Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

This is for the music leader, and he should use special music.

David wrote this prayer when he ran away from King Saul to hide in a cave.

A prayer for help^[a]

Nabal insults David

^2-3 There was a very rich man who lived at Maon. His name was Nabal. He was a descendant of Caleb. His wife's name was Abigail. She was wise and beautiful. But Nabal was a cruel man who did evil things.

Nabal had some land near Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. He was with his men in Carmel as they cut the wool from his sheep.

⁴ While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was cutting the wool from his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men to meet with Nabal. He said to them, ‘Go to Carmel and find Nabal. Tell him that David says “hello”. ⁶ Then give him this message: “We hope that you and your family are all well. We hope that everything you have is doing well. ⁷ David has heard that you are now cutting the wool from your sheep. When your shepherds were with us near Carmel, we did not hurt them. We did not take anything from them. ⁸ Your servants will tell you that, if you ask them. Now we have come to you at this special holiday time. So please be kind to the young men that David has sent to see you. They are your servants as well as his servants. Please give any extra food that you have to these young men and to your good friend David.” ’

⁹ David's men went to Carmel. They gave David's message to Nabal. They waited for Nabal to reply. ¹⁰ Nabal answered David's young men, ‘Who is this David? Do I know this son of Jesse? Many servants run away from their masters these days. ¹¹ I have food and drink for the men who are cutting the wool from my sheep. I have cooked meat for them to eat. But I will not give anything to you. You might have come from anywhere!’

¹² David's young men left Nabal. They returned to David and they told him everything that Nabal had said. ¹³ David said to his men, ‘Tie your swords onto your belts.’ So they all did that. David put his sword on his belt too. About 400 men went with David. About 200 men stayed at their camp.

¹⁴ One of Nabal's servants spoke to Nabal's wife, Abigail. He said to her, ‘David sent some of his men from the desert to say “hello” to our master. But our master insulted them. ¹⁵ David's men have been very kind to us. When we were with them in the fields, they did not hurt us. They did not take anything from us the whole time that we were there. ¹⁶ They kept us safe while we took care of Nabal's sheep. They kept us safe all the time, during the day and at night. ¹⁷ So please think carefully about this. Decide what you can do. If you do nothing, there will be great trouble for our master and all his family and servants. He is such a wicked man that he will not listen to anyone.’

¹⁸ Abigail quickly got some food. She got 200 loaves of bread, two leather bags of wine, five sheep that she had cooked, and five jars of grain that she had cooked. She also got 100 blocks of raisins and 200 blocks of dried figs. She put all these things on some donkeys. ¹⁹ She said to her servants, ‘You go first and I will follow you.’ But she did not tell her husband Nabal what she was doing.

²⁰ Abigail rode her donkey along the path beside a mountain. Then she saw David and his men as they were coming towards her. So they all met each other. ²¹ David had just said to his men, ‘I kept Nabal's people and all his things safe in the desert. We did not take anything from him. But that has not helped us. I was kind to him, but he has done an evil thing to me in return. ²² I pray that God will punish me if I do not kill all the men in Nabal's family by tomorrow morning.’

Quarrels between Christians

6 Perhaps one of you has a quarrel with another Christian. Who should decide which of you is right? You should never ask people who do not know God to decide. No! Instead, you should go to God's people. They should decide. ² It is God's people who will judge all the people in the world one day. You surely know that. Since that is true, you should be able to decide about small quarrels between yourselves. ³ You know that we will judge the angels one day. So we must be able to decide about ordinary things here on earth.

⁴ If you want to decide an ordinary matter like that, what do you do? Sometimes you go to a judge who does not believe in God. You should never do that! The church does not respect people like that. ⁵ I say this so that you will feel ashamed. There is surely a wise person in your group who could decide quarrels between yourselves. ⁶ But instead, some believers among you accuse other believers in front of judges. And those judges are not believers!

⁷ When you accuse each other like that, it shows that you have already failed. It would be better to accept it when other people hurt you. Even if people rob you, it would be better to accept it. ⁸ Instead, you yourselves hurt other people, and you even rob them. And those other people are believers like you!

⁹ People who do wrong things like that will never belong to God's kingdom. You surely know that. Do not think that people like this will receive God's good things: People who have sex in wrong ways. People who worship idols. People who have sex with anyone that they are not married to. Men who have sex with other men. ¹⁰ People who rob other people. People who want many things for themselves. Drunks. People who insult other people. People who deceive other people to take things from them. None of these people will receive the good things of God's kingdom.

¹¹ At one time, some of you were people like that. But God has now made you clean and pure, so that you belong to him. You have become right with God. Our God has done this with the power of his Spirit because you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.