² And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, ^(A)‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’

¹² They answered, “He is; behold, he is just ahead of you. Hurry. He has come just now to the city, because the people ^(A)have a sacrifice today on ^(B)the high place.

²⁹ He said, ‘Let me go, for our clan holds a sacrifice in the city, and my brother has commanded me to be there. So now, if I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away and see my brothers.’ For this reason he has not come to the king's table.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”^[a]

Persecution Will Come

^16 (A)“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be ^(B)wise as serpents and ^(C)innocent as doves.

²⁶ then you shall say to them, ^(A)‘I made a humble plea to the king that he would not send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” ²⁷ Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and asked him, and he answered them as the king had instructed him. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been overheard.

⁹ And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? ^10 (A)As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. ¹¹ And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.”’ ¹² And as soon as I have gone from you, ^(B)the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. ¹³ Has it not been told my lord what I did ^(C)when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴ And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”’; and he will kill me.”

¹¹ But Moses said to God, ^(A)“Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”