Book of Common Prayer

A song to sing as we climb.

David wrote this song.

A song to sing as we climb.

The house of God

A song to sing as we climb.

David wrote this song.

A song to sing as we climb.

A song at night

A song to praise God

Joab warns King David

19 Someone told Joab that the king was very sad and he was weeping because Absalom was dead. ² All the people heard the news that the king was very sad about his son's death. King David's army had won the battle, so everyone should have been very happy. But instead, they were all sad. ³ The soldiers came very quietly back into Mahanaim city. It seemed like they were ashamed because they had run away from the battle. ⁴ The king covered his face and he cried, ‘Absalom, Absalom! My son, my son!’

⁵ Then Joab went to see the king in his room. He said to the king, ‘Today you have made your men feel ashamed. But the army has saved your life today. We have saved the lives of your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your slave wives. ⁶ You seem to love the people who hate you. And you seem to hate the people who love you! You have shown today that your officers and soldiers are not important to you. It seems that you would be happy if Absalom were still alive, and all the rest of us were dead. ⁷ Now go out and speak to your soldiers. Thank them that they have fought well. If you do not do that, none of your men will remain here tonight. I tell you in the Lord's name, that will certainly happen. That would bring worse trouble to you than anything that has happened in your whole life.’

⁸ So the king went out from his room. He went to sit by the city's gate. People heard the news, ‘The king is sitting by the gate.’ So they all came there to listen to him.

David returns to Jerusalem as king

At this time, the Israelite soldiers had run back to their own homes. ⁹ People in all the Israelite tribes were quarrelling with each other. They were saying, ‘King David saved us from the power of the Philistines and all our other enemies. But now Absalom has chased him out of our land. ¹⁰ We chose Absalom to be our king, but now he has died in the battle. We should surely go and bring David back to be our king again.’

¹¹ Then King David sent a message to Zadok and Abiathar, the priests. He told them, ‘Go to the leaders of Judah and say to them, “Surely, you should not be the last tribe to bring the king back to his palace? He knows what the people in all Israel are saying about him. ¹² You are my brothers! I belong to your family. So you should not be the last people to bring me back as your king.” ¹³ Also, say to Amasa, “We belong to the same family. I promise you that I will now make you the leader of my army, instead of Joab. I ask God to punish me if I do not do that for you.” ’

¹⁴ Because of this message, all the people of Judah's tribe agreed to serve David as their king. They sent this message to the king: ‘Return to us, together with all your officers.’ ¹⁵ So the king left Mahanaim to return to Jerusalem.

When David arrived at the Jordan River, the people of Judah had come to Gilgal to meet him there. They wanted to help him to cross the river.

¹⁶ Gera's son, Shimei, came there quickly with the people of Judah to meet King David. He was from Bahurim and he belonged to Benjamin's tribe. ¹⁷ He brought 1,000 men from his own tribe with him. Ziba, the servant of Saul's family, also came with his 15 sons and 20 servants. They all hurried to the Jordan River to meet the king. ¹⁸ They crossed the river where the water was not deep. They were ready to help the king and his people come across. They were ready to do whatever the king wanted.

When Shimei had gone across the Jordan River, he bent down low to the ground in front of the king. ¹⁹ He said to the king, ‘Please forgive me for my sin. Do not punish me. I insulted you, my lord, on the day when you left Jerusalem. Please forget about what I did. ²⁰ I am your servant. I know that I did a bad thing. So I have come to meet you today. From all the descendants of Joseph, I am the first person to come to meet you here, my lord the king.’^[a]

²¹ Then Abishai, Zeruiah's son, said, ‘We should kill Shimei. He cursed you, the Lord's chosen king, so he deserves to die.’

²² David replied, ‘No! You sons of Zeruiah should not tell me what to do! Have you become my enemy? You should realize that today I have become king over all Israel. So we should not punish anyone with death.’

²³ The king made a strong promise to Shimei. He said to Shimei, ‘You will not die because of this.’

The Jews say bad things about Paul

24 Five days after that, Ananias, the leader of the priests, went to Caesarea. Some important Jews went with him. A man called Tertullus also went with them. He was a lawyer. All these people went to meet with Felix, the ruler. They told Felix what Paul had done. Felix would judge who was right. ² Felix told a soldier to bring Paul to the meeting. Then Tertullus began to speak against Paul. He said, ‘Sir, you have ruled us well for many years. Because of you, our country has had no wars for a long time. You have made new laws that are good for our country. You have thought well about how you should lead us. ³ Everywhere, the people are happy about what you have done. So we want to thank you very much for all these good things. ⁴ I do not want you to sit here for a long time. So I will speak for a short time about our problem. Please be kind to us and listen to me.

