Book of Common Prayer

25 Sh’mu’el died. All of Isra’el assembled to mourn him and bury him at his home in Ramah.

Then David set out and went down to the Pa’ran Desert. ² Now there was a man in Ma‘on who had property in Karmel. He was very rich, having three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Karmel. ³ The man’s name was Naval, and his wife was named Avigayil. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but the man was surly and mean in his actions; he belonged to the clan of Kalev. ⁴ David, there in the desert, heard that Naval was shearing his sheep. ⁵ David sent off ten young men with these orders: “Go up to Naval in Karmel, and bring him greetings from me. ⁶ Say, ‘Long life and shalom to you, shalom to your household, and shalom to everything that is yours! ⁷ I’ve heard that you now have shearers. Your shepherds were with us [for a while], we did them no harm, and they found nothing missing all the time they were in Karmel. ⁸ Ask your own men; they’ll tell you. Therefore, receive my men favorably, since we have come on a festive day. Please give what you can to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁹ On arrival, David’s men said all these things to Naval in David’s name. When they had finished, ¹⁰ Naval answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Yishai? There are many servants nowadays running away from their masters. ¹¹ Am I supposed to take my bread, my water and my meat that I slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men coming from who knows where?” ¹² So David’s men turned around, went back and came and told him everything Naval had said. ¹³ David said to his men, “Buckle your swords on, all of you!” Each one buckled on his sword, David too; and there went up after David about four hundred men, while two hundred stayed with the equipment.

¹⁴ But one of Naval’s men told Avigayil his wife, “David sent messengers from the desert to greet our master, and he flew on them in a rage, ¹⁵ even though the men had been very good to us — they didn’t harm us, and we found nothing missing during the entire time we went with them, while we were out in the countryside. ¹⁶ They served as a wall protecting us day and night all the time we were with them caring for the sheep. ¹⁷ So now decide what you are going to do, for clearly harm is on its way to our master and all his household, but he’s so mean that no one can tell him anything.”

¹⁸ Avigayil wasted no time in taking 200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five sheep already prepared, six quarts of roasted grain, a hundred clusters of raisins and 200 fig cakes, and having them loaded on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me, and I’ll come along after you.” But she didn’t tell her husband Naval.

²⁰ She was riding her donkey down past the hiding-place in the mountain, when David and his men descended toward her, and she met them. ²¹ David had said, “What a waste it has been guarding everything this fellow has in the desert, so that nothing of his was missing! He has repaid me bad for good!” ²² Then he swore, “May God do the same and more to David’s enemies if I leave alive even one male of everything he owns.”

14 In Iconium the same thing happened — they went into the synagogue and spoke in such a way that a large number of both Jews and Greeks came to trust. ² But the Jews who would not be persuaded stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. ³ Therefore, Sha’ul and Bar-Nabba remained for a long time, speaking boldly about the Lord, who bore witness to the message about his love and kindness by enabling them to perform signs and miracles. ⁴ However, the people of the city were divided — some sided with the unbelieving Jews, others with the emissaries.

⁵ Eventually the unbelievers, both Jews and Gentiles, together with their leaders, made a move to mistreat the emissaries, even to stone them; ⁶ but they learned of it and escaped to Lystra and Derbe, towns in Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, ⁷ where they continued proclaiming the Good News.

⁸ There was a man living in Lystra who could not use his feet — crippled from birth, he had never walked. ⁹ This man listened to Sha’ul speaking. Sha’ul, looking at him intently and seeing that he had faith to be healed, ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” He jumped up and began to walk. ¹¹ When the crowds saw what Sha’ul had done, they began to shout in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in the form of men!” ¹² They began calling Bar-Nabba “Zeus” and Sha’ul “Hermes,” since he did most of the talking; ¹³ and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, intending to offer a sacrifice to them with the people.

¹⁴ When the emissaries Bar-Nabba and Sha’ul heard of it, they tore their clothes and ran into the crowd, shouting, ¹⁵ “Men! Why are you doing this? We’re just men, human like you! We are announcing Good News to you — turn from these worthless things to the living God who made heaven and earth and the sea and everything in them!^{[a] 16} In times past, he allowed all peoples to walk in their own ways; ¹⁷ yet he did not leave himself without evidence of his nature; because he does good things, giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons, filling you with food and your hearts with happiness!” ¹⁸ Even saying this barely kept the crowds from sacrificing to them.

²¹ He said to them, “A lamp isn’t brought in to be put under a bowl or under the bed, is it? Wouldn’t you put it on a lampstand? ²² Indeed, nothing is hidden, except to be disclosed; and nothing is covered up, except to come out into the open. ²³ Those who have ears to hear with, let them hear!”

²⁴ He also said to them, “Pay attention to what you are hearing! The measure with which you measure out will be used to measure to you — and more besides! ²⁵ For anyone who has something will be given more; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away.”

²⁶ And he said, “The Kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Nights he sleeps, days he’s awake; and meanwhile the seeds sprout and grow — how, he doesn’t know. ²⁸ By itself the soil produces a crop — first the stalk, then the head, and finally the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But as soon as the crop is ready, the man comes with his sickle, because it’s harvest-time.”

³⁰ Yeshua also said, “With what can we compare the Kingdom of God? What illustration should we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which, when planted, is the smallest of all the seeds in the field; ³² but after it has been planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all the plants, with such big branches that the birds flying about can build nests in its shade.”

³³ With many parables like these he spoke the message to them, to the extent that they were capable of hearing it. ³⁴ He did not say a thing to them without using a parable; when he was alone with his own talmidim he explained everything to them.