Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ After David had killed the Philistine, he and the men returned home. Women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul. They sang songs of joy, danced, and played tambourines and stringed instruments. ⁷ As they played, they sang,

⁸ The women’s song upset Saul, and he became very angry. He thought, “The women say David has killed tens of thousands, but they say I have killed only thousands. The only thing left for him to have is the kingdom!” ⁹ So Saul watched David closely from then on, because he was jealous.

¹⁰ The next day an evil spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he prophesied in his house. David was playing the harp as he usually did, but Saul had a spear in his hand. ¹¹ He threw the spear, thinking, “I’ll pin David to the wall.” But David escaped from him twice.

¹² The Lord was with David but had left Saul. So Saul was afraid of David. ¹³ He sent David away and made him commander of a thousand soldiers. So David led them in battle. ¹⁴ He had great success in everything he did because the Lord was with him. ¹⁵ When Saul saw that David was very successful, he feared David even more. ¹⁶ But all the people of Israel and Judah loved David because he led them well in battle.

Saul’s Daughter Marries David

¹⁷ Saul said to David, “Here is my older daughter Merab. I will let you marry her. All I ask is that you remain brave and fight the Lord’s battles.” Saul thought, “I won’t have to kill David. The Philistines will do that.”

¹⁸ But David answered Saul, saying, “Who am I? My family is not important enough for me to become the king’s son-in-law.” ¹⁹ So, when the time came for Saul’s daughter Merab to marry David, Saul gave her instead to Adriel of Meholah.

²⁰ Now Saul’s other daughter, Michal, loved David. When they told Saul, he was pleased. ²¹ He thought, “I will let her marry David. Then she will be a trap for him, and the Philistines will defeat him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You may become my son-in-law.”

²² And Saul ordered his servants to talk with David in private and say, “Look, the king likes you. His servants love you. You should be his son-in-law.”

²³ Saul’s servants said these words to David, but David answered, “Do you think it is easy to become the king’s son-in-law? I am poor and unimportant.”

²⁴ When Saul’s servants told him what David had said, ²⁵ Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The king doesn’t want money for the bride. All he wants is a hundred Philistine foreskins to get even with his enemies.’” Saul planned to let the Philistines kill David.

²⁶ When Saul’s servants told this to David, he was pleased to become the king’s son-in-law. ²⁷ So he and his men went out and killed two hundred Philistines. David brought all their foreskins to Saul so he could be the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal for his wife. ²⁸ Saul saw that the Lord was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David. ²⁹ So he grew even more afraid of David, and he was David’s enemy all his life.

³⁰ The Philistine commanders continued to go out to fight the Israelites, but every time, David was more skillful than Saul’s officers. So he became famous.

The Storm

¹³ When a good wind began to blow from the south, the men on the ship thought, “This is the wind we wanted, and now we have it.” So they pulled up the anchor, and we sailed very close to the island of Crete. ¹⁴ But then a very strong wind named the “northeaster” came from the island. ¹⁵ The ship was caught in it and could not sail against it. So we stopped trying and let the wind carry us. ¹⁶ When we went below a small island named Cauda, we were barely able to bring in the lifeboat. ¹⁷ After the men took the lifeboat in, they tied ropes around the ship to hold it together. The men were afraid that the ship would hit the sandbanks of Syrtis,^[a] so they lowered the sail and let the wind carry the ship. ¹⁸ The next day the storm was blowing us so hard that the men threw out some of the cargo. ¹⁹ A day later with their own hands they threw out the ship’s equipment. ²⁰ When we could not see the sun or the stars for many days, and the storm was very bad, we lost all hope of being saved.

²¹ After the men had gone without food for a long time, Paul stood up before them and said, “Men, you should have listened to me. You should not have sailed from Crete. Then you would not have all this trouble and loss. ²² But now I tell you to cheer up because none of you will die. Only the ship will be lost. ²³ Last night an angel came to me from the God I belong to and worship. ²⁴ The angel said, ‘Paul, do not be afraid. You must stand before Caesar. And God has promised you that he will save the lives of everyone sailing with you.’ ²⁵ So men, have courage. I trust in God that everything will happen as his angel told me. ²⁶ But we will crash on an island.”

²⁷ On the fourteenth night we were still being carried around in the Adriatic Sea.^[b] About midnight the sailors thought we were close to land, ²⁸ so they lowered a rope with a weight on the end of it into the water. They found that the water was one hundred twenty feet deep. They went a little farther and lowered the rope again. It was ninety feet deep. ²⁹ The sailors were afraid that we would hit the rocks, so they threw four anchors into the water and prayed for daylight to come. ³⁰ Some of the sailors wanted to leave the ship, and they lowered the lifeboat, pretending they were throwing more anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹ But Paul told the officer and the other soldiers, “If these men do not stay in the ship, your lives cannot be saved.” ³² So the soldiers cut the ropes and let the lifeboat fall into the water.

³³ Just before dawn Paul began persuading all the people to eat something. He said, “For the past fourteen days you have been waiting and watching and not eating. ³⁴ Now I beg you to eat something. You need it to stay alive. None of you will lose even one hair off your heads.” ³⁵ After he said this, Paul took some bread and thanked God for it before all of them. He broke off a piece and began eating. ³⁶ They all felt better and started eating, too. ³⁷ There were two hundred seventy-six people on the ship. ³⁸ When they had eaten all they wanted, they began making the ship lighter by throwing the grain into the sea.