Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵⁵ Saul had watched David go out to meet Goliath. Saul spoke to Abner, commander of the army. He said, “Abner, who is that young man’s father?”

Abner answered, “As surely as you live, my king, I don’t know.”

⁵⁶ The king said, “Find out whose son he is.”

⁵⁷ When David came back from killing Goliath, Abner brought him to Saul. David still held Goliath’s head.

⁵⁸ Saul asked him, “Young man, who is your father?”

David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

Saul Fears David

18 When David finished talking with Saul, Jonathan felt very close to David. He loved David as much as he loved himself. ² Saul kept David with him from that day on. He did not let David go home to his father’s house. ³ Jonathan made an agreement with David. He did this because he loved David as much as himself. ⁴ He took off his coat and gave it to David. He also gave David his uniform, including his sword, bow and belt.

⁵ Saul sent David to fight in different battles. And David was very successful. Then Saul put David over the soldiers. When he did this, Saul’s officers and all the other people were pleased.

Paul Goes to Jerusalem

21 We all said good-bye to them and left. We sailed straight to Cos island. The next day, we reached Rhodes, and from Rhodes we went to Patara. ² There we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. We went aboard and sailed away. ³ We sailed near the island of Cyprus. We could see it to the north, but we sailed on to Syria. We stopped at Tyre because the ship needed to unload its cargo there. ⁴ We found some followers in Tyre, and we stayed with them for seven days. Through the Holy Spirit they warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ⁵ When we finished our visit, we left and continued our trip. All the followers, even the women and children, came outside the city with us. We all knelt down on the beach and prayed. ⁶ Then we said good-bye and got on the ship. The followers went back home.

⁷ We continued our trip from Tyre and arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the believers there and stayed with them for a day. ⁸ We left Ptolemais and went to the city of Caesarea. There we went into the home of Philip and stayed with him. Philip had the work of telling the Good News. He was one of the seven helpers.^{[a] 9} He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophesying. ¹⁰ After we had been there for some time, a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us and borrowed Paul’s belt. Then he used the belt to tie his own hands and feet. He said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man who wears this belt. Then they will give him to the non-Jewish people.’”

¹² We all heard these words. So we and the people there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ¹³ But he said, “Why are you crying and making me so sad? I am ready to be tied up in Jerusalem. And I am ready to die for the Lord Jesus!”

¹⁴ We could not persuade him to stay away from Jerusalem. So we stopped begging him and said, “We pray that what the Lord wants will be done.”

¹⁵ After this, we got ready and started on our way to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the followers from Caesarea went with us. They took us to the home of Mnason, a man from Cyprus. Mnason was one of the first followers. They took us to his home so that we could stay with him.