Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 45^[a]

Song for a Royal Wedding

¹ For the leader; according to “Lilies.” A maskil of the Korahites. A love song.

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Psalm 47^[a]

The Ruler of All the Nations

¹ For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.

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Psalm 48^[d]

The Splendor of the Invincible City

¹ A psalm of the Korahites.^[e] A song.

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Chapter 25

Death of Samuel. ¹ Samuel died, and all Israel gathered to mourn him; they buried him at his home in Ramah.^(A) Then David went down to the wilderness of Paran.

Nabal and Abigail. ² There was a man of Maon who had property in Carmel; he was very wealthy, owning three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. At the time, he was present for the shearing of his flock in Carmel.^{(B) 3} The man’s name was Nabal and his wife was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and attractive, but Nabal, a Calebite, was harsh and bad-mannered.^{(C) 4} While in the wilderness, David heard that Nabal was shearing his flock, ⁵ so he sent ten young men, instructing them: “Go up to Carmel. Pay Nabal a visit and greet him in my name. ⁶ Say to him, ‘Peace be with you, my brother, and with your family, and with all who belong to you. ⁷ I have just heard that shearers are with you. Now, when your shepherds were with us, we did them no injury, neither did they miss anything while they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your servants and they will tell you. Look kindly on these young men, since we come at a festival time. Please give your servants and your son David^[a] whatever you can.’”

⁹ When David’s young men arrived, they delivered the entire message to Nabal in David’s name, and then waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered the servants of David: “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Nowadays there are many servants who run away from their masters. ¹¹ Must I take my bread, my wine, my meat that I have slaughtered for my own shearers, and give them to men who come from who knows where?” ¹² So David’s young men retraced their steps and on their return reported to him all that had been said. ¹³ Thereupon David said to his men, “Let everyone strap on his sword.” And everyone did so, and David put on his own sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

¹⁴ Abigail, Nabal’s wife, was informed of this by one of the servants, who said: “From the wilderness David sent messengers to greet our master, but he screamed at them. ¹⁵ Yet these men were very good to us. We were not harmed, neither did we miss anything all the while we were living among them during our stay in the open country. ¹⁶ Day and night they were a wall of protection for us, the whole time we were pasturing the sheep near them. ¹⁷ Now, see what you can do, for you must realize that otherwise disaster is in store for our master and for his whole house. He is such a scoundrel that no one can talk to him.” ¹⁸ Abigail quickly got together two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of pressed raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She then said to her servants, “Go on ahead; I will follow you.” But to her husband Nabal she said nothing.

²⁰ Hidden by the mountain, she came down riding on a donkey, as David and his men were coming down from the opposite direction. When she met them, ²¹ David had just been saying: “Indeed, it was in vain that I guarded all this man’s possessions in the wilderness, so that nothing of his was missing. He has repaid good with evil. ²² May God do thus to David, and more, if by morning I leave a single male alive among all those who belong to him.”^(D)

Chapter 14

Paul and Barnabas at Iconium. ¹ In Iconium they entered the Jewish synagogue together and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks came to believe, ² although the disbelieving Jews stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers. ³ So they stayed for a considerable period, speaking out boldly for the Lord, who confirmed the word about his grace by granting signs and wonders to occur through their hands.^{(A) 4} The people of the city were divided: some were with the Jews; others, with the apostles. ⁵ When there was an attempt by both the Gentiles and the Jews, together with their leaders, to attack and stone them,^{(B) 6} they realized it and fled to the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe and to the surrounding countryside, ⁷ where they continued to proclaim the good news.

Paul and Barnabas at Lystra. ^8 [a]At Lystra there was a crippled man, lame from birth, who had never walked. ⁹ He listened to Paul speaking, who looked intently at him, saw that he had the faith to be healed, ¹⁰ and called out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet.” He jumped up and began to walk about. ¹¹ When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they cried out in Lycaonian, “The gods have come down to us in human form.”^{(C) 12} They called Barnabas “Zeus”^[b] and Paul “Hermes,” because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ And the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, for he together with the people intended to offer sacrifice.

¹⁴ The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their garments^[c] when they heard this and rushed out into the crowd, shouting, ^15 [d]“Men, why are you doing this? We are of the same nature as you, human beings. We proclaim to you good news that you should turn from these idols to the living God, ‘who made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them.’^{(D) 16} In past generations he allowed all Gentiles to go their own ways;^{(E) 17} yet, in bestowing his goodness, he did not leave himself without witness, for he gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filled you with nourishment and gladness for your hearts.”^{(F) 18} Even with these words, they scarcely restrained the crowds from offering sacrifice to them.

Parable of the Lamp. ^21 (A)He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be placed under a bushel basket or under a bed, and not to be placed on a lampstand?^{(B) 22} For there is nothing hidden except to be made visible; nothing is secret except to come to light.^{(C) 23} Anyone who has ears to hear ought to hear.” ²⁴ He also told them, “Take care what you hear. The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you, and still more will be given to you.^{(D) 25} To the one who has, more will be given; from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”^(E)

Seed Grows of Itself. ²⁶ He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God;^[a] it is as if a man were to scatter seed^(F) on the land ²⁷ and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. ²⁸ Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

The Mustard Seed. ^30 (G)He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. ^32 [b]But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” ³³ With many such parables^(H) he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. ³⁴ Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.