David’s Census of Israel and Judah

24 Again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go, count the people of Israel and Judah.”^{(A) 2} So the king said to Joab and the commanders of the army^[a] who were with him, “Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, and take a census of the people, so that I may know how many there are.”^{(B) 3} But Joab said to the king, “May the Lord your God increase the number of the people a hundredfold while the eyes of my lord the king can still see it! But why does my lord the king want to do this?” ⁴ But the king’s word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to take a census of the people of Israel. ⁵ They crossed the Jordan and began from^[b] Aroer and from the city that is in the middle of the valley, toward Gad and on to Jazer.^{(C) 6} Then they came to Gilead and to Kadesh in the land of the Hittites,^[c] and they came to Dan, and from Dan^[d] they went around to Sidon^{(D) 7} and came to the fortress of Tyre and to all the cities of the Hivites and Canaanites, and they went out to the Negeb of Judah at Beer-sheba.^{(E) 8} So when they had gone through all the land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. ⁹ Joab reported to the king the number of those who had been recorded: in Israel there were eight hundred thousand soldiers able to draw the sword, and those of Judah were five hundred thousand.^(F)

Judgment on David’s Sin

¹⁰ But afterward, David was stricken to the heart because he had numbered the people. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, I pray you, take away the guilt of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”^{(G) 11} When David rose in the morning, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying,^{(H) 12} “Go and say to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I offer^[e] you; choose one of them, and I will do it to you.”^{(I) 13} So Gad came to David and told him; he asked him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you on your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now consider and decide what answer I shall return to the one who sent me.” ¹⁴ Then David said to Gad, “I am in great distress; let us fall into the hand of the Lord, for his mercy is great, but let me not fall into human hands.”^(J)

¹⁵ So the Lord sent a pestilence on Israel from that morning until the appointed time, and seventy thousand of the people died, from Dan to Beer-sheba.^{(K) 16} But when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented concerning the evil and said to the angel who was bringing destruction among the people, “It is enough; now stay your hand.” The angel of the Lord was standing^[f] by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between earth and heaven and in his hand a drawn sword stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell on their faces.^{[g](L) 17} When David saw the angel who was destroying the people, he said to the Lord, “I alone have sinned, and I, the shepherd, have done evil,^[h] but these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, be against me and against my father’s house.”^(M)

David’s Altar on the Threshing Floor

¹⁸ That day Gad came to David and said to him, “Go up and erect an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite.”^{(N) 19} Following Gad’s instructions, David went up, as the Lord had commanded. ²⁰ When Araunah looked down, he saw the king and his servants coming toward him, and Araunah went out and prostrated himself before the king with his face to the ground. ²¹ Araunah said, “Why has my lord the king come to his servant?” David said, “To buy the threshing floor from you in order to build an altar to the Lord, so that the plague may be averted from the people.”^{(O) 22} Then Araunah said to David, “Let my lord the king take and offer up what seems good to him; here are the oxen for the burnt offering and the threshing sledges and the yokes of the oxen for the wood.^{(P) 23} All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the Lord your God respond favorably to you.”^(Q)

²⁴ But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.^{(R) 25} David built there an altar to the Lord and offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being. So the Lord answered his supplication for the land, and the plague was averted from Israel.^(S)

Spiritual Gifts

12 Now concerning spiritual gifts,^[a] brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be ignorant.^{(A) 2} You know that when you were gentiles you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak.^{(B) 3} Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.^(C)

⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit,^{(D) 5} and there are varieties of services but the same Lord,^{(E) 6} and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.^{(F) 8} To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,^{(G) 9} to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,^{(H) 10} to another the working of powerful deeds, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.^{(I) 11} All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.^(J)

One Body with Many Members

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.^{(K) 13} For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.^(L)

¹⁴ Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many members yet one body. ²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, ²⁴ whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, ²⁵ that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.^(M)

⁵ Now Adonijah son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” He prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.^{(A) 6} His father had never at any time reprimanded him by asking, “Why have you done thus and so?” He was also a very handsome man, and he was born next after Absalom.^{(B) 7} He conferred with Joab son of Zeruiah and with the priest Abiathar, and they supported Adonijah.^{(C) 8} But the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan, and Shammah^[a] and his companions,^[b] David’s own warriors, did not side with Adonijah.^(D)

