The Daily Audio Bible
20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah. He came to Jonathan and asked, “What have I done? Am I guilty of something? What is my sin against your father that makes him seek my life?”
2 Jonathan said to him, “A curse on me if that happens.[a] You will not die. Look, my father does nothing whether important or unimportant without telling me about it. Why would my father hide this from me? It is not so.”
3 But David took an oath and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your eyes, so he might say, ‘Do not let Jonathan know about this, or he will be very upset.’ But as surely as the Lord lives, and as surely as your soul lives, there is only a step between me and death.”
4 Then Jonathan said to David, “Ask me for whatever you really want, and I will do it for you.”
5 David said to Jonathan, “Listen, tomorrow is the new moon, and I am expected to dine with the king, but let me go so that I can hide in the countryside until the evening of the third day. 6 If your father misses me at all, say, ‘David urged me to excuse him so that he could run to Bethlehem, his hometown, because it is the annual sacrifice there for his entire family.’ 7 If he says, ‘That is fine,’ your servant will be at peace. But if it really displeases him, then you will know that he is planning evil. 8 You must show kindness to your servant, because you have made a covenant in the name of the Lord with me, your servant. But if I am guilty of anything, kill me yourself. Why should you bring me to your father?”
9 Jonathan said, “A curse on me if that occurs, because if I knew that my father was planning to harm you, wouldn’t I tell you?”
10 Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father gives you a harsh response?”
11 Jonathan said to David, “Come, let’s go out into the field.” So the two of them went out into the field. 12 Jonathan said to David, “I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel! About this time tomorrow or the day after, when I have tested my father to see if he is favorably inclined toward David, I will send word to you so that you hear about it. 13 May the Lord punish Jonathan severely and double it,[b] if my father is planning to harm you and I do not disclose it to you and send you on your way, so that you may go in peace. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. 14 You must show the mercy of the Lord to me, not only while I am still alive, so that I do not die, 15 but you also must not cut off your mercy from my house forever—no, not even when the Lord has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord demand an accounting from David’s enemies.” 17 Then Jonathan had David repeat the oath, because of the love that he had for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
18 Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19 On the third day,[c] go down quickly to the place where you hid on the previous occasion and stay by the stone named Ezel. 20 I will shoot three arrows off to the side of it, as if I were shooting at a target. 21 I will send the boy out and say, ‘Go and find the arrows!’ If I yell to the boy, ‘Hey! The arrows are closer this way. Come and pick them up,’ then you can come to me, because you are safe and, as the Lord lives, there is no danger. 22 But if I yell to the boy, ‘Hey! The arrows are farther out,’ then go on your way, for the Lord has sent you away. 23 Concerning this matter that you and I have spoken about, the Lord stands as a witness between you and me[d] forever.”
24 So David hid in the countryside. When the new moon came, the king sat down to eat his meal. 25 The king sat at his usual seat next to the wall. Jonathan was across from him,[e] and Abner sat next to Saul, but David’s place was empty. 26 Nevertheless, Saul did not say anything that day, since he thought, “Something has happened to him to make him ceremonially unclean. That’s what it is—he must be unclean.”
27 On the day after the new moon, the second day of the month, David’s place was still empty. So Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why didn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?”
28 Jonathan answered Saul, “David begged me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29 He said, ‘Please let me go, because our family has a sacrifice in the city. My brother has ordered me to be there. Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please excuse me so I can go and see my brothers.’ That is why he has not come to the king’s table.”
30 Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverted, unfaithful woman! Don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness?[f] 31 For as long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingship. So send for him and bring him to me, because he must surely die!”
32 Jonathan answered his father Saul, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?”
33 Saul threw his spear at him to hit him. So Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. 34 Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger, and he ate no food on the second day of the month, for he grieved for David, because his father had treated David so shamefully.
35 In the morning Jonathan went out into the field at the time he had set with David. He took a young servant boy with him. 36 He said to his boy, “Run out and find the arrows that I shoot.” As the boy ran, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. 37 When the boy reached the area where Jonathan’s arrow had landed, Jonathan yelled to the boy, “Isn’t the arrow farther out from you?” 38 Jonathan shouted to the boy, “Go faster! Hurry up! Don’t be slow!” Jonathan’s boy picked up the arrows and came back to his master. 39 The boy did not know anything about what was going on. Only Jonathan and David knew. 40 Jonathan gave his equipment to his boy and told him, “Go on ahead. Carry these things into the city.”
41 As soon as the boy was gone, David got up from the south side of the mound.[g] He fell down with his face to the ground and bowed three times. They kissed one another and wept together, but David wept more. 42 Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in the Lord’s name. May the Lord stand between you and me and between my offspring and your offspring forever.” David got up and left, and Jonathan went back into the city.
David and the Priests
21 David came to Ahimelek the priest at Nob. When he came to meet David, Ahimelek was trembling with fear, and he said to David, “Why are you alone? Why isn’t there anyone with you?”[h]
2 David said to Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and told me, ‘Don’t let anyone know anything about where I am sending you or about your orders.’ I have instructed the young men to wait for me at a certain place. 3 So what do you have on hand? Please give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is available.”
