^14 (A)“Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. ^15 (B)You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of ^(C)Abib, for in it you came out of Egypt. ^(D)None shall appear before me empty-handed. ¹⁶ You shall keep ^(E)the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. You shall keep the ^(F)Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather in from the field the fruit of your labor. ^17 (G)Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God.

^18 (H)“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or let the fat of my feast remain until the morning.

¹⁹ “The best of the ^(I)firstfruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God.

^(J)“You shall not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Conquest of Canaan Promised

^20 (K)“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared. ²¹ Pay careful attention to him and obey his voice; ^(L)do not rebel against him, ^(M)for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.

²² “But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then ^(N)I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

^23 (O)“When my angel goes before you and brings you ^(P)to the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, ²⁴ you shall ^(Q)not bow down to their gods nor serve them, ^(R)nor do as they do, but ^(S)you shall utterly overthrow them and break their ^(T)pillars in pieces. ²⁵ You ^(U)shall serve the Lord your God, and ^(V)he^[a] will bless your bread and your water, and ^(W)I will take sickness away from among you. ^26 (X)None shall miscarry or be barren in your land; I will fulfill the ^(Y)number of your days. ²⁷ I will send ^(Z)my terror before you and will throw into ^(AA)confusion all the people against whom you shall come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. ²⁸ And ^(AB)I will send hornets^[b] before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. ^29 (AC)I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. ³⁰ Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. ^31 (AD)And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates,^[c] for ^(AE)I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. ^32 (AF)You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. ³³ They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, ^(AG)it will surely be a snare to you.”

David and Ziba

16 When David had passed a little beyond ^(A)the summit, ^(B)Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, bearing two hundred loaves of bread, ^(C)a hundred bunches of raisins, a hundred of summer fruits, and a skin of wine. ² And the king said to Ziba, “Why have you brought these?” Ziba answered, ^(D)“The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who ^(E)faint in the wilderness to drink.” ³ And the king said, “And where is your master's son?” ^(F)Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he remains in Jerusalem, for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will give me back the kingdom of my father.’” ⁴ Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belonged to Mephibosheth is now yours.” And Ziba said, “I pay homage; let me ever find favor in your sight, my lord the king.”

Shimei Curses David

⁵ When King David came to ^(G)Bahurim, there came out a man of the family of the house of Saul, whose name was ^(H)Shimei, the son of Gera, and as he came ^(I)he cursed continually. ⁶ And he threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. ⁷ And Shimei said as he ^(J)cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of blood, you worthless man! ⁸ The Lord ^(K)has avenged on you all ^(L)the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned, and the Lord has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. See, your evil is on you, for you are a man of blood.”

⁹ Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this ^(M)dead dog ^(N)curse my lord the king? Let me go over and take off his head.” ¹⁰ But the king said, ^(O)“What have I to do with you, ^(P)you sons of Zeruiah? If he is cursing because the Lord has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” ¹¹ And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, ^(Q)my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to. ¹² It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me,^[a] and that the Lord will repay me with good for his cursing today.” ¹³ So David and his men went on the road, while Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and ^(R)cursed as he went and threw stones at him and flung dust. ¹⁴ And the king, and all the people who were with him, ^(S)arrived weary at the Jordan.^[b] And there he refreshed himself.

Absalom Enters Jerusalem

^15 (T)Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. ¹⁶ And when Hushai the Archite, ^(U)David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, ^(V)“Long live the king! Long live the king!” ¹⁷ And Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your loyalty to your friend? ^(W)Why did you not go with your friend?” ¹⁸ And Hushai said to Absalom, “No, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. ¹⁹ And again, ^(X)whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you.”

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel. What shall we do?” ²¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to ^(Y)your father's concubines, whom he has left to keep the house, and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father, and ^(Z)the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” ²² So they pitched a tent for Absalom ^(AA)on the roof. And Absalom went in to his father's concubines ^(AB)in the sight of all Israel. ²³ Now in those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God; so was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, ^(AC)both by David and by Absalom.

Hushai Saves David

17 Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue David tonight. ² I will come upon him while he is ^(AD)weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic, and all the people who are with him will flee. ^(AE)I will strike down only the king, ³ and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man,^[c] and all the people will be at peace.” ⁴ And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel.

Restoration for Israel and Judah

30 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^(A)Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. ^3 (B)For behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, ^(C)when I will restore ^(D)the fortunes of my people, ^(E)Israel and Judah, says the Lord, ^(F)and I will bring them back to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

⁴ These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning ^(G)Israel and Judah:

⁸ “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will ^(M)break his ^(N)yoke from off your neck, and I will ^(O)burst your bonds, ^(P)and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him.^{[a] 9} But they shall serve the Lord their God and ^(Q)David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Zion, the City of Our God

A Song. A Psalm of ^(A)the Sons of Korah.

^9 (A)And as they were coming down the mountain, ^(B)he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, ^(C)until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ^10 (D)So they kept the matter to themselves, ^(E)questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. ¹¹ And they asked him, “Why do the scribes say ^(F)that first Elijah must come?” ¹² And he said to them, “Elijah does come first ^(G)to restore all things. And ^(H)how is it written of the Son of Man that he should ^(I)suffer many things and ^(J)be treated with contempt? ¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has come, and ^(K)they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of him.”

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

^14 (L)And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵ And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, ^(M)were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. ¹⁶ And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” ¹⁷ And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has ^(N)a spirit that makes him mute. ¹⁸ And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and ^(O)they were not able.” ¹⁹ And he answered them, “O ^(P)faithless generation, ^(Q)how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.”

¹⁸ In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, ^(A)“So shall your offspring be.” ¹⁹ He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was ^(B)as good as dead (^(C)since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered ^(D)the barrenness^[a] of Sarah's womb. ²⁰ No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, ²¹ fully convinced that ^(E)God was able to do what he had promised. ²² That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” ²³ But ^(F)the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, ²⁴ but for ours also. It will be counted to us ^(G)who believe in ^(H)him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, ^25 (I)who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised ^(J)for our justification.