M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

David again refuses to kill Saul

26 Some men from Ziph went to visit Saul at Gibeah. They said to him, ‘David is hiding on Hakilah hill, which is across the valley from Jeshimon.’

² So Saul went to the desert of Ziph to look for David. He took 3,000 strong Israelite soldiers with him. ³ Saul and his men arrived at Hakilah hill, near Jeshimon, where David was hiding. They put up their tents beside the road. David heard the news that Saul had followed him into the desert. ⁴ So David sent some men to see if that was true. They discovered that Saul had arrived at Hakilah.

⁵ One night, David went secretly to Saul's camp. Saul was asleep in the middle of the tents. The leader of his army, Ner's son Abner, was with him. He was asleep too. The army was all around them. David could see all this.

⁶ David spoke to two of his men. One of them was Ahimelech, a Hittite man. The other man was Abishai, who was Joab's brother (Zeruiah was their mother). David asked them, ‘Which one of you will go down into Saul's camp with me?’^[a]

Abishai said, ‘I will come with you.’

⁷ So David and Abishai went among Saul's army that night. They saw that Saul was asleep in the middle of the camp. He had pushed his spear into the ground near his head. Abner and the army were asleep around Saul. ⁸ Abishai said to David, ‘Tonight God has given your enemy into your power. I will push Saul's spear through his body and fix him to the ground. I will only have to do it once to kill him. I will not need to do it again.’

⁹ But David said to Abishai, ‘Do not kill Saul. He is the man that the Lord has chosen to be Israel's king. Anyone who attacks him will be guilty of a sin. ¹⁰ I know that the Lord himself will kill Saul one day. Saul may die when he has reached the age to die. Or someone may kill him in a battle. He will certainly come to his end. ¹¹ But I ask the Lord to stop me from hurting him, because he is the Lord's chosen king. Take the spear and the jar of water that are near Saul's head. We must leave here now!’

¹² So David took the spear and the jar of water from beside Saul's head. Then they left. Nobody saw them. Nobody knew that they had been in the camp. Nobody woke up. Saul's soldiers continued to sleep because the Lord caused it to happen.

¹³ David and Abishai then went across the valley to the other side of the hill. David stood on the top of the hill. He was far away from Saul's soldiers. ¹⁴ David shouted to Saul's army and to Ner's son, Abner, ‘Abner, wake up! Answer me!’

Abner replied, ‘Who is shouting to wake up the king? Who are you?’

¹⁵ David said to Abner, ‘Are you really the bravest soldier in Israel? You should have kept the king safe. Someone came into your camp to kill your master. ¹⁶ You have not done your job well. You and your men have not protected your master, who is the Lord's chosen king. As surely as the Lord lives, you all deserve to die. The king's spear and his water pot were beside his head. Look where they are now!’

¹⁷ Saul recognized David's voice. He said, ‘Is that you David, my son?’

David answered, ‘Yes, my master and my king, it is my voice that you can hear.’

¹⁸ David also said, ‘Why are you chasing after me, my master? What have I done that is wrong? Why am I guilty? ¹⁹ My master and my king, please listen to me. Has the Lord made you angry with me? If that is true, a sacrifice to him may change his thoughts. But if men have made you turn against me, I ask the Lord to curse them. They have chased me out of the land that belongs to the Lord's people. They have said to me, “Go away and worship other gods!” ²⁰ Do not let me die a long way away from the Lord's home. You are the king of Israel and I am like a small fly. But you are trying to catch me! You are like someone who is looking for a wild bird in the mountains!’

²¹ Then Saul said, ‘I have done a bad thing. Return home, David, my son. You chose not to kill me today, because you knew the value of my life. So I will not hurt you again. I have done foolish things. I have made a big mistake.’

²² David said, ‘Here is your own spear. Send one of your young men here to fetch it for you. ²³ The Lord wants everyone to do what is right and true. He blesses people who live like that. The Lord put you under my power today. But I would not agree to hurt the Lord's chosen king. ²⁴ Today I knew that your life is valuable. In the same way, I pray that the Lord will know that my life is valuable. I pray that he will keep me safe through all danger.’

²⁵ Then Saul said to David, ‘I pray that the Lord will bless you, my son. I know that you will do great things.’

