Moses Given Powerful Signs

4 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” ² The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, ^(A)“A staff.” ³ And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. ⁴ But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— ⁵ “that they may ^(B)believe that the Lord, ^(C)the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” ⁶ Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.”^[a] And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was ^(D)leprous^[b] like snow. ⁷ Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, ^(E)it was restored like the rest of his flesh. ⁸ “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. ⁹ If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile ^(F)will become blood on the dry ground.”

¹⁰ But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but ^(G)I am slow of speech and of tongue.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹² Now therefore go, and ^(H)I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” ¹³ But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” ¹⁴ Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, ^(I)he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ^15 (J)You shall speak to him and ^(K)put the words in his mouth, and ^(L)I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. ^16 (M)He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and ^(N)you shall be as God to him. ¹⁷ And take in your hand ^(O)this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”

David and the Holy Bread

21 ^[a] Then David came to ^(A)Nob, to ^(B)Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech ^(C)came to meet David, trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?” ² And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. ³ Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” ⁴ And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is ^(D)holy bread—^(E)if the young men have kept themselves from women.” ⁵ And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” ⁶ So the priest gave him ^(F)the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, ^(G)which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

⁷ Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was ^(H)Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.

⁸ Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” ⁹ And the priest said, ^(I)“The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in ^(J)the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

David Flees to Gath

¹⁰ And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to ^(K)Achish the king of Gath. ¹¹ And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? ^(L)Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,

¹² And David ^(M)took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. ¹³ So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. ¹⁴ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? ¹⁵ Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

The King Rejoices in the Lord's Strength

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

The Death of Jesus

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour^[a] there was darkness over all the land^[b] until the ninth hour.^{[c] 46} And about the ninth hour Jesus ^(A)cried out with a loud voice, saying, ^(B)“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” ⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with ^(C)sour wine, and put it on a reed and ^(D)gave it to him to drink. ⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” ⁵⁰ And Jesus ^(E)cried out again with a loud voice and ^(F)yielded up his spirit.

⁵¹ And behold, ^(G)the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And ^(H)the earth shook, and the rocks were split. ⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of ^(I)the saints ^(J)who had fallen asleep were raised, ⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into ^(K)the holy city and appeared to many. ^54 (L)When the centurion and those who were with him, ^(M)keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ^(N)“Truly this was the Son^[d] of God!”

⁵⁵ There were also ^(O)many women there, looking on ^(P)from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ^(Q)ministering to him, ⁵⁶ among whom were ^(R)Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and ^(S)the mother of the sons of Zebedee.

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you ^(A)as sojourners and exiles ^(B)to abstain from the passions of the flesh, ^(C)which wage war against your soul. ^12 (D)Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, ^(E)they may see your good deeds and glorify God on ^(F)the day of visitation.

Submission to Authority

^13 (G)Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,^[a] whether it be to the emperor^[b] as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors as sent by him ^(H)to punish those who do evil and ^(I)to praise those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, ^(J)that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. ^16 (K)Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but ^(L)living as servants^[c] of God. ^17 (M)Honor everyone. ^(N)Love the brotherhood. ^(O)Fear God. Honor the emperor.

^18 (P)Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. ¹⁹ For this is a gracious thing, when, ^(Q)mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. ²⁰ For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But ^(R)if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God. ²¹ For ^(S)to this you have been called, ^(T)because Christ also suffered for you, ^(U)leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. ^22 (V)He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ^23 (W)When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, ^(X)but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. ^24 (Y)He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we ^(Z)might die to sin and ^(AA)live to righteousness. ^(AB)By his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For ^(AC)you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to ^(AD)the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.