Samuel’s Death

25 ^(A)Then Samuel died; and all Israel assembled and ^(B)mourned for him, and they ^(C)buried him at his house in Ramah. And David set out and went down to the ^(D)wilderness of Paran.

Nabal and Abigail

² Now there was a man in ^(E)Maon whose business was in ^(F)Carmel; and the man was very ^[a]rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while ^(G)he was shearing his sheep in Carmel ³ (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his ^(H)wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was ^[b]intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was ^(I)a Calebite), ⁴ that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel and ^[c]visit Nabal, and greet him in my name; ⁶ and this is what you shall say: ‘^[d]Have a long life, ^(J)peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! ⁷ Now then, I have heard ^(K)that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, ^(L)nor has anything of theirs gone missing all the days they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on ^(M)a ^[e]festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁹ When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal in accordance with all these words in David’s name; then they waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “^(N)Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. ¹¹ Shall I then ^(O)take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men ^[f]whose origin I do not know?” ¹² So David’s young men made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words. ¹³ Then David said to his men, “Each of you strap on his sword.” So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about ^(P)four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred ^(Q)stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ Now one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to ^[g](R)greet our master, and he spoke to them in anger. ¹⁵ Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not ^(S)harmed, nor did anything go missing ^[h]as long as we went with them, while we were in the fields. ^16 (T)They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. ¹⁷ Now then, be aware and ^[i]consider what you should do, because harm is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a ^[j]worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

Abigail Intercedes

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and ^(U)took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine, and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain, and a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her young men, “^(V)Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ And it happened as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “It is certainly for nothing that I have guarded everything that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing has gone missing of all that belonged to him! For he has ^(W)returned me evil for good. ^22 (X)May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, ^(Y)if by morning I leave alive as much as one ^[k]male of any who belong to him.”

²³ When Abigail saw David, she hurried and dismounted from her donkey, and fell on her face in front of David ^(Z)and bowed herself to the ground. ²⁴ She fell at his feet and said, “On me ^[l]alone, my lord, be the blame. And please let your slave speak ^[m]to you, and listen to the words of your slave. ²⁵ Please do not let my lord ^[n]pay attention to this ^[o]worthless man, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. ^[p]Nabal is his name, and stupidity is with him; but I your slave did not see the young men of my lord whom you sent.

²⁶ “Now then, my lord, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, since the Lord has restrained you from ^[q]shedding blood, and ^(AA)from ^[r]avenging yourself by your own hand, now then, ^(AB)may your enemies and those who seek evil against my lord, be like Nabal. ²⁷ And now let ^(AC)this ^[s]gift which your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who ^[t]accompany my lord. ²⁸ Please forgive ^(AD)the offense of your slave; for ^(AE)the Lord will certainly make for my lord an ^[u]enduring house, because my lord is ^(AF)fighting the battles of the Lord, and ^(AG)evil will not be found in you all your days. ²⁹ Should anyone rise up to pursue you and to seek your ^[v]life, then the ^[w]life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the Lord your God; but the ^[x]lives of your enemies ^(AH)He will sling out ^[y]as from the hollow of a sling. ³⁰ And when the Lord does for my lord in accordance with all the good that He has spoken concerning you, and ^(AI)appoints you ruler over Israel, ³¹ this will not become an obstacle to you, or a ^[z]troubled heart to my lord, both by having shed blood without cause and by my lord’s having ^[aa]avenged himself. ^(AJ)When the Lord deals well with my lord, then remember your slave.”

³² Then David said to Abigail, “^(AK)Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, ³³ and blessed be your discernment, and blessed be you, ^(AL)who have kept me this day from ^[ab]bloodshed and from ^[ac]avenging myself by my own hand. ³⁴ Nevertheless, as the Lord God of Israel lives, ^(AM)who has restrained me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, there certainly would not have been left to Nabal until the morning light as much as one ^[ad]male.” ³⁵ So David accepted from her hand what she had brought him, and said to her, “^(AN)Go up to your house in peace. See, I have listened to ^[ae]you and ^[af](AO)granted your request.”

³⁶ Then Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was having ^(AP)a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was cheerful within him, ^(AQ)for he was very drunk; so ^(AR)she did not tell him anything ^[ag]at all until the morning light. ³⁷ But in the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him so that he became like a stone. ³⁸ About ten days later, ^(AS)the Lord struck Nabal and he died.

David Marries Abigail

³⁹ When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the Lord, who has ^(AT)pleaded the cause of the shame inflicted on me by the hand of Nabal, and ^(AU)has kept back His servant from evil. The Lord has also returned the evildoing of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent ^[ah](AV)a proposal to Abigail, to take her as his wife. ⁴⁰ When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they spoke to her, saying, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” ⁴¹ And she got up ^(AW)and bowed with her face to the ground, and said, “Behold, your slave is a servant ^(AX)to wash the feet of my lord’s servants.” ⁴² Then ^(AY)Abigail got up quickly, and rode on a donkey, with her five female attendants who ^[ai]accompanied her; and she followed the messengers of David and became his wife.

