Old/New Testament
Chapter 19
Jonathan Defends David.[a] 1 Saul told his son Jonathan and all his servants that they should kill David, but Jonathan, Saul’s son, was very fond of David. 2 Jonathan informed David about it saying, “Saul, my father, is seeking to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning. Stay in some secret place and hide there. 3 I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are. I will speak to him about you, and I will tell you what I discover.”
4 Jonathan spoke well of David to his father Saul. He said to him, “May the king not wrong his servant David, for he has not wronged you. What he has done has only been to your benefit. 5 He risked his life when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all of Israel. You saw it and you rejoiced. Why would you sin against innocent blood by killing David for no reason?”
6 Saul listened to Jonathan, and Saul swore, “As the Lord lives, he will not be killed.” 7 Jonathan then called David, and Jonathan informed him about all these things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence as he had been before.
8 War broke out again, and David went out to fight against the Philistines. He struck them down, slaughtering many, and they fled from him.
David Is Saved by Michal. 9 Now an evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul, and he was sitting in his house, holding a javelin in his hand while David was playing some music. 10 Saul tried to pin David to the wall with the javelin, but he eluded Saul, and he drove the javelin into the wall. That night David fled and escaped.
11 [b]Saul sent deputies to David’s house to watch for him and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, “If you do not save yourself tonight, you will be killed tomorrow.” 12 So Michal lowered David down through a window, and he fled and escaped.
13 Michal took a teraphim and laid it on the bed, and she placed a goat’s hair pillow where his head would be, and she covered it over with clothes.[c] 14 When Saul sent deputies to seize David, she said, “He is sick.” 15 Saul sent the deputies back to look for David saying, “Bring him back to me on a litter so I can kill him.” 16 When the deputies arrived, they found the teraphim in the bed with the pillow of goat’s hair where the head would be.
17 Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me by sending away my enemy so that he could escape?” Michal said to Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go or I will kill you.’ ”
18 David, Samuel, and Saul in Ramah. When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel in Ramah and told him everything that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went to Naioth and they stayed there.
19 Saul heard that David was in Naioth in Ramah. 20 [d]He sent deputies to capture David. They saw a band of prophets there prophesying, and Samuel was their leader. The Spirit of God rushed upon Saul’s deputies, and they prophesied as well. 21 Saul was told about it, and he sent other deputies, but they prophesied as well. A third time Saul sent deputies, but they also prophesied.
22 Saul and the Prophets. Finally, he himself went to Ramah, and he came to the great well in Secu. He asked, “Where are Samuel and David?” Someone told him, “They are at Naioth in Ramah.” 23 So he went to Naioth in Ramah, and the Spirit of God rushed upon him, too. He walked along, prophesying, until he arrived at Naioth. 24 He stripped off his clothes and he prophesied as he had in Samuel’s presence. He laid down naked all that day and all that night. This is why they say, “Is Saul also one of the prophets?”
Chapter 20
David and Jonathan’s Friendship. 1 David fled from Naioth in Ramah and he went to Jonathan and said, “What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father that he is trying to take my life?” 2 He answered him, “You will surely not die! Everything that my father does, whether it is important or insignificant, he confides to me. Why would my father hide this from me? It is just not so.” 3 But David swore an oath saying, “Your father knows very well that you like me, so he said to himself, ‘I will not let Jonathan know about it, lest he be grieved by it.’ As the Lord lives and as you live, there is only one step between me and death.”
4 So Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you want me to do for you, I will do it.” 5 David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the new moon celebration,[e] and I am supposed to dine with the king. Let me go and hide myself in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6 If your father should miss me, tell him, ‘David begged me for permission to hurry to Bethlehem because they are offering an annual sacrifice there for the whole clan.’ 7 If he says, ‘That is fine,’ then your servant is safe. But if he becomes very angry, you can be sure that he is plotting harm. 8 Deal kindly with your servant, for you have entered into a covenant before the Lord with your servant. If I am guilty, kill me yourself, why should you hand me over to your father?”
9 Jonathan answered, “Never! If I knew for sure that my father was planning to harm you, would I not tell you?” 10 David asked Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father’s answer is harsh?” 11 Jonathan said, “Come. Let us go out into the field.” So they went out into the field together. 12 Jonathan said to David, “By the Lord, the God of Israel, by this time on the day after tomorrow, I will have sounded out my father. If he is well disposed toward David, will I not send word to you to let you know? 13 Otherwise, may the Lord do this and more to Jonathan. But if my father wishes to harm you, I will send you away so that you can be safe. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14 Only will you not treat me with the Lord’s kindness as long as I live, so that I not be killed? 15 Never cease being kind to my family, even when the Lord has eliminated all of David’s enemies from the face of the earth.”
16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on all of David’s enemies.” 17 Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him, for he loved him more than he loved himself.
18 Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is a new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty. 19 The day after tomorrow, hurry down to the place where you hid yourself when this trouble began, and stay by the stone of Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows off to the side of it, as if I were shooting at a target. 21 Then I will send a boy out saying, ‘Go and find the arrows.’ If I say to him, ‘Look, the arrows are on this side of you. Bring them,’ then, as the Lord lives, you are safe, there is no danger. 22 But if I say to the boy, ‘Look, the arrows are ahead of you,’ then go on your way, for the Lord is sending you. 23 The Lord is a witness between me and you forever in regard to the things about which we have spoken.”
