Judging Others

7 ^(A)“Judge not, that you be not judged. ^2 (B)For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and ^(C)with the measure you use it will be measured to you. ³ Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but ^(D)do not notice the log that is in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? ⁵ You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

^6 (E)“Do not give ^(F)dogs what is holy, and do not throw your ^(G)pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

Ask, and It Will Be Given

^7 (H)“Ask, ^(I)and it will be given to you; ^(J)seek, and you will find; ^(K)knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for ^(L)bread, will give him ^(M)a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, ^(N)who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will ^(O)your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

The Golden Rule

¹² “So ^(P)whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is ^(Q)the Law and the Prophets.

^13 (R)“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy^[a] that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and ^(S)the way is hard that leads to life, and ^(T)those who find it are few.

A Tree and Its Fruit

^15 (U)“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ^(V)ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will recognize them ^(W)by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ So, ^(X)every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. ^19 (Y)Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ²⁰ Thus you will recognize them ^(Z)by their fruits.

I Never Knew You

^21 (AA)“Not everyone who ^(AB)says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will ^(AC)enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who ^(AD)does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ^22 (AE)On that day ^(AF)many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not ^(AG)prophesy in your name, and cast out demons ^(AH)in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ ^23 (AI)And then will I declare to them, ‘I ^(AJ)never knew you; ^(AK)depart from me, ^(AL)you workers of lawlessness.’

Build Your House on the Rock

^24 (AM)“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like ^(AN)a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. ²⁶ And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like ^(AO)a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

The Authority of Jesus

²⁸ And when Jesus finished these sayings, ^(AP)the crowds were astonished at his teaching, ^29 (AQ)for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

8 When he came down from the mountain, ^(AR)great crowds followed him. ^2 (AS)And behold, a leper^[b] came to him and ^(AT)knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” ³ And Jesus^[c] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. ⁴ And Jesus said to him, ^(AU)“See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, ^(AV)show yourself to the priest and ^(AW)offer the gift that Moses commanded, ^(AX)for a proof to them.”

The Faith of a Centurion

^5 (AY)When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, ⁶ “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” ⁷ And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” ⁸ But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but ^(AZ)only say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant,^[d] ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, ^(BA)he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with ^(BB)no one in Israel^[e] have I found such faith. ¹¹ I tell you, ^(BC)many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, ^12 (BD)while the sons of the kingdom ^(BE)will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place ^(BF)there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” ¹³ And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you ^(BG)as you have believed.” ^(BH)And the servant was healed at that very moment.

Jesus Heals Many

^14 (BI)And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw ^(BJ)his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. ¹⁵ He ^(BK)touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. ¹⁶ That evening they brought to him many who were ^(BL)oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits ^(BM)with a word and healed all who were sick. ^17 (BN)This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ^(BO)“He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

The Cost of Following Jesus

¹⁸ Now ^(BP)when Jesus saw a crowd around him, ^(BQ)he gave orders to go over to the other side. ^19 (BR)And a scribe came up and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” ²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” ²¹ Another of the disciples said to him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ²² And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave ^(BS)the dead to bury their own dead.”

Jesus Calms a Storm

^23 (BT)And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. ²⁴ And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but ^(BU)he was asleep. ²⁵ And they went and woke him, saying, ^(BV)“Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” ²⁶ And he said to them, “Why are you ^(BW)afraid, ^(BX)O you of little faith?” Then he rose and ^(BY)rebuked the winds and the sea, and ^(BZ)there was a great calm. ²⁷ And the men ^(CA)marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even ^(CB)winds and sea obey him?”

Jesus Heals Two Men with Demons

^28 (CC)And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes,^[f] two ^(CD)demon-possessed^[g] men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. ²⁹ And behold, they ^(CE)cried out, “What have you to do with us, ^(CF)O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us ^(CG)before the time?” ³⁰ Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. ³¹ And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” ³² And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. ³³ The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the ^(CH)demon-possessed men. ³⁴ And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, ^(CI)they begged him to leave their region.

David Avenges the Gibeonites

21 Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year. And David ^(A)sought the face of the Lord. And the Lord said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” ² So the king called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel but ^(B)of the remnant of the Amorites. Although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to strike them down in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah. ³ And David said to the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? And how shall I make atonement, that you may bless ^(C)the heritage of the Lord?” ⁴ The Gibeonites said to him, “It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” And he said, “What do you say that I shall do for you?” ⁵ They said to the king, “The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel, ⁶ let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them before the Lord at ^(D)Gibeah of Saul, ^(E)the chosen of the Lord.” And the king said, “I will give them.”

⁷ But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of ^(F)the oath of the Lord that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. ⁸ The king took the two sons of ^(G)Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab^[a] the daughter of Saul, whom ^(H)she bore to ^(I)Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite; ⁹ and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the Lord, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, ^(J)at the beginning of barley harvest.

^10 (K)Then Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until rain fell upon them from the heavens. And she did not allow the birds of the air to come upon them by day, or the beasts of the field by night. ¹¹ When David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done, ¹² David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, ^(L)who had stolen them from the public square of ^(M)Beth-shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, on the day the Philistines killed Saul on Gilboa. ¹³ And he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of his son Jonathan; and they gathered the bones of those who were hanged. ¹⁴ And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in the land of Benjamin in ^(N)Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father. And they did all that the king commanded. And after that ^(O)God responded to the plea for the land.

War with the Philistines

¹⁵ There was war again between the Philistines and Israel, and David went down together with his servants, and they fought against the Philistines. And David grew weary. ¹⁶ And Ishbi-benob, one of the descendants ^(P)of the giants, whose spear weighed three hundred shekels^[b] of bronze, and who was armed with a new sword, thought to kill David. ¹⁷ But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid and attacked the Philistine and killed him. Then David's men swore to him, ^(Q)“You shall no longer go out with us to battle, lest you quench ^(R)the lamp of Israel.”

^18 (S)After this there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then ^(T)Sibbecai ^(U)the Hushathite struck down Saph, who was one of the descendants ^(V)of the giants. ¹⁹ And there was again war with the Philistines at Gob, and ^(W)Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, the Bethlehemite, struck down Goliath the Gittite, ^(X)the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.^{[c] 20} And there was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand, and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number, and he also was descended ^(Y)from the giants. ²¹ And when ^(Z)he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David's brother, struck him down. ²² These four were descended ^(AA)from the giants in Gath, and they fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

David's Song of Deliverance

22 And David spoke ^(A)to the Lord the words of this song on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. ^2 (B)He said,

Who Can Stand Before You?

To the choirmaster: with ^(A)stringed instruments. A Psalm of ^(B)Asaph. A Song.