Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

David’s Success Makes Saul Jealous

⁶ As they arrived, David was returning from a campaign against the Philistines. Women from all of Israel’s cities came to meet King Saul. They sang and danced, accompanied by tambourines, joyful music, and triangles.^{[a] 7} The women who were celebrating sang,

⁸ Saul became very angry because he considered this saying to be insulting. “To David they credit tens of thousands,” he said, “but to me they credit only a few thousand. The only thing left for David is my kingdom.” ⁹ From that day on Saul kept an eye on David.

¹⁰ The next day an evil spirit from Elohim seized Saul. He began to prophesy in his house while David strummed a tune on the lyre as he did every day. Now, Saul had a spear in his hand. ¹¹ He raised the spear and thought, “I’ll nail David to the wall.” But David got away from him twice.

¹² Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with David but had left Saul. ¹³ So he kept David away. He made David captain of a regiment. David led the troops out to battle and back again. ¹⁴ He was successful in everything he undertook because Yahweh was with him. ¹⁵ Saul noticed how very successful he was and became even more afraid of him. ¹⁶ Everyone in Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in and out of battle.

¹⁷ Finally, Saul said to David, “Here is my oldest daughter Merab. I will give her to you as your wife if you prove yourself to be a warrior for me and fight Yahweh’s battles.” (Saul thought, “I must not lay a hand on him. Let the Philistines do that.”)

¹⁸ “Who am I?” David asked Saul. “And how important are my relatives or my father’s family in Israel that I should be the king’s son-in-law?”

¹⁹ But when the time came to give Saul’s daughter Merab to David, she was married to Adriel from Meholah. ²⁰ However, Saul’s daughter Michal fell in love with David. When Saul was told about it, the news pleased him. ²¹ Saul thought, “I’ll give her to David. She will trap him, and the Philistines will get him.” So he said to David a second time, “You will now be my son-in-law.”

²² Saul ordered his officers, “Talk to David in private. Tell him, ‘The king likes you, and all his officers are fond of you. Become the king’s son-in-law.’”

²³ When Saul’s officers made it a point to say this, David asked, “Do you think it’s easy to become the king’s son-in-law? I am a poor and unimportant person.”

²⁴ When the officers told Saul what David had said, ²⁵ Saul replied, “Tell David, ‘The king doesn’t want any payment for the bride except 100 Philistine foreskins so that he can get revenge on his enemies.’” In this way Saul planned to have David fall into the hands of the Philistines. ²⁶ When his officers told David this, David concluded that it was acceptable to become the king’s son-in-law. Before the time was up, ²⁷ David and his men went out and struck down 200 Philistines. David brought the foreskins, and they counted them out for the king so that David could become the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him his daughter Michal as his wife. ²⁸ Saul realized that Yahweh was with David and that his daughter Michal loved David. ²⁹ Then Saul was even more afraid of David, and so Saul became David’s constant enemy.

³⁰ The Philistine generals still went out to fight Israel. But whenever they went out to fight, David was more successful than the rest of Saul’s officers. So David gained a good reputation.

¹³ When a gentle breeze began to blow from the south, the men thought their plan would work. They raised the anchor and sailed close to the shore of Crete.

¹⁴ Soon a powerful wind (called a northeaster) blew from the island. ¹⁵ The wind carried the ship away, and we couldn’t sail against the wind. We couldn’t do anything, so we were carried along by the wind. ¹⁶ As we drifted to the sheltered side of a small island called Cauda, we barely got control of the ship’s lifeboat. ¹⁷ The men pulled it up on deck. Then they passed ropes under the ship to reinforce it. Fearing that they would hit the large sandbank off the shores of Libya, they lowered the sail and were carried along by the wind. ¹⁸ We continued to be tossed so violently by the storm that the next day the men began to throw the cargo overboard. ¹⁹ On the third day they threw the ship’s equipment overboard. ²⁰ For a number of days we couldn’t see the sun or the stars. The storm wouldn’t let up. It was so severe that we finally began to lose any hope of coming out of it alive.

²¹ Since hardly anyone wanted to eat, Paul stood among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete. You would have avoided this disaster and loss. ²² Now I advise you to have courage. No one will lose his life. Only the ship will be destroyed. ²³ I know this because an angel from the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood by me last night. ²⁴ The angel told me, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul! You must present your case to the emperor. God has granted safety to everyone who is sailing with you.’ ²⁵ So have courage, men! I trust God that everything will turn out as he told me. ²⁶ However, we will run aground on some island.”

The Shipwreck

²⁷ On the fourteenth night we were still drifting through the Mediterranean Sea. About midnight the sailors suspected that we were approaching land. ²⁸ So they threw a line with a weight on it into the water. It sank 120 feet. They waited a little while and did the same thing again. This time the line sank 90 feet. ²⁹ Fearing we might hit rocks, they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship and prayed for morning to come.

³⁰ The sailors tried to escape from the ship. They let the lifeboat down into the sea and pretended they were going to lay out the anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹ Paul told the officer and the soldiers, “If these sailors don’t stay on the ship, you have no hope of staying alive.” ³² Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.

³³ Just before daybreak Paul was encouraging everyone to have something to eat. “This is the fourteenth day you have waited and have had nothing to eat. ³⁴ So I’m encouraging you to eat something. Eating will help you survive, since not a hair from anyone’s head will be lost.” ³⁵ After Paul said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat. ³⁶ Everyone was encouraged and had something to eat. ³⁷ (There were 276 of us on the ship.) ³⁸ After the people had eaten all they wanted, they lightened the ship by dumping the wheat into the sea.