Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Rescue from Enemies

For the music director, according to Do Not Destroy.

Of David. A miktam.

When he fled from Saul into the cave.^[a]

David and Abigail

² Now there was a man in Maon, whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich and owned^[a] three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. Now^[b] the shearing of his sheep was taking place in Carmel. ³ The name of the man was Nabal,^[c] and the name of his wife was Abigail.^[d] Now the woman was wise and beautiful, but the man was stubborn and mean,^[e] and he was as his heart.^{[f] 4} 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 and go to Nabal; you will greet him in my name.^{[g] 6} Then you must say to him, ‘Long life to you, and may it go well with you, with your house, and with all that is yours.^{[h] 7} Now I have heard that you have shearers.^[i] Now while your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and nothing of theirs was missing, all the days they were in Carmel. ⁸ Ask your servants^[j] and they will tell you! Let the young men^[k] find favor in your eyes because we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have on hand^[l] for your servants and for your son David.”

⁹ So David’s young men came and they spoke all these words to Nabal in the name of David. Then they waited. ¹⁰ But Nabal answered David’s servants and said, “Who is David? And who is the son of Jesse? Today, there are many servants breaking away from the presence of their masters. ¹¹ Should I take my bread and my water and my meat which I have slaughtered for my shearers and give it to men whom I do not know where they are from? ¹² So David’s young men turned on their way and returned and came and told him according to all these words. ¹³ Then David said to his men, “Each man strap on his sword!” So each one strapped on his sword, and David also strapped on his sword. About four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.

¹⁴ But a young man of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, “Look, David sent messengers from the desert to greet^[m] our master, but he addressed them angrily, ¹⁵ even though the men were very good to us; we were not mistreated and did not miss anything all the days we went about with them while we were^[n] in the field. ¹⁶ They were a wall to us both night and day, all the days we were^[o] with them keeping the sheep. ¹⁷ And so then, know and consider^[p] what you should do, for evil has been decided against our master and against all his household, and he is such a wicked man,^[q] nobody can reason with him!”^[r]

¹⁸ Then Abigail quickly took^[s] two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five prepared sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred raisin cakes, and two hundred fig cakes, and she put them on the donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her servants, “Go ahead before me; look, I am coming after you,” but she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ And then,^[t] as she was riding on the donkey and was going down the ravine of the mountain, David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she met them. ²¹ Now David had said, “Surely in vain^[u] I guarded all that this fellow had in the desert. And nothing was missed of all that was his, but he returned evil against me in place of good! ²² May God severely punish the enemies of David^[v] and again do thus if I leave behind anything that is his^[w] until the morning, not even one male!”^[x]

Lawsuits between Believers

6 Does anyone among you, if he^[a] has a matter against someone else, dare to go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? ² Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if by you the world is judged, are you unworthy of the most insignificant courts? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels, not to mention ordinary matters? ⁴ Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat^[b] these despised people in the church? ⁵ I say this to your shame. So is there not anyone wise among you who will be able to render a decision between his brothers? ⁶ But brother goes to court with brother, and this before unbelievers! ⁷ Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ But you wrong and defraud, and do this to brothers!

⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus^[c] and by the Spirit of our God.