Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

¹⁴ Now the Spirit of Adonai had left Sha’ul; instead, an evil spirit from Adonai would suddenly come over him. ¹⁵ Sha’ul’s servants said to him, “Do you notice that there’s an evil spirit from God that suddenly comes over you? ¹⁶ Let our lord now command your servants who are here with you to look for a man who knows how to play the lyre. Then, if the evil spirit from God comes over you, he will play; and it will do you good.” ¹⁷ Sha’ul said to his servants, “Find me a man who can play well, and bring him to me.” ¹⁸ One of the young men answered, “Here, I’ve seen one of the sons of Yishai the Beit-Lachmi who knows how to play. He’s a brave soldier, he can fight, he chooses his words carefully and he’s pleasant-looking. Besides, Adonai is with him.” ¹⁹ So Sha’ul sent messengers to Yishai saying, “Send me David your son, who is out with the sheep.” ²⁰ Yishai took a donkey, loaded it with bread, a bottle of wine and a kid, and sent them with David his son to Sha’ul. ²¹ David came to Sha’ul and presented himself to him. Sha’ul took a great liking to him and made him his armor-bearer. ²² Sha’ul sent a message to Yishai: “Please let David stay in my service, because I’m pleased with him.” ²³ So it was that whenever the [evil] spirit from God came over Sha’ul, David would take the lyre and play it, with the result that Sha’ul would find relief and feel better, as the evil spirit left him.

20 After the furor died down, Sha’ul sent for the talmidim and encouraged them, then took his leave and set out on his way to Macedonia. ² He went through that area, and, after saying much to encourage them, passed on to Greece, ³ where he spent three months. As he was preparing to set sail for Syria, he discovered a plot against him by the unbelieving Jews; so he changed his mind and decided to return by way of Macedonia. ⁴ Sopater from Berea, the son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; as did Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. ⁵ These men went on and waited for us in Troas, ⁶ while we sailed from Philippi after the Days of Matzah. Five days later, we met them in Troas, where we spent a week.

⁷ On Motza’ei-Shabbat, when we were gathered to break bread, Sha’ul addressed them. Since he was going to leave the next day, he kept talking until midnight. ⁸ Now there were many oil lamps burning in the upstairs room where we were meeting, ⁹ and there was a young fellow named Eutychus sitting on the window-sill. As Sha’ul’s drash went on and on, Eutychus grew sleepier and sleepier; until finally he went sound asleep and fell from the third story to the ground. When they picked him up, he was dead. ¹⁰ But Sha’ul went down, threw himself onto him, put his arms around him and said, “Don’t be upset, he’s alive!” ¹¹ Then he went back upstairs, broke the bread and ate. He continued talking with them till daylight, then left. ¹² So, greatly relieved, they brought the boy home alive.

¹³ We went on ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos, where we were planning to take Sha’ul aboard — he had arranged this because he wanted to go there by land. ¹⁴ After he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. ¹⁵ The next day, we sailed from there and arrived off Chios; the following day, we crossed over to Samos; and the day after that, we reached Miletus. ¹⁶ For Sha’ul had decided to bypass Ephesus on his voyage, in order to avoid losing time in the province of Asia, because he was hurrying to get to Yerushalayim, if possible in time to celebrate Shavu‘ot.