Book of Common Prayer
The Destiny of the Wicked and of the Good[a]
37 Don't be worried on account of the wicked;
don't be jealous of those who do wrong.
2 They will soon disappear like grass that dries up;
they will die like plants that wither.
3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
live in the land and be safe.
4 Seek your happiness in the Lord,
and he will give you your heart's desire.
5 Give yourself to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will help you;
6 he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun.
7 Be patient and wait for the Lord to act;
don't be worried about those who prosper
or those who succeed in their evil plans.
8 Don't give in to worry or anger;
it only leads to trouble.
9 Those who trust in the Lord will possess the land,
but the wicked will be driven out.
10 Soon the wicked will disappear;
you may look for them, but you won't find them;
11 (A)but the humble will possess the land
and enjoy prosperity and peace.
12 The wicked plot against good people
and glare at them with hate.
13 But the Lord laughs at wicked people,
because he knows they will soon be destroyed.
14 The wicked draw their swords and bend their bows
to kill the poor and needy,
to slaughter those who do what is right;
15 but they will be killed by their own swords,
and their bows will be smashed.
16 The little that a good person owns
is worth more than the wealth of all the wicked,
17 because the Lord will take away the strength of the wicked,
but protect those who are good.
18 The Lord takes care of those who obey him,
and the land will be theirs forever.
19 They will not suffer when times are bad;
they will have enough in time of famine.
20 But the wicked will die;
the enemies of the Lord will vanish like wild flowers;
they will disappear like smoke.
21 The wicked borrow and never pay back,
but good people are generous with their gifts.
22 Those who are blessed by the Lord will possess the land,
but those who are cursed by him will be driven out.
23 The Lord guides us in the way we should go
and protects those who please him.
24 If they fall, they will not stay down,
because the Lord will help them up.
25 I am old now; I have lived a long time,
but I have never seen good people abandoned by the Lord
or their children begging for food.
26 At all times they give freely and lend to others,
and their children are a blessing.
27 Turn away from evil and do good,
and your descendants will always live in the land;
28 for the Lord loves what is right
and does not abandon his faithful people.
He protects them forever,
but the descendants of the wicked will be driven out.
29 The righteous will possess the land
and live in it forever.
30 The words of good people are wise,
and they are always fair.
31 They keep the law of their God in their hearts
and never depart from it.
32 Wicked people watch good people
and try to kill them;
33 but the Lord will not abandon them to their enemy's power
or let them be condemned when they are on trial.
34 Put your hope in the Lord and obey his commands;
he will honor you by giving you the land,
and you will see the wicked driven out.
35 I once knew someone wicked who was a tyrant;
he towered over everyone like a cedar of Lebanon;[b]
36 but later I[c] passed by, and he wasn't there;
I looked for him, but couldn't find him.
37 Notice good people, observe the righteous;
peaceful people have descendants,
38 but sinners are completely destroyed,
and their descendants are wiped out.
39 The Lord saves the righteous
and protects them in times of trouble.
40 He helps them and rescues them;
he saves them from the wicked,
because they go to him for protection.
24 So David hid in the fields. At the New Moon Festival, King Saul came to the meal 25 and sat in his usual place by the wall. Abner sat next to him, and Jonathan sat across the table from him.[a] David's place was empty, 26 but Saul said nothing that day, because he thought, “Something has happened to him, and he is not ritually pure.” 27 On the following day, the day after the New Moon Festival, David's place was still empty, and Saul asked Jonathan, “Why didn't David come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
28 Jonathan answered, “He begged me to let him go to Bethlehem. 29 ‘Please let me go,’ he said, ‘because our family is celebrating the sacrificial feast in town, and my brother ordered me to be there. So then, if you are my friend, let me go and see my relatives.’ That is why he isn't in his place at your table.”
