¹⁷ Then Saul said to Michal, “Why have you deceived me like this, and sent my enemy away, so that he has escaped?”

And Michal answered Saul, “He said to me, ‘Let me go! ^(A)Why should I kill you?’ ”

²² So Abner said again to Asahel, “Turn aside from following me. Why should I strike you to the ground? How then could I face your brother Joab?”

¹⁶ Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

Massacre of the Innocents

¹⁶ Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

²⁰ So Ahab said to Elijah, ^(A)“Have you found me, O my enemy?”

And he answered, “I have found you, because ^(B)you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the Lord:

²⁰ And when Absalom’s servants came to the woman at the house, they said, “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?”

So ^(A)the woman said to them, “They have gone over the water brook.”

And when they had searched and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem.

¹² When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!”

¹⁷ Then the king said to the guards who stood about him, “Turn and kill the priests of the Lord, because their hand also is with David, and because they knew when he fled and did not tell it to me.” But the servants of the king ^(A)would not lift their hands to strike the priests of the Lord.

¹⁴ So when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, “He is sick.”

¹⁷ But the midwives ^(A)feared God, and did not do ^(B)as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive. ¹⁸ So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”

¹⁹ And ^(C)the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women; for they ^[a]are lively and give birth before the midwives come to them.”