4 The priest answered David, “I do not have any ordinary bread, but there is holy[i] bread—I can give it to you[j] only if your young men have kept themselves away from women.”[k]
5 David answered the priest, “Yes indeed, women have been kept away from us just as they have been on previous occasions. Whenever I go out on a mission, the bodies[l] of the young men are kept holy even if it is only an ordinary journey. How much more then shall their bodies be holy today?”
6 So the priest gave him holy bread, because there was no bread there except for the Bread of the Presence which had been removed from the presence of the Lord and replaced with hot bread.
7 Now one of Saul’s servants was present that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite. He was in charge of Saul’s shepherds.
8 David said to Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or sword on hand here? I didn’t bring my sword or my gear with me, because the king’s mission was so urgent.”
9 The priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here. It is wrapped in a cloth behind the place where the special vest is kept. If you would like to take that, take it, because there is nothing else here.”
David said, “There is no other like that one. Give it to me.”
David Among the Philistines
10 David quickly fled from Saul that day and went to Achish king of Gath. 11 The officials of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David, the king of the land? Didn’t they dance and sing songs about him, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”
12 David took those words to heart, so he was very afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13 He changed his behavior in their presence and pretended to be insane while he was in their hands. He scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spit run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, can’t you see that the man is insane? Why have you brought him to me? 15 Don’t I have enough madmen? Did you have to bring this madman into my presence? Should I keep this man in my house?”
A Blind Man Sees
9 As Jesus was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that God’s works might be revealed in connection with him. 4 I[a] must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. 5 As long as I am in the world, I am the Light of the World.”
6 After saying this, Jesus spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and spread the mud on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” Jesus told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he went and washed, and came back seeing.
8 His neighbors and those who had seen him before this as a beggar asked, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit and beg?”
9 Some said, “He is the one.” Others said, “No, but he looks like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one!”
10 So they asked him, “How were your eyes opened?”
11 He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and then I could see.”
12 “Where is he?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he said.
13 They brought this man who had been blind to the Pharisees. 14 Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. 15 So the Pharisees also asked him how he received his sight.
“He put mud on my eyes,” the man told them. “I washed, and now I see.”
16 Then some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God because he does not keep the Sabbath.” Others were saying, “How can a sinful man work such miraculous signs?”
There was division among them, 17 so they said to the blind man again, “What do you say about him, because he opened your eyes?”
The man replied, “He is a prophet.”
18 The Jews still did not believe that he had been blind and received his sight, until they summoned the parents of the man who had received his sight. 19 They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? How is it, then, that he can see now?”
20 “We know that this is our son,” his parents answered, “and that he was born blind. 21 But we do not know how he can see now, or who opened his eyes. Ask him. He is old enough. He will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said these things because they were afraid of the Jews. For the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed that Jesus was the Christ would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That is why his parents said, “He is old enough. Ask him.”
24 So for a second time they summoned the man who had been blind. They told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”
25 He answered, “I do not know if he is a sinner. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I see.”
26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”
27 He answered, “I already told you, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? You don’t want to become his disciples too, do you?”
28 They ridiculed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. 29 We know that God has spoken to Moses. But this man—we do not know where he comes from.”
30 “That’s amazing!” the man answered. “You do not know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. But he does listen to anyone who worships God and does his will. 32 From the beginning of time, no one has ever heard of anyone opening the eyes of someone born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
34 They answered him, “You were entirely born in sinfulness! Yet you presume to teach us?” And they threw him out.
35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out. When he found him, he asked, “Do you believe in the Son of God?”[b]
36 “Who is he, sir,” the man replied, “that I may believe in him?”
37 Jesus answered, “You have seen him, and he is the very one who is speaking with you.”
38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” and he knelt down and worshipped him.
39 Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, in order that those who do not see will see, and those who do see will become blind.”
40 Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and asked, “We are not blind too, are we?”
41 Jesus told them, “If you were blind, you would not hold on to sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”
Psalm 113
The Mighty Deliverer
Invitation to Praise
1 Praise the Lord.[a]
Praise, you servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord.
2 Let the name of the Lord be blessed, from now to eternity.
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised.
The Basis for Praise
4 High above all the nations is the Lord.
His glory towers above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God?
He is seated on high.
6 He bends down to look at the heavens and at the earth.
7 He raises the poor from the dust.
He lifts the needy from the garbage pile
8 to seat them with nobles,
with the nobles of his people.
9 He is the one who settles the barren woman in her home
as a joyful mother of children.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 114
When Israel Came Out of Egypt
1 When Israel came out of Egypt
and the house of Jacob from a people with a strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel became his kingdom.
3 The sea saw and fled.
The Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 What happened, O sea, that you fled,
O Jordan, that you turned back,
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble in the presence of the Lord, O earth.
Tremble in the presence of the God of Jacob.
8 He turned the rock into a pool of water.
He turned flint into springs of water.
15 All the days of an oppressed person are evil,
but a cheerful heart enjoys a continuous celebration.[a]
16 Better a little with the fear of the Lord
than great wealth with turmoil.
17 Better a meal of vegetables where there is love
than a fattened calf with hatred.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.