Old/New Testament
David lives among the Philistines
27 Then David thought, ‘I am sure that Saul will catch me one day. Then he will kill me. I must go to the country of the Philistines so that I will be safe from Saul. That is the best thing that I can do. When I am no longer in the land of Israel, Saul will stop looking for me here. I will escape from him.’
2 So David and his 600 men went across the border of Israel to Gath town. Maoch's son Achish was the king there. 3 David and his men lived in Gath with King Achish. They had their families with them. David's two wives were with him: Ahinoam from Jezreel, and Abigail from Carmel. Abigail was Nabal's widow. 4 Saul heard the news that David had run away to Gath. So he stopped looking for David.
5 One day David said to Achish, ‘I hope that you are pleased with me. If you are, please choose a place for me to live in one of the small towns. I do not need to live in the same big city as the king.’
6 So on that day King Achish gave Ziklag town to David.[a] Since then, Ziklag has always belonged to Judah's king. 7 David lived in the country of the Philistines for one year and four months.
8 During that time David and his men attacked the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. These tribes had lived in that place for a very long time. Their land went as far as Shur and the border of Egypt. 9 Whenever David's men attacked them, they killed all the men and women. But they took all their sheep, cows, donkeys and camels, as well as their clothes. Then they would return to see King Achish.
10 Achish would ask David, ‘Which place did you go and attack today?’ Sometimes David would say, ‘We robbed the people of a town in Judah's desert.’ Or David might say, ‘We attacked a town in the desert where the people of Jerahmeel's clan live.’ Or he might say, ‘We attacked a town in the desert where the Kenites live.’
11 David killed all the people in the places that he attacked. He never took anyone back to Gath. He thought, ‘If any of the people are still alive, they might go to Gath and tell people what we have done.’
That is what David did for the whole time that he lived among the Philistines. 12 So King Achish trusted David. He thought, ‘The Israelites must now hate David very much. So David will have to be my servant for ever.’
28 At that time, the Philistine army joined together to fight against the Israelites. King Achish said to David, ‘I hope you know that you and your men must fight with me in the battle.’
2 David said, ‘Yes, sir. Then you will see how well I can fight!’
Achish replied, ‘Good. Then you will always be my guard to keep me safe.’
King Saul visits a woman who uses magic
3 Samuel had died before this. All the Israelites had been very sad at his death. They had buried him in Ramah, the town where he had lived. When Samuel had been alive, Saul had removed magicians from Israel. Saul removed everyone who used magic to speak to the spirits of dead people.
4 The Philistine army came together and they put up their tents at Shunem. Saul called together the whole Israelite army. They put up their tents at Gilboa. 5 Saul saw the camp of the Philistine army. He became very afraid. 6 Saul asked the Lord what he should do. But the Lord did not answer him in any way. He did not give Saul a dream. He did not use the Urim. He did not give a message to the prophets. 7 So Saul said to his servants, ‘Look for a woman who can talk to dead people. Then I will go and ask her what will happen.’
His servants replied, ‘There is a woman at Endor who can do that.’
8 Saul changed his clothes so that no one would recognize him. At night, Saul and two of his men went to see the woman. Saul said to her, ‘Use your magic to bring up the spirit of a certain dead man. I will tell you his name.’
9 But the woman said to him, ‘You know what King Saul has done. He has removed all the magicians from Israel. Are you using a trap to catch me? Do you want me to die?’
10 Then Saul promised the woman very strongly. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, nobody will punish you if you do this.’[b]
11 The woman said, ‘Who is it that you want me to bring for you?’ Saul replied, ‘Bring Samuel to me.’
12 The woman screamed when she saw Samuel. She said to Saul, ‘You have deceived me! You are King Saul!’
13 The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid. Tell me what you can see.’
She replied, ‘I can see a spirit that is coming up from the ground.’
14 Saul asked, ‘What does he look like?’ She said, ‘I see an old man who is wearing a long coat.’
Saul realized that this was Samuel. He bent down low on his knees with his face towards the ground.
15 Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you caused this trouble for me? Why have you brought me back?’
Saul said, ‘I have a lot of trouble. The Philistines are fighting against me. God has turned away from me. He will not use the prophets or give me dreams to answer my questions. So I have called you to come here. Please tell me what I should do.’
16 Samuel said, ‘The Lord has turned away from you and he has become your enemy. So do not ask me what you should do. 17 I told you what the Lord would do. Now he has done it! The Lord has taken the kingdom away from you. He has given it to another Israelite, David. 18 The Lord has punished you today because you did not obey him. The Lord was very angry with the Amalekites. He told you to destroy them all. But you refused to do that. 19 The Lord will put you and the Israelites under the power of the Philistines. Tomorrow you and your sons will be with me in the place for dead people. The Lord will also let the Philistines win against Israel's army.’
20 Saul immediately fell down on the ground and he lay there. He was very afraid because of what Samuel had said. Saul was also very weak because he had eaten nothing all that day and night.
21 Then the woman came to Saul. She saw that he was very afraid. She said, ‘I have obeyed you, sir. I did what you asked me to do. I might have died because I did that. 22 Please listen to me now. I will give you some food to eat. Then you will be strong enough to travel back.’
23 Saul refused and he said, ‘I will not eat.’ But the woman and Saul's servants continued to say that he must eat some food. So Saul agreed. He got up from the ground and he sat down on a bed.
