill; and there were David and his men, coming down toward her, and she met them. ²¹Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belongs to him. And he has repaid me evil for good. ²²May God do so, and more also, to the enemies of David, if I leave one male of all who belong to him by morning light.” ²³Now when Abigail saw David, she hastened to dismount from the donkey, fell on her face before David, and bowed down to the ground. ²⁴So she fell at his feet and said: “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant. ²⁵Please, let not my lord regard this scoundrel Nabal. For as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your maidservant, did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent. ²⁶Now therefore, my lord, as the Lᴏʀᴅ lives and as your soul lives, since the Lᴏʀᴅ has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be as Nabal. ²⁷And now this present which your maidservant has brought to my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord. ²⁸Please forgive the trespass of your maidservant. For the Lᴏʀᴅ will certainly make for my lord an enduring house, because my lord fights the battles of the Lᴏʀᴅ, and evil is not found in you throughout your days. ²⁹Yet a man has risen to pursue you and seek your life, but the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lᴏʀᴅ your God; and the lives of your enemies He shall sling out, as from the pocket of a sling. ³⁰And it shall come to pass, when the Lᴏʀᴅ has done for my lord according to all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and has appointed you ruler over Israel, ³¹that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause, or that my lord has avenged himself. But when the Lᴏʀᴅ has dealt well with my lord, then remember your maidservant.” ³²Then David said to Abigail: “Blessed is the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! ³³And blessed is your advice and blessed are you, because you have kept me this day from coming to bloodshed and from avenging myself with my own hand. ³⁴For indeed, as the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel lives, who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hastened and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” ³⁵So David received from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have heeded your voice and respected your person.” ³⁶Now Abigail went to Nabal, and there he was, holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk; therefore she told him nothing, little or much, until morning light. ³⁷So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone. ³⁸Then it came about, after about ten days, that the Lᴏʀᴅ struck Nabal, and he died. ³⁹So when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lᴏʀᴅ, who has pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and has kept His servant from evil! For the Lᴏʀᴅ has returned the wickedness of Nabal on his own head.” And David sent and proposed to Abigail, to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰When the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her saying, “David sent us to you, to ask you to become his wife.” ⁴¹Then she arose, bowed her face to the earth, and said, “Here is your maidservant, a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” ⁴²So Abigail rose in haste and rode on a donkey, attended by five of her maidens; and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife. ⁴³David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and so both of them were his wives. ⁴⁴But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from Gallim.

¹Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ²Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? ³Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? ⁴If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? ⁵I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? ⁶But brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers! ⁷Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? ⁸No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and you do these things to your brethren! ⁹Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, ¹⁰nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. ¹²All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. ¹³Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. ¹⁴And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power. ¹⁵Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! ¹⁶Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” ¹⁷But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. ¹⁸Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. ¹⁹Or 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? ²⁰For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

¹“You also, son of man, take a clay tablet and lay it before you, and portray on it a city, Jerusalem. ²Lay siege against it, build a siege wall against it, and heap up a mound against it; set camps against it also, and place battering rams against it all around. ³Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel. ⁴“Lie also on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel upon it. According to the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity. ⁵For I have laid on you the years of their iniquity, according to the number of the days, three hundred and ninety days; so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. ⁶And when you have completed them, lie again on your right side; then you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days. I have laid on you a day for each year. ⁷Therefore you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem; your arm shall be uncovered, and you shall prophesy against it. ⁸And surely I will restrain you so that you cannot turn from one side to another till you have ended the days of your siege. ⁹“Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel, and make bread of them for yourself. During the number of days that you lie on your side, three hundred and ninety days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰And your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat it. ¹¹You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin; from time to time you shall drink. ¹²And you shall eat it as barley cakes; and bake it using fuel of human waste in their sight.” ¹³Then the Lᴏʀᴅ said, “So shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, where I will drive them.” ¹⁴So I said, “Ah, Lᴏʀᴅ God! Indeed I have never defiled myself from my youth till now; I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has abominable flesh ever come into my mouth.” ¹⁵Then He said to me, “See, I am giving you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your bread over it.” ¹⁶Moreover He said to me, “Son of man, surely I will cut off the supply of bread in Jerusalem; they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and shall drink water by measure and with dread, ¹⁷that they may lack bread and water, and be dismayed with one another, and waste away because of their iniquity.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lᴏʀᴅ; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. ²He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. ³He has put a new song in my mouth— Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lᴏʀᴅ. ⁴Blessed is that man who makes the Lᴏʀᴅ his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies. ⁵Many, O Lᴏʀᴅ my God, are Your wonderful works Which You have done; And Your thoughts toward us Cannot be recounted to You in order; If I would declare and speak of them, They are more than can be numbered. ⁶Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; My ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require. ⁷Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. ⁸I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.” ⁹I have proclaimed the good news of righteousness In the great assembly; Indeed, I do not restrain my lips, O Lᴏʀᴅ, You Yourself know. ¹⁰I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth From the great assembly. ¹¹Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lᴏʀᴅ; Let Your lovingkindness and Your truth continually preserve me. ¹²For innumerable evils have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up; They are more than the hairs of my head; Therefore my heart fails me. ¹³Be pleased, O Lᴏʀᴅ, to deliver me; O Lᴏʀᴅ, make haste to help me! ¹⁴Let them be ashamed and brought to mutual confusion Who seek to destroy my life; Let them be driven backward and brought to dishonor Who wish me evil. ¹⁵Let them be confounded because of their shame, Who say to me, “Aha, aha!” ¹⁶Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; Let such as love Your salvation say continually, “The Lᴏʀᴅ be magnified!” ¹⁷But I am poor and needy; Yet the Lᴏʀᴅ thinks upon me. You are my help and my deliverer; Do not delay, O my God.

¹To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Blessed is he who considers the poor; The Lᴏʀᴅ will deliver him in time of trouble. ²The Lᴏʀᴅ will preserve him and keep him alive, And he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. ³The Lᴏʀᴅ will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed. ⁴I said, “Lord, be merciful to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.” ⁵My enemies speak evil of me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” ⁶And if he comes to see me, he speaks lies; His heart gathers iniquity to itself; When he goes out, he tells it. ⁷All who hate me whisper together against me; Against me they devise my hurt. ⁸“An evil disease,” they say, “clings to him. And now that he lies down, he will rise up no more.” ⁹Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me. ¹⁰But You, O Lᴏʀᴅ, be merciful to me, and raise me up, That I may repay them. ¹¹By this I know that You are well pleased with me, Because my enemy does not triumph over me. ¹²As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And set me before Your face forever. ¹³Blessed be the Lᴏʀᴅ God of Israel From everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.