30 Saul became furious with Jonathan and said to him, “How rebellious and faithless your mother was! Now I know you are taking sides with David and are disgracing yourself and that mother of yours! 31 Don't you realize that as long as David is alive, you will never be king of this country? Now go and bring him here—he must die!”
32 “Why should he die?” Jonathan replied. “What has he done?”
33 At that, Saul threw his spear at Jonathan to kill him, and Jonathan realized that his father was really determined to kill David. 34 Jonathan got up from the table in a rage and ate nothing that day—the second day of the New Moon Festival. He was deeply distressed about David, because Saul had insulted him. 35 The following morning Jonathan went to the fields to meet David, as they had agreed. He took a young boy with him 36 and said to him, “Run and find the arrows I'm going to shoot.” The boy ran, and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy reached the place where the arrow had fallen, Jonathan shouted to him, “The arrow is farther on! 38 Don't just stand there! Hurry up!” The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master, 39 not knowing what it all meant; only Jonathan and David knew. 40 Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him to take them back to town.
41 After the boy had left, David got up from behind the pile of stones,[b] fell on his knees and bowed with his face to the ground three times. Both he and Jonathan were crying as they kissed each other; David's grief was even greater than Jonathan's.[c] 42 Then Jonathan said to David, “God be with you. The Lord will make sure that you and I, and your descendants and mine, will forever keep the sacred promise we have made to each other.” Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.
Barnabas and Saul Are Chosen and Sent
13 In the church at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon (called the Black), Lucius (from Cyrene), Manaen (who had been brought up with Governor Herod[a]), and Saul. 2 While they were serving the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said to them, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul, to do the work to which I have called them.”
3 They fasted and prayed, placed their hands on them, and sent them off.
In Cyprus
4 Having been sent by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Saul went to Seleucia and sailed from there to the island of Cyprus. 5 When they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues. They had John Mark with them to help in the work.
6 They went all the way across the island to Paphos, where they met a certain magician named Bar-Jesus, a Jew who claimed to be a prophet. 7 He was a friend of the governor of the island, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor called Barnabas and Saul before him because he wanted to hear the word of God. 8 But they were opposed by the magician Elymas (that is his name in Greek), who tried to turn the governor away from the faith. 9 Then Saul—also known as Paul—was filled with the Holy Spirit; he looked straight at the magician 10 and said, “You son of the Devil! You are the enemy of everything that is good. You are full of all kinds of evil tricks, and you always keep trying to turn the Lord's truths into lies! 11 The Lord's hand will come down on you now; you will be blind and will not see the light of day for a time.”
At once Elymas felt a dark mist cover his eyes, and he walked around trying to find someone to lead him by the hand. 12 When the governor saw what had happened, he believed; for he was greatly amazed at the teaching about the Lord.
The Question about the Sabbath(A)
23 (B)Jesus was walking through some wheat fields on a Sabbath. As his disciples walked along with him, they began to pick the heads of wheat. 24 So the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, it is against our Law for your disciples to do that on the Sabbath!”
25 Jesus answered, “Have you never read what David did that time when he needed something to eat? He and his men were hungry, 26 (C)so he went into the house of God and ate the bread offered to God. This happened when Abiathar was the High Priest. According to our Law only the priests may eat this bread—but David ate it and even gave it to his men.”
27 And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
The Man with a Paralyzed Hand(D)
3 Then Jesus went back to the synagogue, where there was a man who had a paralyzed hand. 2 Some people were there who wanted to accuse Jesus of doing wrong; so they watched him closely to see whether he would cure the man on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man, “Come up here to the front.” 4 Then he asked the people, “What does our Law allow us to do on the Sabbath? To help or to harm? To save someone's life or to destroy it?”
But they did not say a thing. 5 Jesus was angry as he looked around at them, but at the same time he felt sorry for them, because they were so stubborn and wrong. Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and it became well again. 6 So the Pharisees left the synagogue and met at once with some members of Herod's party, and they made plans to kill Jesus.
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.