So David left there and Saul returned to his home.

Questions about marriage

7 You wrote to ask me about certain things. You say, ‘It is a good thing when a man does not marry.’ ² That may be true, but then people may have sex in wrong ways. So every man should have his own wife and every woman should have her own husband. ³ Then they may have sex with each other in the right way. A husband should agree to have sex with his wife. And the wife should do the same thing for her husband. ⁴ The wife does not rule over her own body to decide when to have sex. She belongs to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not rule over his own body. He belongs to his wife.

⁵ Do not refuse to have sex with each other, unless both of you agree to stop for a short time. Then you can use more time to pray. But you should come together again soon, as husband and wife. If not, Satan may try to make you do something wrong. You may want too strongly to have sex with someone else. ⁶ I am saying these things to help you. I am not telling you what you must do. ⁷ It would be good if all of you could live in the way that I do. But each person has his own gift from God. God helps one person to live in a certain way. God helps another person with a different gift.

⁸ I will say this to those of you who have not married yet, and to those who are widows. It is better for you to remain alone. That is how I myself live. ⁹ But if you want to have sex too strongly, then you should marry. It is better to do that than to want to have sex all the time.

¹⁰ I will say this to people who have married. (This is not my rule. It is a rule that comes from the Lord himself.) A wife must not leave her husband. ¹¹ But if she does leave him, she must not marry another man. Or she should go back to live with her husband. In the same way, a husband must not send his wife away.

¹² To all you other people, I say this. (This is what I think. The Lord has not spoken about it.) A Christian man may have a wife who does not believe in Christ. If she agrees to continue living with him, then he should not send her away. ¹³ Also, a Christian woman may have a husband who does not believe in Christ. If he agrees to continue living with her, then she should not leave him. ¹⁴ God accepts a husband who does not believe in Christ because of his Christian wife. And God accepts a wife who does not believe in Christ because of her Christian husband. If that was not true, the children would not belong to God. But God does accept them, because to him they are now clean.

¹⁵ But the husband or wife who does not believe in Christ may want to leave. If they want to become separate, let them do that. If that happens, the Christian man or woman is now free. God wants you to live in peace. ¹⁶ If you are a Christian wife, you might save your husband. If you are a Christian husband, you might save your wife. But you can not be sure of what will happen.

¹⁷ But each of you should continue to live in the way that God has chosen for you. Remain as you were at the time when God called you to come to him. I teach that rule to people in all the churches. ¹⁸ Some of you are Jews, so people circumcised you. That happened before you believed in Christ. So do not try to change it. Some of you are not Jews. Nobody circumcised you. So continue like that. Do not ask anyone to circumcise you. ¹⁹ It is not important whether someone has circumcised you or not. The important thing is this: Obey what God says.

²⁰ Each of you should continue as you were when God called you to come to him. ²¹ You may have been a slave when God called you. That does not matter. But if you have the chance to become a free person, accept it. ²² The Lord may call a slave to come to him. Then, that slave has become free, because he belongs to the Lord. In the same way, when God calls a free person to belong to Christ, he becomes Christ's slave. ²³ God bought you for himself. He paid the price for you. So do not let anyone else make you their slave. ²⁴ My Christian friends, each of you should continue as you were when God first called you to come to him.^[a] Remember that you serve God.

²⁵ You asked me a question about people who have not yet married. The Lord has not told me any special rule about this. But I will tell you what I myself think about it. The Lord has been very kind to me. You know that you can believe what I say. ²⁶ This is what I think: There are many troubles in the world today. So it is better for everybody to continue as they are. ²⁷ If you have a wife, do not try to send her away. If you do not have a wife, do not try to marry. ²⁸ But if you do marry, that is not wrong. And if a young woman marries, that is not wrong. But people who marry will have many troubles during their life together. I want to save you from problems like that.

²⁹ My Christian friends, this is what I mean: The time that remains is very short. So men who have wives should live as if they had no wife. ³⁰ People who are sad should live as if they were not sad. People who are happy should live as if they had nothing to laugh about. People who buy things should live as if those things do not belong to them. ³¹ If you enjoy the things of this world, do not live as if those things are important. This world, as it is now, will soon finish.

