Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

To the Overcomer upon, Do not destroy, Michtam of David, when he fled from the presence of Saul in the cave.

¹ ¶ Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusts in thee; and in the shadow of thy wings I will make my refuge until these calamities are overpast.

² I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performs all things for me.

³ He shall send from the heavens and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.

⁴ My soul is among lions, and I lie even among those that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword.

⁵ Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

⁶ They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down; they have dug a pit before me, into the midst of which they are fallen themselves. Selah.

⁷ ¶ My heart is ready, O God, my heart is willing; I will sing and give praise.

⁸ Awake, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will arise early.

⁹ I will praise thee, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing unto thee among the nations.

¹⁰ For thy mercy is great unto the heavens, and thy truth unto the clouds.

¹¹ Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth.

² ¶ And there was a man in Maon whose possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great, and 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. And she was a woman of good understanding and of a beautiful countenance, but the man was hard and evil in his doings, and he was of the lineage of Caleb.

⁴ And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.

⁵ And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Climb up to Carmel and go to Nabal and greet him in my name.

⁶ And thus shall ye say to him, May thou live and peace be unto thee and peace be unto thy house and peace be unto all that thou hast.

⁷ I have recently heard that thou hast shearers. Now thy shepherds who were with us, we did not hurt them, neither was there anything missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel.

⁸ Ask thy slaves, and they will tell thee. Therefore, let the young men find grace in thine eyes, for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatever is in thy hand unto thy slaves and to thy son David.

⁹ And when David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David and ceased.

¹⁰ And Nabal answered David’s slaves and said, Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many slaves nowadays that break from their masters.

¹¹ Shall I then take my bread and my water and my slaughtered meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men that I do not know where they are from?

¹² ¶ So David’s young men left and returned and came and told him all those words.

¹³ Then David said unto his men, Gird ye on each man his sword. And each one girded on his sword, and David also girded on his sword; and about four hundred men went up after David, and they left two hundred with the stuff.

¹⁴ And one of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to bless our master, and he railed on them.

¹⁵ But the men were very good unto us and never hurt us, neither did we miss anything all the time that we have been conversant with them when we were in the fields.

¹⁶ They were a wall unto us both by night and day all the time that we were feeding the sheep with them.

¹⁷ Now, therefore, know and consider what thou must do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that no one can speak to him.

¹⁸ ¶ Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dressed and five measures of parched flour and one hundred bunches of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs and laid them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ And it was so as she rode on the ass that she came down a secret part of the mountain, and, behold, David and his men came down against her, and she met them.

²¹ Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow has in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him, and he has returned unto me evil for good.

²² Let God do so and more also unto the enemies of David if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any that piss against the wall.

6 ¶ Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go unto judgment before the unjust, and not before the saints?

² Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

³ Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more the things that pertain to this life?

⁴ If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set as judges the most humble who are in the congregation. {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}

⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brothers?

⁶ But brother goes to judgment against brother, and that before the unbelievers.

⁷ Now therefore there is certainly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather suffer the wrong? why do ye not rather be defrauded?

⁸ But ye do wrong and defraud and do this to your brothers.

⁹ ¶ Know ye not that the unjust shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals

¹⁰ nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

¹¹ And such were some of you, but now ye are washed, but now ye are sanctified, but now ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God.