The Lord's Covenant with David

17 ^(A)Now when David lived in his house, David said to Nathan the prophet, “Behold, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” ² And Nathan said to David, “Do all that is in your heart, for God is with you.”

³ But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, ⁴ “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(B)It is not you who will build me a house to dwell in. ⁵ For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up Israel to this day, ^(C)but I have gone from tent to tent and from dwelling to dwelling. ⁶ In all places where I have moved with all Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ ⁷ Now, therefore, thus shall you say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be prince over my people Israel, ⁸ and I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ⁹ And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall waste them no more, as formerly, ¹⁰ from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I ^(D)will subdue all your enemies. Moreover, I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. ¹¹ When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹² He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. ^13 (E)I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, ^(F)as I took it from him who was before you, ¹⁴ but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” ¹⁵ In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

David's Prayer

¹⁶ Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, “Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far? ¹⁷ And this was a small thing in your eyes, O God. You have also spoken of your servant's house for a great while to come, and have shown me future generations,^[a] O Lord God! ¹⁸ And what more can David say to you for honoring your servant? For you know your servant. ^19 (G)For your servant's sake, O Lord, and according to your own heart, you have done all this greatness, in making known all these great things. ²⁰ There is none like you, O Lord, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears. ²¹ And who is like your people Israel, the one^[b] nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making for yourself a name for great and awesome things, in driving out nations before your people whom you redeemed from Egypt? ²² And you made your people Israel to be your people forever, and you, O Lord, became their God. ²³ And now, O Lord, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, ²⁴ and your name will be established and magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, is Israel's God,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you. ²⁵ For you, my God, have revealed to your servant that you will build a house for him. Therefore your servant has found courage to pray before you. ²⁶ And now, O Lord, you are God, and you have promised this good thing to your servant. ²⁷ Now you have been pleased to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue forever before you, for it is you, O Lord, who have blessed, and it is blessed forever.”

Warning Against Worldliness

4 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions^[a] are ^(A)at war within you?^{[b] 2} You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³ You ask and do not receive, because you ask ^(B)wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ^4 (C)You adulterous people!^[c] Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? ^(D)Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵ Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit ^(E)that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶ But ^(F)he gives more grace. Therefore it says, ^(G)“God opposes the proud but ^(H)gives grace to the humble.” ⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. ^(I)Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ^8 (J)Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. ^(K)Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and ^(L)purify your hearts, ^(M)you double-minded. ^9 (N)Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ^10 (O)Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

^11 (P)Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.^[d] The one who speaks against a brother or ^(Q)judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. ¹² There is only ^(R)one lawgiver and ^(S)judge, he who is able to save and ^(T)to destroy. But ^(U)who are you to judge your neighbor?

Boasting About Tomorrow

¹³ Come now, you who say, ^(V)“Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴ yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For ^(W)you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead you ought to say, ^(X)“If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogance. ^(Y)All such boasting is evil. ^17 (Z)So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Jonah Flees the Presence of the Lord

1 Now the word of the Lord came to ^(A)Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ² “Arise, go to ^(B)Nineveh, that ^(C)great city, and call out against it, ^(D)for their evil^[a] has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah ^(E)rose to flee to ^(F)Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to ^(G)Joppa and found a ship going to ^(H)Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to ^(I)Tarshish, ^(J)away from the presence of the Lord.

⁴ But ^(K)the Lord hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened ^(L)to break up. ⁵ Then the mariners were afraid, and ^(M)each cried out to his god. And ^(N)they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. ⁶ So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, ^(O)call out to your god! ^(P)Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

Jonah Is Thrown into the Sea

⁷ And they said to one another, “Come, let us ^(Q)cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us on whose account this evil has come upon us. What is your occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?” ⁹ And he said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I fear ^(R)the Lord, the God of heaven, ^(S)who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰ Then the men were exceedingly afraid and said to him, “What is this that you have done!” For the men knew that ^(T)he was fleeing from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.

¹¹ Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you, that the sea may quiet down for us?” For the sea grew more and more tempestuous. ¹² He said to them, “Pick me up and hurl me into the sea; then the sea will quiet down for you, ^(U)for I know it is because of me that this great tempest has come upon you.” ¹³ Nevertheless, the men rowed hard^[b] to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea grew more and more tempestuous against them. ¹⁴ Therefore they called out to the Lord, “O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life, and ^(V)lay not on us innocent blood, ^(W)for you, O Lord, have done as it pleased you.” ¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, ^(X)and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, ^(Y)and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord ^(Z)and made vows.

A Great Fish Swallows Jonah

^17 [c] And the Lord appointed^[d] a great fish to swallow up Jonah. ^(AA)And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

The Lord Will Not Forsake His People