⁵ We know that this man brings trouble everywhere. Anywhere in the world that Jewish people live, he makes them angry. Then they all fight each other. He is the leader of a group called the Nazarenes.’^[a]

⁶ ‘He also did bad things in the temple that are against our laws. So we took hold of him.^[b] [We wanted to judge him by what our own law says. ⁷ But Lysias, the leader of the soldiers, came to us. He attacked us and he took Paul away from us. ⁸ Then he told us to come and to speak to you about it.] You should ask this man some questions about what he has done. You will find out that what we say against him is true.’

⁹ The other Jews that were there also spoke against Paul. They said, ‘All these things that Tertullus has said are true.’

Paul tells Felix his own story

¹⁰ Then Felix raised his hand towards Paul to show that he should speak. So Paul said to Felix, ‘I know that you have judged the people in this region for many years. So now I am happy to tell you everything. ¹¹ I went to Jerusalem less than 12 days ago. You can check that that is true. I went there to worship God. ¹² When the Jews saw me in the temple, I was not arguing with anyone. I was not causing trouble among Jewish people in their meeting places. Nor did I cause problems in any other places in Jerusalem. ¹³ They have said bad things against me. But they cannot show you that these things are true. ¹⁴ What I do agree is this: I worship the same God that our Jewish ancestors worshipped. But I do this in the Way that Jesus has taught us. These men say that this is not the right way. But I believe in all God's Law that Moses wrote for us. I also believe in the messages that God's prophets have written in the Bible. ¹⁵ I also trust God like these men do. Like them, I believe that people will become alive again after death. God will do this for all people, both good people and bad people. ¹⁶ Because of that, I always try to do what is right. I do not want to do anything bad against God or against other people.

¹⁷ I had not been to Jerusalem for several years. Now I returned there with a gift of some money. I brought it to give to poor people who are Jews, like me. I also wanted to offer sacrifices to God. ¹⁸ I was doing this in the yard of the temple when these men found me. I had obeyed all the rules to make myself clean in front of God. There was no crowd with me. Nobody was arguing or fighting because of me. ¹⁹ But there were some Jews there who had come from Asia. They are the people who caused the trouble. Maybe they have something bad to say against me. They themselves should come here to speak to you about it. ²⁰ Or these men here should tell you what wrong thing I have done. I stood in front of the meeting of the Jewish leaders and they asked me questions. ²¹ When I stood there, I shouted, “I believe that dead people will rise and they will live again. That is the reason why you are judging me today.” They may think that is a wrong thing that I did.’

²² Felix knew much about the Way of the Lord Jesus. He now said that the meeting had finished. He said to Paul, ‘Soon Lysias, the leader of the soldiers, will arrive here. Then I will decide what to do with you.’ ²³ He said to the officer who was holding Paul, ‘Continue to guard this man carefully. But his friends can come and see him. They can help him and they can bring things for him.’

Jesus teaches people about the most important rule

²⁸ One of the teachers of God's Law came near to the group of people. He heard Jesus speaking with the leaders. The teacher knew that Jesus had answered them well. So then the teacher asked Jesus, ‘Which rule is the most important among God's Laws?’

²⁹ Jesus replied, ‘This rule is the most important rule: “Listen, Israel's people! The Lord alone is our God. There is no other Lord. ³⁰ Love the Lord, your God completely. Love him with all your mind and with all your strength. Love him in everything that you think and you do.”^{[a] 31} The second most important rule is this: “You should love other people as much as you love yourself.” No other rules are as important as these two.’

³² The teacher of God's Law said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, you have answered well. You are right to say that the Lord is the only God. And there is no other God except him. ³³ We must love him completely, with all our mind and with all our strength. We must also love other people as much as we love ourselves. This is more important than all the gifts or animals that we could offer to God.’

³⁴ Jesus heard that the man had answered well. So Jesus said to him, ‘You are almost ready for God to rule in your life.’ After that, everybody was afraid to ask Jesus any more questions.