⁹ Adonijah sacrificed sheep, oxen, and fatted cattle by the stone Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel, and he invited all his brothers, the king’s sons, and all the royal officials of Judah,^{(E) 10} but he did not invite the prophet Nathan or Benaiah or the warriors or his brother Solomon.^(F)

¹¹ Then Nathan said to Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, “Have you not heard that Adonijah son of Haggith has become king and our lord David does not know it?^{(G) 12} Now therefore come, let me give you advice, so that you may save your own life and the life of your son Solomon. ¹³ Go in at once to King David and say to him, ‘Did you not, my lord the king, swear to your servant, saying, “Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne? Why then is Adonijah king?” ’^{(H) 14} Then while you are still there speaking with the king, I will come in after you and confirm your words.”

¹⁵ So Bathsheba went to the king in his room. The king was very old; Abishag the Shunammite was attending the king.^{(I) 16} Bathsheba bowed and did obeisance to the king, and the king said, “What do you wish?” ¹⁷ She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne.’^{(J) 18} But now suddenly Adonijah has become king, though you, my lord the king, do not know it. ¹⁹ He has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance and has invited all the children of the king, the priest Abiathar, and Joab the commander of the army, but your servant Solomon he has not invited.^{(K) 20} But you, my lord the king, the eyes of all Israel are on you to tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him. ²¹ Otherwise it will come to pass, when my lord the king sleeps with his ancestors, that my son Solomon and I will be counted offenders.”^(L)

²² While she was still speaking with the king, the prophet Nathan came in. ²³ The king was told, “Here is the prophet Nathan.” When he came in before the king, he did obeisance to the king, with his face to the ground. ²⁴ Nathan said, “My lord the king, have you said, ‘Adonijah shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne’? ²⁵ For today he has gone down and has sacrificed oxen, fatted cattle, and sheep in abundance and has invited all the king’s children, Joab the commander^[c] of the army, and the priest Abiathar, who are now eating and drinking before him, and saying, ‘Long live King Adonijah!’^{(M) 26} But he did not invite me, your servant, and the priest Zadok, and Benaiah son of Jehoiada, and your servant Solomon.^{(N) 27} Has this thing been brought about by my lord the king and you have not let your servants know who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

The Accession of Solomon

²⁸ King David answered, “Summon Bathsheba to me.” So she came into the king’s presence and stood before the king. ²⁹ The king swore, saying, “As the Lord lives, who has saved my life from every adversity,^{(O) 30} as I swore to you by the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Your son Solomon shall succeed me as king, and he shall sit on my throne in my place,’ so will I do this day.”^{(P) 31} Then Bathsheba bowed with her face to the ground and did obeisance to the king and said, “May my lord King David live forever!”^(Q)

Jesus Heals the Man with Edema

14 On one occasion when Jesus^[a] was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the Sabbath, they were watching him closely.^{(A) 2} Just then, in front of him, there was a man who had edema. ³ And Jesus asked the experts in the law and Pharisees, “Is it lawful to cure people on the Sabbath or not?”^{(B) 4} But they were silent. So Jesus^[b] took him and healed him and sent him away. ⁵ Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child^[c] or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a Sabbath day?”^{(C) 6} And they could not reply to this.

Humility and Hospitality

⁷ When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable.^{(D) 8} “When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host,^{(E) 9} and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, ‘Give this person your place,’ and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. ¹⁰ But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.^{(F) 11} For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”^(G)

¹² He said also to the one who had invited him, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind.^{(H) 14} And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The Parable of the Great Dinner

¹⁵ One of the dinner guests, on hearing this, said to him, “Blessed is anyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!”^{(I) 16} Then Jesus^[d] said to him, “Someone gave a great dinner and invited many. ¹⁷ At the time for the dinner he sent his slave to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is ready now.’^{(J) 18} But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of land, and I must go out and see it; please accept my regrets.’ ¹⁹ Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please accept my regrets.’ ²⁰ Another said, ‘I have just been married, and therefore I cannot come.’^{(K) 21} So the slave returned and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his slave, ‘Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’^{(L) 22} And the slave said, ‘Sir, what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’ ²³ Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled. ²⁴ For I tell you,^[e] none of those who were invited will taste my dinner.’ ”^(M)