Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Rescue from Persecutors.

For the music 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 and ^[c]visit Nabal, and greet him in my name; ⁶ and this is what you shall say: ‘^[d]Have a long life, ^(F)peace to you, and peace to your house, and peace to all that you have! ⁷ Now then, I have heard ^(G)that you have shearers. Now, your shepherds have been with us; we have not harmed them, ^(H)nor has anything of theirs gone missing 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 in accordance with 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 made their way back and returned; and they came and informed him in accordance with all these words. ¹³ Then David said to his men, “Each of you strap on his sword.” So each man strapped on his sword. And David also strapped on his sword, and about ^(L)four hundred men went up behind David, while two hundred ^(M)stayed with the baggage.

¹⁴ Now 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 spoke to them in anger. ¹⁵ Yet the men were very good to us, and we were not ^(O)harmed, nor did anything go missing ^[h]as long as we went 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 then, be aware and ^[i]consider what you should do, because harm 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 cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and she loaded them on donkeys. ¹⁹ Then she said to her young men, “^(R)Go on ahead of me; behold, I am coming after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. ²⁰ And it happened 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, “It is certainly for nothing that I have guarded everything that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing has gone missing of all that belonged to him! For he has ^(S)returned me evil for good. ^22 (T)May God do so to the enemies of David, and more so, ^(U)if by morning I leave alive 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 ^[b]his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and ^(A)not before the ^[c]saints? ² Or ^(B)do you not know that ^(C)the ^[d]saints will judge ^(D)the world? If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to form the smallest ^[e]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, ^[f]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 anyone wise who will be able to decide between his ^(G)brothers and sisters, 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 suffer the wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? ⁸ On the contrary, you yourselves do wrong and defraud. And this to your ^(J)brothers and sisters!

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 the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ^[g]homosexuals, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor those habitually drunk, nor verbal abusers, 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 ^[h]in the Spirit of our God.