Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 118

Psalm 145^[a]

A song of praise by David.

Absalom Pursues David

17 Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me choose 12,000 men and leave tonight to go after David. ² I’ll attack him while he’s tired and weak, and I’ll cause him to panic. All the people with him will flee, but I’ll kill only him. ³ I’ll return all the people to you as a bride is returned to her husband. Since you will be seeking the life of only one man,^[a] all the people will have peace.” ⁴ Absalom and all the leaders of Israel approved this plan.

⁵ Absalom said, “Please call Hushai, who is descended from Archi’s family, and let us hear what he, too, has to say.”

⁶ When Hushai arrived, Absalom said to him, “Ahithophel has told us his plan. Should we do what he says? If not, tell us.”

⁷ “This time Ahithophel’s advice is no good,” Hushai said to Absalom. ⁸ “You know your father and his men. They are warriors as fierce as a wild bear whose cubs have been stolen. Your father is an experienced soldier. He will not camp with the troops tonight. ⁹ He has already hidden in one of the ravines or some other place. If some of our soldiers are killed in the initial attack, others will definitely hear about it and say, ‘The troops that support Absalom have been defeated.’ ¹⁰ Even the bravest man with a heart like a lion would lose his courage, because all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and the men with him are brave. ¹¹ So my advice is to gather all Israel’s troops from Dan to Beersheba, since they are as numerous as the sand on the seashore. Lead them into battle yourself. ¹² Then we’ll attack him wherever we find him. We’ll fall on him as dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of his men will be left alive. ¹³ If he retreats into a city, all Israel will bring ropes to that city and drag it into a valley so that not even a pebble will be found there.”

¹⁴ Absalom and all the people of Israel said, “The advice of Hushai from Archi’s family is better than Ahithophel’s advice.” (Yahweh had commanded Ahithophel’s good advice to be defeated in order to ruin Absalom.)

¹⁵ Then Hushai told the priests Zadok and Abiathar, “Ahithophel advised Absalom and the leaders of Israel to do one thing, but I advised them to do something else. ¹⁶ Now send messengers quickly to tell David, ‘Don’t rest tonight in the river crossings in the desert, but make sure you cross the river, or Your Majesty and all the troops with him will be wiped out.’”

¹⁷ Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En Rogel. They could not risk being seen coming into the city, so a servant girl was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David. ¹⁸ But a young man saw Jonathan and Ahimaaz and told Absalom. So both of them left quickly and came to the home of a man in Bahurim who had a cistern in his courtyard, and they went down into it. ¹⁹ The man’s wife took a cover, spread it over the top of the cistern, and scattered some grain^[b] over it so that no one could tell it was there.

²⁰ Absalom’s servants came to the woman at her home. “Where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan?” they asked.

The woman said, “They’ve crossed the stream.”

The servants looked for them but did not find them. So Absalom’s servants returned to Jerusalem.

²¹ After Absalom’s servants left, both men came out of the cistern and went and told King David. “Leave right away,” they told David. “Cross the river quickly because this is what Ahithophel has advised against you. . . .”

²² David and all the troops with him left to cross the Jordan River. When the dawn came, everyone had crossed the Jordan River.

²³ When Ahithophel saw that his advice hadn’t been followed, he saddled his donkey, left, and went home to his own city. He gave instructions to his family. Then he hanged himself, died, and was buried in his father’s tomb.

⁶ Abraham serves as an example. He believed God, and that faith was regarded as the basis of Abraham’s approval by God. ⁷ You must understand that people who have faith are Abraham’s descendants. ⁸ Scripture saw ahead of time that God would give his approval to non-Jewish people who have faith. So Scripture announced the Good News to Abraham ahead of time when it said, “Through you all the people of the world will be blessed.” ⁹ So people who believe are blessed together with Abraham, the man of faith.

¹⁰ Certainly, there is a curse on all who rely on their own efforts because Scripture says, “Whoever doesn’t obey everything that is written in Moses’ Teachings is cursed.” ¹¹ No one receives God’s approval by obeying the laws in Moses’ Teachings since, “The person who has God’s approval will live by faith.” ¹² These laws have nothing to do with faith, but, “Whoever obeys laws will live because he obeys them.”

¹³ Christ paid the price to free us from the curse that the laws in Moses’ Teachings bring by becoming cursed instead of us. Scripture says, “Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed.” ¹⁴ Christ paid the price so that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to all the people of the world through Yeshua Christ and we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.

³⁰ I can’t do anything on my own. As I listen to the Father, I make my judgments. My judgments are right because I don’t try to do what I want but what the one who sent me wants.

³¹ “If I testify on my own behalf, what I say isn’t true. ³² Someone else testifies on my behalf, and I know that what he says about me is true. ³³ You sent people to John the Baptizer, and he testified to the truth. ³⁴ But I don’t depend on human testimony. I’m telling you this to save you. ³⁵ John was a lamp that gave off brilliant light. For a time you enjoyed the pleasure of his light. ³⁶ But I have something that testifies more favorably on my behalf than John’s testimony. The tasks that the Father gave me to carry out, these tasks which I perform, testify on my behalf. They prove that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ The Father who sent me testifies on my behalf. You have never heard his voice, and you have never seen his form. ³⁸ So you don’t have the Father’s message within you, because you don’t believe in the person he has sent. ³⁹ You study the Scriptures in detail because you think you have the source of eternal life in them. These Scriptures testify on my behalf. ⁴⁰ Yet, you don’t want to come to me to get eternal life.

⁴¹ “I don’t accept praise from humans. ⁴² But I know what kind of people you are. You don’t have any love for God. ⁴³ I have come with the authority my Father has given me, but you don’t accept me. If someone else comes with his own authority, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe when you accept each other’s praise and don’t look for the praise that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “Don’t think that I will accuse you in the presence of the Father. Moses, the one you trust, is already accusing you. ⁴⁶ If you really believed Moses, you would believe me. Moses wrote about me. ⁴⁷ If you don’t believe what Moses wrote, how will you ever believe what I say?”