1 Samuel 23 - 24

David Saves Keilah

Then they told David, saying, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are pillaging the threshing floors.” 2 So David asked of Yahweh, saying, “Shall I go and strike these Philistines?” And Yahweh said to David, “Go and strike the Philistines and save Keilah.” 3 But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the battle lines of the Philistines?” 4 Then David asked of Yahweh once more. And Yahweh answered him and said, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” 5 So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines; and he led away their livestock and struck them with a great slaughter. Thus David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. 6 Now it happened when Abiathar the son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, that he came down with an ephod in his hand. 7 Then it was told to Saul that David had come to Keilah, so Saul said, “God has delivered him into my hand, for he shut himself in by entering a city with double gates and bars.” 8 Then Saul summoned all the people for battle, to go down to Keilah to besiege David and his men. 9 But David knew that Saul was plotting evil against him; so he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” 10 Then David said, “O Yahweh, the God of Israel, Your slave has heard for certain that Saul is seeking to come to Keilah to make the city a ruin on my account. 11 Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down just as Your slave has heard? O Yahweh, the God of Israel, I pray, tell Your slave.” And Yahweh said, “He will come down.” 12 Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And Yahweh said, “They will surrender you.” 13 Then David and his men, about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. Now it was told to Saul that David had escaped from Keilah, so he ceased going out in pursuit. 14 And David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day, but God did not give him into his hand.

Saul Pursues David

15 Then David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. Now David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. 16 So Jonathan, Saul’s son, arose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in God. 17 And he said to him, “Do not be afraid, because the hand of Saul my father will not find you, and you will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you; and Saul my father knows that also.” 18 So the two of them cut a covenant before Yahweh; and David stayed at Horesh while Jonathan went to his house. 19 Then Ziphites came up to Saul at Gibeah, saying, “Is David not hiding with us in the strongholds at Horesh, on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the south of Jeshimon? 20 So now, O king, according to all the desire of your soul to come down, come down here; and our part shall be to surrender him into the king’s hand.” 21 And Saul said, “May you be blessed of Yahweh, for you have had compassion on me. 22 Go now, make more sure, and know and see his place—where his very foot is—and who has seen him there; for I am told that he is very crafty. 23 So see and know about all the hiding places where he hides himself and return to me with certainty, and I will go with you; and if he is in the land, I will search him out among all the thousands of Judah.” 24 Then they arose and went to Ziph before Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Maon, in the Arabah to the south of Jeshimon. 25 So Saul and his men went to seek him, and they told David, and he came down to the rock and stayed in the wilderness of Maon. And Saul heard it and pursued David in the wilderness of Maon. 26 And Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men on the other side of the mountain; and David was hurrying to get away from Saul, but Saul and his men were surrounding David and his men to seize them. 27 But a messenger came to Saul, saying, “Hurry and come, for the Philistines have made a raid on the land.” 28 So Saul returned from pursuing David and went to meet the Philistines; therefore they called that place the Rock of Escape. 29 Then David went up from there and stayed in the strongholds of Engedi.

David Does Not Kill Saul

Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, saying, “Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.” 2 Then Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats. 3 And he came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave; and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the inner recesses of the cave. 4 Then the men of David said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which Yahweh said to you, ‘Behold, I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good in your eyes.’” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly. 5 And it happened afterward that David’s heart struck him because he had cut off the edge of Saul’s robe. 6 So he said to his men, “Far be it from me because of Yahweh that I should do this thing to my lord, the anointed of Yahweh, to send forth my hand against him, since he is the anointed of Yahweh.” 7 And David tore his men to pieces with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way. 8 Now afterward David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself. 9 And David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of men, saying, ‘Behold, David seeks to do you evil’? 10 Behold, this day your eyes have seen that Yahweh had given you today into my hand in the cave, and some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you; and I said, ‘I will not send forth my hand against my lord, for he is the anointed of Yahweh.’ 11 Now, my father, see! Indeed, see the edge of your robe in my hand! For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and did not kill you, know and see that there is no evil or transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it. 12 May Yahweh judge between you and me, and may Yahweh avenge me on you; but my hand shall not be against you. 13 As the proverb of the ancients says, ‘Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness’; but my hand shall not be against you. 14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? After a dead dog, after a single flea? 15 Therefore Yahweh be judge and execute justice between you and me; and may He see and plead my cause and execute justice for me to escape from your hand.” 16 Now it happened that when David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept. 17 And he said to David, “You are more righteous than I; for you have dealt well with me, while I have dealt evil with you. 18 And you have declared today that you have done good to me, that Yahweh surrendered me into your hand, and yet you did not kill me. 19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? May Yahweh therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day. 20 So now, behold, I know that you will surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. 21 So now swear to me by Yahweh that you will not cut off my seed after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father’s household.” 22 So David swore to Saul. And Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the fortress.

Hebrews 12

Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of Faith

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, laying aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary, fainting in heart.

The Father’s Discipline

4 You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,

Nor faint when you are reproved by Him;

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,

And He flogs every son whom He receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness. 11 And all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful, but to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. 12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed. 14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord, 15 seeing to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; 16 that also there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.

Contrast of Sinai and Zion

18 For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, 19 and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear what was being commanded, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” 21 And so terrible was what appeared, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the festal gathering and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

An Unshakable Kingdom

25 See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. 26 And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” 27 Now this expression, “Yet once more,” indicates the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, so that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; 29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Proverbs 20

Hope in Yahweh and He Will Save You

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler,

And whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

The terror of a king is like the roar of a lion;

He who provokes him to anger sins against his own soul.

It is a glory for a man to cease quarreling,

But any ignorant fool will break out in dispute.

The sluggard does not plow from winter on,

So he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water,

But a man of discernment draws it out.

Many a man will call out his own lovingkindness,

But a faithful man, who can find?

A righteous man who walks in his integrity—

How blessed are his sons after him.

A king who sits on the throne of justice

Disperses all evil with his eyes.

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure,

I am clean from my sin”?

Differing weights and differing measures,

Both of them are an abomination to Yahweh.

It is by his deeds that a young man makes himself known

If his conduct is pure and right.

The hearing ear and the seeing eye,

Yahweh has made both of them.

Do not love sleep, lest you become poor;

Open your eyes, and you will be satisfied with food.

“Bad, bad,” says the buyer,

But when he goes his way, then he boasts.

There is gold, and an abundance of pearls;

But the lips of knowledge are a more precious vessel.

Take his garment when he becomes a guarantor for a stranger;

And for foreigners, hold him in pledge.

Bread obtained by lying is sweet to a man,

But afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

Thoughts are established by counsel,

So make war by guidance.

He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets,

Therefore do not associate with one of loose lips.

He who curses his father or his mother,

His lamp will go out in the midst of darkness.

An inheritance gained hurriedly at the beginning

In the end will not be blessed.

Do not say, “I will repay evil”;

Hope in Yahweh, and He will save you.

Differing weights are an abomination to Yahweh,

And a deceitful balance is not good.

The steps of a man are from Yahweh,

How then can man understand his way?

It is a trap for a man to say rashly, “It is holy!”

And after the vows to make inquiry.

A wise king winnows the wicked,

And turns the threshing wheel over them.

The breath of man is the lamp of Yahweh,

Searching all the innermost parts of his body.

Lovingkindness and truth will guard the king,

And he upholds his throne by lovingkindness.

The honor of young men is their strength,

And the majesty of old men is their gray hair.

Stripes that wound scour away evil,

And strokes reach the innermost parts of the body.