24 David’s Absence. So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon celebration began and the king sat down to eat, 25 the king sat in his usual place by the wall. Jonathan sat facing him, and Abner was sitting by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26 Saul did not say anything that day, because he thought, “Something must have happened to him so that he is impure, surely he is unclean.”[f]
27 But the next day, the second day of the month, David’s place was still empty. Saul asked Jonathan, his son, “Why did the son of Jesse not come to eat yesterday nor today?” 28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said to me, ‘Please let me go, for our family is offering a sacrifice in the city. My brother has told me to be there. If I have found favor with you, please, let me leave to go to see my brothers.’This is why he has not come to the king’s table.” 30 Saul became angry at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman. I knew that you sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and the shame of your mother’s nakedness. 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives upon the earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be stable. Send for him and bring him to me, for he must die.”[g] 32 Jonathan answered Saul, his father, saying, “Why must he die? What has he done?” 33 Saul cast a javelin at him to kill him. Jonathan thus knew that his father intended to kill David.
34 Jonathan was enraged and he got up from table. He did not eat on the second day of the month because he was angry at his father for the shameful way he had treated David.
35 Jonathan Warns David. The next morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had arranged with David. He had a small boy with him. 36 He said to the boy, “Run, find the arrows that I shoot.” The boy ran off, and he shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy arrived at the place that Jonathan had shot the arrow, Jonathan said, “Is the arrow not ahead of you?” 38 Then Jonathan cried out to the boy, “Hurry, run, do not stop!” The boy picked up Jonathan’s arrows and returned to his master. 39 (The boy did not know anything about this, only Jonathan and David knew what was happening.)
40 Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy and said, “Go, carry them into the city.” 41 After the boy had left, David got up from the south side of the place, and he bowed down three times before him, face to the ground. They kissed one another, and they wept over one another, David more so. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, since we have both sworn in the name of the Lord saying, ‘May the Lord be between me and you, between my descendants and your descendants, forever.’ ” He got up and left, and Jonathan went back into the city.
Chapter 21
The Priest and the Holy Band. 1 David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech was afraid when he encountered David and he said to him, “Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?” 2 David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king sent me on some business, and he said to me, ‘Do not let anyone know anything about this task on which I am sending you or what I commanded you to do.’ I have sent my young men to such and such a place. 3 Now, therefore, what do you have at hand? Give me five loaves of bread or whatever can be found.”
4 The priest answered David saying, “I do not have any regular bread at hand, but there is consecrated bread, if the young men have abstained from being with women.” 5 David answered the priest saying, “We have assuredly abstained from being with women these three days since I set out. The young men’s gear is consecrated even on missions that are not consecrated. How much more is their gear consecrated today.”
6 So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, because there was no other bread than the shewbread. The shewbread had been removed from before the Lord and taken away when it was replaced by the hot bread.[h]
7 One of Saul’s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg, the Edomite, and he was Saul’s chief shepherd.
Goliath’s Sword. 8 David asked Ahimelech, “Do you have a spear or a sword at hand? I did not bring either my sword nor any other weapon because the king’s mission had to be done in haste.” 9 The priest answered, “The sword of Goliath, the Philistine whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod.[i] If you want it, take it, because it is the only one here.” David said, “There is none like it, give it to me.”
10 That day David rose up and fled because he was afraid of Saul. 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? Is he not the one they sing about as they dance, ‘Saul has killed his thousands, David has killed his ten thousands.’ ”
12 David Pretends Insanity. David took these words to heart, and he was terrified of Achish, the king of Gath. 13 He pretended to be out of his mind in front of them. While he was on his hands he would pound on the doors to the gate, and he would drool down his beard. 14 Achish said to his servants, “Look at the man! He is out of his mind! Why did you bring him to me? 15 Am I so in need of people who are out of their mind that you brought me this man who is acting so strange? Must this man come into my house?”
29 The Sign of Jonah.[a] As the crowd continued to increase in number, Jesus said to them, “This is an evil generation. It asks for a sign, but the only sign it will be given is the sign of Jonah. 30 For just as Jonah became a sign to the inhabitants of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation.
31 “On the day of judgment the queen of the south will rise up with the men of this generation and condemn them, because she came from the farthest reaches of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now one greater than Solomon is here. 32 On the day of judgment, the men of Nineveh will rise up with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
33 The Parable of the Lighted Lamp.[b]“No one lights a lamp and then puts it in a cellar or under a basket; rather, he places it upon a lampstand so that people may see the light when they come in.
34 The Lamp of the Body.“Your eyes are the lamp of your body. If your eyes are sound, your whole body will be filled with light. However, if your eyes are diseased, your whole body will be in darkness. 35 See to it then that the light inside you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp illuminates you with its rays.”
37 Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees.[c] When he had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his house. He went in and took his place at table. 38 The Pharisee was surprised to see that he had not first washed[d] before the meal. 39 But the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees cleanse the outside of a cup and dish, but you leave the inside full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not the one who made the outside also make the inside? 41 Let what is inside be given as alms to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
42 “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes[e] of mint and rue and every garden herb, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced these without neglecting the others.
43 “Woe to you Pharisees! You love to have the best seats in synagogues and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces.
44 “Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves[f] upon which people tread without realizing it.”
45 On hearing this, one of the lawyers said, “Teacher when you say such things you are insulting us too.” 46 He replied, “Woe also to you lawyers! For you impose burdens on people that are difficult to bear, but you yourselves do not lift a finger to be of assistance.
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the Prophets whom your ancestors murdered. 48 By acting in this way you bear witness to and approve of what your ancestors did. They killed the Prophets, and you build their tombs.
49 “That is why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them Prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ 50 so that this generation may be charged with the responsibility for the blood of all the Prophets shed since the foundation of the world, 51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah[g] who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will have to answer for it all.
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves did not enter, and you blocked those from entering who were trying to go in.”
53 When he left the house, the scribes and the Pharisees were extremely hostile and they began to interrogate him about many things, 54 hoping to trap him in something he might say in reply.
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