24 The woman had a fat calf at her home. She went quickly and she killed it. Then she took some flour and she cooked some flat bread without yeast. 25 She gave the food to Saul and to his men and they ate it. Then they left her house that night.
The Philistine leaders will not have David in their army
29 The Philistine army put up their tents at Aphek. The Israelites made their camp near the spring of water at Jezreel. 2 The Philistine rulers marched out with their groups of soldiers. They were in groups of 100 soldiers and 1,000 soldiers. David and his men were marching with King Achish at the back of the army. 3 The Philistine leaders asked, ‘Why are these Hebrew people here?’
Achish said to them, ‘This is David. He was the servant of Israel's King Saul. But he came to me more than a year ago. Since he turned against King Saul and came to me, he has always been faithful to me.’
4 But the Philistine leaders were angry with Achish. They said to him, ‘Send David back to the town that you gave to him. He must not go with us to fight the battle. He might turn against us and become our enemy. Then he would start to kill our own soldiers. That would make his master, Saul, very happy! 5 Remember who this man David is! The Israelites sing this about him when they dance:
“Saul has killed thousands of his enemies.
And David has killed tens of thousands of his enemies.” ’
6 So Achish called David to come to him. He said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, I know that I can trust you. I would like you to go with me to fight the battle. Since the first day that you came to me, I have never found anything wrong with you. But the other leaders do not trust you. 7 So return to your home and have peace in your mind. Do not do anything that will make the other Philistine leaders angry.’
8 David said to King Achish, ‘What have I done that is wrong? You say that you have found nothing wrong with me all the time that I have been with you. You are my master and king. So why should I not go with you to fight your enemies?’
9 Achish replied, ‘I believe that you are as good as an angel from God. But the Philistine leaders have said, “David must not go with us to fight the battle.” 10 So you must all get up early tomorrow morning. As soon as there is light at dawn, you must leave with the men who came with you.’
11 So David and his men got up early in the morning. They returned along the road back to Ziklag. The Philistine army went to Jezreel.
Stop doing wrong things or die
13 At that time, some people were with Jesus. They told him what happened to some people from Galilee. They had been burning animals as a gift for God. Pilate sent some soldiers to kill them.[a]
2 Jesus replied, ‘Think about those people from Galilee. Perhaps you think that they had done more bad things than other people from Galilee. Do you think that is why they had to die? 3 No! But I tell you this. All of you have done many bad things. So you must change how you live and you must turn to God. If you do not, you will also die as they did.
4 And you remember what happened to those 18 people in Siloam. A high building fell down and it killed them. Perhaps you think that they had done more bad things than the other people in Jerusalem. 5 But I tell you, no, they had not. All of you have also done many bad things. So you must change how you live and you must turn to God. If you do not, you will also die as they did.’
A story about a fig tree
6 Then Jesus told this story. ‘A man had a garden where he grew fruit. He had planted a fig tree there. But when he came to look for fruit on it, he could not find any. 7 So he said to his gardener, “Look, for three years, I have come to look for fruit on this tree. But I have never found any. So cut the tree down! I do not think that it should be here. It is wasting the ground.”
8 “Master,” the gardener replied, “please leave the tree in the ground for one more year. Let me dig round it and let me put some good soil there.[b] 9 If I do that, next year, the fig tree may have some fruit on it. If it does not, I will cut it down for you.” ’[c]
Jesus makes a sick woman well again
10 One day, Jesus was teaching in a Jewish meeting place. It was the Jewish day of rest.
11 There was a woman there that had a bad spirit inside her. It had lived in her for 18 years and it had made her ill. Her back was bent. She could not stand up straight. 12 Jesus saw her and he called her to come to him. He said, ‘Woman, you are now better from your illness.’ 13 He put his hands on her and immediately she could stand up straight. She praised God.
14 But the leader of the meeting place was angry because Jesus had made a sick person well on their day of rest. He said to the people there, ‘There are six days each week when we should work. Come on any of those days and get well. But you should not come on our day of rest to get well.’
15 ‘You are wrong,’ the Lord Jesus said to him. ‘You teach one thing but you do something different yourselves. On the day of rest you will undo the rope on your ox or your donkey and take it outside. You then give it water to drink. Is that not true?[d] 16 Now look at this woman. She belongs to the family of Abraham. But a bad spirit from the Devil has made her ill for 18 years. It is like he has tied her up. So it must be right to make her free on our day of rest.’
17 These words made the leaders of the meeting place feel ashamed. But the other people there were very happy. They were happy because they had seen Jesus do many good and powerful things.
Jesus tells stories about seeds and yeast
18 Then Jesus said to them, ‘I will tell you a story about the kingdom of God and what it is like. 19 It is like a very small seed of the plant called mustard. A man took this seed and he planted it in his garden. The seed grew and it became a tree. It was so big that birds came and made their nests among its branches.’
20 Jesus then said, ‘Here is another example of what the kingdom of God is like. 21 It is like how yeast works. A woman took some of it and she mixed it into three large bowls of flour. Then the yeast went through all the flour so that it grew big.’
A story about a narrow door
22 Jesus was continuing his journey towards Jerusalem. On the way, he went through towns and villages. In each one, he taught the people.
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