Book of Common Prayer

For the Chief Musician. Set to “The Lilies.” A contemplation by the sons of Korah. A wedding song.

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

A Song. A Psalm by the sons of Korah.

25 Samuel died; and all Israel gathered themselves together and mourned for him, and buried him at his house at Ramah.

Then David arose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. ² There was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats; and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail. This woman was intelligent and had a beautiful face; but the man was surly and evil in his doings. He was of the house of Caleb. ⁴ David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name. ⁶ Tell him, ‘Long life to you! Peace be to you! Peace be to your house! Peace be to all that you have! ⁷ Now I have heard that you have shearers. Your shepherds have now been with us, and we didn’t harm them. Nothing was missing from them all the time they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a good day. Please give whatever comes to your hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁹ When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal all those words in the name of David, and waited.

¹⁰ Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants who break away from their masters these days. ¹¹ Shall I then take my bread, my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men who I don’t know where they come from?”

¹² So David’s young men turned on their way and went back, and came and told him all these words.

¹³ David said to his men, “Every man put on his sword!”

Every man put on his sword. David also put on his sword. About four hundred men followed David, and two hundred stayed by the baggage.

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master; and he insulted them. ¹⁵ But the men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, and we didn’t miss anything as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields. ¹⁶ They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. ¹⁷ Now therefore know and consider what you will do; for evil is determined against our master and against all his house, for he is such a worthless fellow that one can’t speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread, two containers of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five seahs^[a] of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She said to her young men, “Go on before me. Behold, I am coming after you.” But she didn’t tell her husband, Nabal. ²⁰ As she rode on her donkey, and came down hidden by the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained to him. He has returned me evil for good. ²² God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall.”^[b]

14 In Iconium, they entered together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed. ² But the disbelieving^[a] Jews stirred up and embittered the souls of the Gentiles against the brothers. ³ Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who testified to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. ⁴ But the multitude of the city was divided. Part sided with the Jews and part with the apostles. ⁵ When some of both the Gentiles and the Jews, with their rulers, made a violent attempt to mistreat and stone them, ⁶ they became aware of it and fled to the cities of Lycaonia, Lystra, Derbe, and the surrounding region. ⁷ There they preached the Good News.

⁸ At Lystra a certain man sat, impotent in his feet, a cripple from his mother’s womb, who never had walked. ⁹ He was listening to Paul speaking, who, fastening eyes on him and seeing that he had faith to be made whole, ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked. ¹¹ When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voice, saying in the language of Lycaonia, “The gods have come down to us in the likeness of men!” ¹² They called Barnabas “Jupiter”, and Paul “Mercury”, because he was the chief speaker. ¹³ The priest of Jupiter, whose temple was in front of their city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates, and would have made a sacrifice along with the multitudes.

¹⁴ But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes and sprang into the multitude, crying out, ¹⁵ “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of the same nature as you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them; ¹⁶ who in the generations gone by allowed all the nations to walk in their own ways. ¹⁷ Yet he didn’t leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave you^[b] rains from the sky and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”

¹⁸ Even saying these things, they hardly stopped the multitudes from making a sacrifice to them.

²¹ He said to them, “Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket ^[a] or under a bed? Isn’t it put on a stand? ²² For there is nothing hidden except that it should be made known, neither was anything made secret but that it should come to light. ²³ If any man has ears to hear, let him hear.”

²⁴ He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you; and more will be given to you who hear. ²⁵ For whoever has, to him more will be given; and he who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶ He said, “God’s Kingdom is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, ²⁷ and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, though he doesn’t know how. ²⁸ For the earth bears fruit by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ He said, “How will we liken God’s Kingdom? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? ³¹ It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, ³² yet when it is sown, grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”

³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. ³⁴ Without a parable he didn’t speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.