⁴³ David had also taken Ahinoam of ^(AZ)Jezreel, and ^(BA)they both became his wives.

⁴⁴ But Saul had given his daughter ^(BB)Michal, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was from ^(BC)Gallim.

Job’s Confession

42 Then Job answered the Lord and said,

God Is Displeased with Job’s Friends

⁷ It came about after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, ^(G)as My servant Job has. ⁸ Now therefore, take for yourselves ^(H)seven bulls and seven rams, and go to My servant Job, and offer up a ^(I)burnt offering for yourselves, and My servant Job will ^(J)pray for you. ^(K)For I will ^[a]accept him so as not to do with you as your foolishness deserves, because you have not spoken of Me what is trustworthy, as My servant Job has.” ⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord told them; and the Lord ^[b]accepted Job.

God Restores Job’s Fortunes

¹⁰ The Lord also ^(L)restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased double all that Job had. ¹¹ Then all his ^(M)brothers, all his sisters, and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they ^(N)sympathized with him and comforted him for all the adversities that the Lord had brought on him. And each one gave him a ^[c]piece of money, and each a ring of gold. ^12 (O)The Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; ^(P)and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand female donkeys. ^13 (Q)He also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ He named the first Jemimah, the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵ In all the land no women were found as beautiful as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritances among their brothers. ¹⁶ After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. ^17 (R)And Job died, an old man and full of days.

The Fourfold Hallelujah

19 After these things I heard something like a ^(A)loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying,

“^(B)Hallelujah! ^(C)Salvation, ^(D)glory, and power belong to our God, ^2 (E)because His ^(F)judgments are ^(G)true and righteous; for He has judged the ^(H)great prostitute who was corrupting the earth with her sexual immorality, and He has ^(I)avenged the blood of His bond-servants ^[a]on her.” ³ And a second time they said, “^(J)Hallelujah! ^(K)Her smoke rises forever and ever.” ⁴ And the ^(L)twenty-four elders and the ^(M)four living creatures ^(N)fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne, saying, “^(O)Amen. ^(P)Hallelujah!” ⁵ And a voice came from the throne, saying,

“^(Q)Give praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, ^(R)you who fear Him, the small and the great.” ⁶ Then I heard something like ^(S)the voice of a great multitude and like ^(T)the sound of many waters, and like the ^(U)sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying,

“^(V)Hallelujah! For the ^(W)Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.

Marriage of the Lamb

⁷ Let’s rejoice and be glad and ^(X)give the glory to Him, because ^(Y)the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His ^[b](Z)bride has prepared herself.” ⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in ^(AA)fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the ^(AB)righteous acts of the ^[c]saints.

⁹ Then ^(AC)he *said to me, “^(AD)Write: ‘^(AE)Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “^(AF)These are the true words of God.” ¹⁰ Then ^(AG)I fell at his feet to worship him. ^(AH)But he *said to me, “^[d]Do not do that; I am a ^(AI)fellow servant of yours and your brothers and sisters who ^(AJ)hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

The Coming of Christ

¹¹ And I saw ^(AK)heaven opened, and behold, a ^(AL)white horse, and He who sat on it is called ^(AM)Faithful and True, and in ^(AN)righteousness He judges and wages war. ¹² His ^(AO)eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many ^(AP)crowns; and He has a ^(AQ)name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. ¹³ He is clothed with a ^(AR)robe dipped in blood, and His name is called ^(AS)The Word of God. ¹⁴ And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in ^(AT)fine linen, ^(AU)white and clean, were following Him on white horses. ^15 (AV)From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that ^(AW)with it He may strike down the nations, and He will ^[e](AX)rule them with a rod of iron; and ^(AY)He treads the ^[f]wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. ¹⁶ And on His robe and on His thigh He has ^(AZ)a name written: “^(BA)KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

¹⁷ Then I saw ^[g]an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to ^(BB)all the birds that fly in ^(BC)midheaven, “^(BD)Come, assemble for the great feast of God, ¹⁸ so that you may ^(BE)eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, ^(BF)both free and slaves, and ^(BG)small and great.”

¹⁹ And I saw ^(BH)the beast and ^(BI)the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who ^(BJ)sat on the horse, and against His army.

Doom of the Beast and False Prophet

²⁰ And the beast was seized, and with him the ^(BK)false prophet who ^(BL)performed the signs ^[h](BM)in his presence, by which he ^(BN)deceived those who had received the ^(BO)mark of the beast and those who ^(BP)worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the ^(BQ)lake of ^(BR)fire, which burns with ^[i]brimstone. ²¹ And the rest were killed with the sword which ^(BS)came from the mouth of Him who ^(BT)sat on the horse, and ^(BU)all the birds were filled with their flesh.