Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Be Exalted Over All the Earth

Psalm 57

² Now there was a man in Maon, whose business was in Carmel, and the man was so wealthy, he had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats. At that time he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. ³ The man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. The woman was intelligent and beautiful, but the man, a Calebite, was harsh and evil in his dealings. ⁴ While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing his sheep. ⁵ So David dispatched ten young men, and said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and when you reach Nabal, greet him in my name. ⁶ Thus you will say: ‘Long life! And shalom to you, shalom to your house and shalom to all that is yours. ⁷ Now I hear that you have shearers. When your shepherds were with us, we did them no harm and nothing of theirs was missing all the time they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore, let the young men find favor in your eyes, for we have come on a festive day. So please, give to your servants and to your son David, whatever you find at hand.’”

⁹ David’s young men went and told Nabal all those words in David’s name, and waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants by saying, “Who is David? And who is Jesse’s son? Nowadays there are many slaves each running away from his master. ¹¹ So should I take my bread, my water and my meat that I have cooked for my shearers, and give it to men whom I don’t know where they come from?”

¹² So David’s young men turned around and went back. When they came and reported to him all these words, ¹³ David said to his men, “Everyone buckle on your sword!” So each man buckled on his sword and David also buckled on his sword. About 400 men went up following David, while 200 stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ But one of the young men told Nabal’s wife Abigail saying, “Look, David had sent messengers from the wilderness to greet our master, but he spurned them. ¹⁵ Yet the men were very good to us. We were not harmed, nor were we missing anything as long as we went about with them while we were in the fields. ¹⁶ They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the time that we were with them tending the sheep. ¹⁷ Now therefore, know and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and against all his household. But he is such a worthless fellow that no one can speak to him.”

¹⁸ Then Abigail hurried and took 200 loaves, two bottles of wine, five dressed sheep, five measures of roasted corn, 100 cakes of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and put them on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her young men, “Go on ahead of me—see, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ As she was riding on the donkey and going down by the hidden pass of the mountain, behold, David and his men were coming down towards her, so she met them.

²¹ Now David had been saying, “Surely in vain I’ve guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missing of all that belonged to him—yet he has returned me evil for good. ²² May God do so and even more to David’s enemies if by the morning I leave even one male of all who belong to him!”

Settle Disputes Within the Community

6 Does any one of you, when he has a matter against his neighbor, dare to go to court before the unrighteous and not before the kedoshim? ² Don’t you know that the kedoshim will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial matters? ³ Don’t you know that we will judge angels? How much more the matters of this life! ⁴ So if you have courts for matters of this life, why do you appoint as judges those who have no standing in the community? ⁵ I say this to put you to shame! Isn’t there even one wise man among you who will be able to settle disputes between his brethren? ⁶ Instead, a brother goes to court against a brother—and before unbelievers at that!

⁷ Therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ But you yourselves do wrong and cheat—and against your brothers and sisters at that!

Morality in the Temple of God

⁹ Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, those who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ thieves, the greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ That is what some of you were—but you were washed, you were made holy, you were set right in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah and by the Ruach of our God.