Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors.

For the choir director; set to ^[a]Al-tashheth. A ^[b]Mikhtam of David, ^[c]when he fled from Saul in the cave.

Nabal and Abigail

² Now there was a man in ^(A)Maon whose business was in ^(B)Carmel; and the man was very ^[a]rich, and he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. And it came about while ^(C)he was shearing his sheep in Carmel ³ (now the man’s name was Nabal, and his ^(D)wife’s name was Abigail. And the woman was ^[b]intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings, and he was ^(E)a Calebite), ⁴ that David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David sent ten young men; and David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, ^[c]visit Nabal and greet him in my name; ⁶ and thus you shall say, ‘^[d]Have a long life, ^(F)peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. ⁷ Now I have heard ^(G)that you have shearers; now your shepherds have been with us and we have not insulted them, ^(H)nor have they missed anything all the days they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on ^(I)a ^[e]festive day. Please give whatever you find at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”

⁹ When David’s young men came, they spoke to Nabal according to all these words in David’s name; then they waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “^(J)Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants today who are each breaking away from his master. ¹¹ Shall I then ^(K)take my bread and my water and my meat that I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men ^[f]whose origin I do not know?” ¹² So David’s young men retraced their way and went back; and they came and told him according to all these words. ¹³ David said to his men, “Each of you gird on his sword.” So each man girded on his sword. And David also girded on his sword, and about ^(L)four hundred men went up behind David while two hundred ^(M)stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Behold, David sent messengers from the wilderness to ^[g](N)greet our master, and he scorned them. ¹⁵ Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not ^(O)insulted, nor did we miss anything ^[h]as long as we went about with them, while we were in the fields. ^16 (P)They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time we were with them tending the sheep. ¹⁷ Now therefore, know and ^[i]consider what you should do, for evil is plotted against our master and against all his household; and he is such a ^[j]worthless man that no one can speak to him.”

Abigail Intercedes

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and ^(Q)took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ She said to her young men, “^(R)Go on before me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ It came about as she was riding on her donkey and coming down by the hidden part of the mountain, that behold, David and his men were coming down toward her; so she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has ^(S)returned me evil for good. ^22 (T)May God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, ^(U)if by morning I leave as much as one ^[k]male of any who belong to him.”

Lawsuits Discouraged

6 Does any one of you, when he has a ^[a]case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and ^(A)not before the ^[b]saints? ² Or ^(B)do you not know that ^(C)the ^[c]saints will judge ^(D)the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to ^[d]constitute the smallest law courts? ^3 (E)Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? ⁴ So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, ^[e]do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? ^5 (F)I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his ^(G)brethren, ⁶ but brother goes to law with brother, and that before ^(H)unbelievers?

⁷ Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. ^(I)Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your ^(J)brethren.

⁹ Or ^(K)do you not know that the unrighteous will not ^(L)inherit the kingdom of God? ^(M)Do not be deceived; ^(N)neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ^[f]effeminate, nor homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will ^(O)inherit the kingdom of God. ^11 (P)Such were some of you; but you were ^(Q)washed, but you were ^(R)sanctified, but you were ^(S)justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.