³² I do not want you to worry about troubles. A man who has not married wants to serve the Lord. He wants to live in a way that makes the Lord happy. ³³ But a man who has married thinks a lot about this world's things. He wants to live in a way that makes his wife happy. ³⁴ As a result, he thinks in two opposite ways.

It is the same for a woman who has no husband, or a young girl who has not married. She wants to serve the Lord very well. She wants to be completely pure, both in her body and in her spirit. But a woman who has a husband has to think about this world's things. She wants to live in a way that makes her husband happy.

³⁵ I am saying this because I want to help you. I am not making rules that you have to obey. Instead, I want you to live in a right way. I do not want you to worry about troubles. Then you will be able to serve the Lord very well.

³⁶ Perhaps a man has agreed to marry a young woman. They may have decided to wait before they marry. But, as they grow older, the man may think differently. He may think that he needs to marry her. Then, he should do what he wants to do. It is good for them to marry. It is not wrong. ³⁷ But another man may not change his thoughts. He may be sure that he does not need to marry his young woman. If he decides not to marry her, he is doing the right thing. ³⁸ So the man who marries his young woman is doing a good thing. But the man who does not marry is doing a better thing.

³⁹ If a woman has married, she may not leave her husband while he still lives. But if he dies, then she is free to marry again. She may marry any man that she wants to. But he must be someone who belongs to the Lord. ⁴⁰ I do think that she would be happier if she remains without a husband. That is what I think, and God's Spirit also helps me with this.

Ezekiel cuts his hair

5 ‘Son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it like a knife to cut off your hair and your beard. Then use some scales to weigh the hair. Put it into three separate parts that are the same weight.^[a]

² Wait until all the days when you are lying on your side have finished. Take one part of your hair and burn it on the brick which has the picture of Jerusalem. Take another part and use a sword to cut it into small pieces. Let the pieces fall all around the brick which shows the city. Then take the third part and throw the hairs into the wind. I will run after them with a sword. ³ But keep a few of your hairs. Tie them into the edge of your clothes. ⁴ Finally, take out some of these hairs. Throw them into the fire and burn them. This fire will grow so that it reaches all Israel's people.

⁵ I, the Almighty Lord, say this: This shows what will happen to Jerusalem. I have put the city in the centre of all the nations. It has countries all around it. ⁶ But Jerusalem's people have refused to obey my rules and my commands. They have become more wicked than the nations and countries around them. They have not obeyed my laws.

⁷ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: You people of Jerusalem have done worse things than any of the nations around you. You have not obeyed my rules or my laws. You have not even obeyed the laws of the nations around you.

⁸ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: I myself have become your enemy, people of Jerusalem. I will punish you while the other nations watch. ⁹ I will punish you for all the disgusting things that you have done. I have never punished anyone like that before. And I will never do it again. ¹⁰ When I punish you like that, you will have no food to eat. Parents will be so hungry that they will eat their children. Children will eat their parents. I will chase away those few people who are still alive. They will go to all parts of the earth.

¹¹ The Almighty Lord says this: I promise you as surely as I live that I will remove you. You have made my holy place unclean. You have put your disgusting idols in my house. You have done wicked things there. Because of that I will not be sorry for you. I will not save you. ¹² Illness or famine will kill one third of your people inside the city. The soldiers who are around the city will kill a third of your people. And I will chase away a third of them to all parts of the earth. I will cause their enemies to run after them with their swords.^[b]

¹³ When I have done all that to them, I will not be angry any longer. I will not punish them any more, because it is enough. When I have finished, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken to them. I have been angry with them because they have not been faithful to me.

¹⁴ I will cause your city to become a heap of stones. People of the other nations around you will laugh at you when they see what has happened to you. ¹⁵ They will all laugh at you and insult you. They will see that I was very angry with you and I punished you. Then they will be afraid of my great anger. I, the Lord, say this!

¹⁶ I will take away your bread so that famine kills more and more of you. It will seem that I am shooting arrows at you to destroy you. ¹⁷ Famine or wild animals will kill you. Your children will no longer live. Illness and war will destroy you. I will send soldiers to attack you. I, the Lord, say this!’

This is a special song for the music leader. The sons of Korah wrote it.

A prayer when you are away from home^[a]

A prayer when you are in trouble^[g]