16 When David was a little past the top, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a container of wine. ² The king said to Ziba, “What do you mean by these?”

Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that those who are faint in the wilderness may drink.”

³ The king said, “Where is your master’s son?”

Ziba said to the king, “Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem; for he said, ‘Today the house of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.’”

⁴ Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.”

Ziba said, “I bow down. Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king.”

⁵ When King David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of Saul’s house came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out and cursed as he came. ⁶ He cast stones at David and at all the servants of King David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left. ⁷ Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and wicked fellow! ⁸ Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s house, in whose place you have reigned! Yahweh has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!”

⁹ Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head.” ¹⁰ The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”

¹¹ David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him. ¹² It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.” ¹³ So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust. ¹⁴ The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary; and he refreshed himself there.

¹⁵ Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. ¹⁶ When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, had come to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”

¹⁷ Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”

¹⁸ Hushai said to Absalom, “No; but whomever Yahweh and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, I will be his, and I will stay with him. ¹⁹ Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn’t I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father’s presence, so I will be in your presence.”

²⁰ Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.”

²¹ Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”

²² So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

²³ The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the inner sanctuary of God. All the counsel of Ahithophel was like this both with David and with Absalom.

9 It is indeed unnecessary for me to write to you concerning the service to the saints, ² for I know your readiness, of which I boast on your behalf to those of Macedonia, that Achaia has been prepared for the past year. Your zeal has stirred up very many of them. ³ But I have sent the brothers so that our boasting on your behalf may not be in vain in this respect, that, just as I said, you may be prepared, ⁴ lest by any means, if anyone from Macedonia comes there with me and finds you unprepared, we (to say nothing of you) would be disappointed in this confident boasting. ⁵ I thought it necessary therefore to entreat the brothers that they would go before to you and arrange ahead of time the generous gift that you promised before, that the same might be ready as a matter of generosity, and not of greediness.

⁶ Remember this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. He who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. ⁷ Let each man give according as he has determined in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in everything, may abound to every good work. ⁹ As it is written,

¹⁰ Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply your seed for sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness, ¹¹ you being enriched in everything for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. ¹² For this service of giving that you perform not only makes up for lack among the saints, but abounds also through much giving of thanks to God, ¹³ seeing that through the proof given by this service, they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Good News of Christ and for the generosity of your contribution to them and to all, ¹⁴ while they themselves also, with supplication on your behalf, yearn for you by reason of the exceeding grace of God in you. ¹⁵ Now thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift!

23 Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, ² “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. ³ They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. ⁴ Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵ “Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, ⁶ who were clothed with blue—governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whomever she lusted after. ⁸ She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples and they poured out their prostitution on her.

⁹ “Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she doted. ¹⁰ These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

¹¹ “Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers—her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. ¹³ I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way.

¹⁴ “She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red, ¹⁵ dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶ As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. ¹⁸ So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. ²¹ Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.

²² “Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. ²⁵ I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire. ²⁶ They will also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. ²⁷ Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’

²⁸ “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated. ²⁹ They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. ³⁰ These things will be done to you because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. ³¹ You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’

³² “The Lord Yahweh says:

for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord Yahweh.

³⁵ “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’”

³⁶ Yahweh said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured. ³⁸ Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹ For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house.

⁴⁰ “Furthermore you sisters have sent for men who come from far away, to whom a messenger was sent, and behold, they came; for whom you washed yourself, painted your eyes, decorated yourself with ornaments, ⁴¹ and sat on a stately bed, with a table prepared before it, whereupon you set my incense and my oil.

⁴² “The voice of a multitude being at ease was with her. With men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness; and they put bracelets on their hands, and beautiful crowns on their heads. ⁴³ Then I said of her who was old in adulteries, ‘Now they will play the prostitute with her, and she with them.’ ⁴⁴ They went in to her, as they go in to a prostitute. So they went in to Oholah and to Oholibah, the lewd women. ⁴⁵ Righteous men will judge them with the judgment of adulteresses and with the judgment of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

⁴⁶ “For the Lord Yahweh says: ‘I will bring up a mob against them, and will give them to be tossed back and forth and robbed. ⁴⁷ The company will stone them with stones and dispatch them with their swords. They will kill their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

⁴⁸ “‘Thus I will cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to be lewd like you. ⁴⁹ They will recompense your lewdness on you, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.’”

For the Chief Musician. By David. A reminder.