Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This psalm is a song that David wrote.

A prayer for help^[a]

Saul looks for his father's donkeys

9 Kish was an important man from the tribe of Benjamin. He was the son of Abiel. Abiel was the son of Zeror. Zeror was the son of Becorath. Becorath was the son of Aphiah. Aphiah was a descendant of Benjamin. ² Kish had a son whose name was Saul. Saul was a handsome young man. No other Israelite was more handsome than he was. When Saul stood with other people, you could see his head above everyone else.

³ Some of Kish's donkeys had run away. Kish said to Saul, ‘Go and look for my donkeys. Take one of the servants with you.’ ⁴ So Saul and the servant travelled through the hill country of Ephraim. They went across Shalisha region. But they did not find the donkeys there. Then they went to Shaalim region. The donkeys were not there either. They travelled through all the tribe of Benjamin's land. They still did not find the donkeys anywhere.

⁵ They reached the land of Zuph's clan. Saul said to his servant, ‘We must return home now. We have been away for a long time. My father will start to think that we have become lost. He will not be thinking about the donkeys any more.’

⁶ The servant replied, ‘There is a servant of God who lives in this town. Everything that he says will happen really happens. So people respect him very much. We should go to meet him. Perhaps he will tell us which way we should go from here.’

⁷ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is good, but what will we give to him? We have eaten all the food that we brought with us in our bags. What else do we have? We must give him something.’

⁸ The servant answered, ‘I still have one small silver coin. I will give that to the servant of God. Then he will tell us which way we should go.’ ⁹ (That was the custom in Israel. If someone needed to hear a message from God, he would say, ‘We should go and talk with the seer.’^[a] The man that we now call a prophet was called a ‘seer’ at that time.)

¹⁰ Saul said to his servant, ‘That is a good idea. We should go now and see him.’ So they went to the town where the servant of God lived.

¹¹ They went up the hill to the town. Some young women came out of the town to get some water at a well. Saul and his servant asked them, ‘Is the seer here?’

¹² They said, ‘Yes, he is here. Go straight along this road. You must hurry. The seer came to the town today because the people will offer a sacrifice. He will go with them to the altar on the hill. ¹³ When you go into the town, you will find him before he goes up there. The people will not start to eat until he comes. First, he must bless the sacrifice. Then he will eat with the people who are there. Go up into the town now and you will find him.’

Saul meets Samuel

¹⁴ Saul and his servant went up towards the town. When they arrived there, Samuel came towards them. He was going up to the altar on the hill.

Jesus teaches about the Devil

¹⁴ One day, Jesus was telling a bad spirit to go out of a man. Because of the bad spirit, the man could not speak. But after it had gone out of him, the man could speak again. All the people that were watching were surprised at this. ¹⁵ But some people in the crowd were not happy with Jesus and they said, ‘This man can send bad spirits out of people because Beelzebul gives him authority.^[a] That is Satan, the one who rules all the bad spirits.’

¹⁶ Some other people wanted to test Jesus to see what he would do. So they asked him, ‘Do something powerful for us to see. Then we will know that God has really sent you.’^[b]

¹⁷ But Jesus knew what those people were thinking. He said to them, ‘If armies in a country start to fight each other, they will destroy their own country. If people in one family fight against each other, they will destroy their own family. ¹⁸ So Satan would not fight against himself. If he did that, it would be the end of his kingdom. But you say that Beelzebul helps me to destroy bad spirits. ¹⁹ If that is true, what do you say about your own disciples? They also send bad spirits out of people. You would not say that it is Satan's power that helps them. So your own people show that you are wrong about this. ²⁰ When I send bad spirits out of people, I use the power of God. This shows that God has come to rule among you.

²¹ When a strong man has all the weapons he needs to fight with, he can take care of his own house. Nobody will be able to rob him of the things inside his house. ²² But someone may come who is stronger than he is. That man will attack him and beat him. The strong man believed his weapons would keep him safe. But the stronger man will take his weapons away. He will take the strong man's things and give them to other people.^[c]

²³ If someone does not agree to help me, he is working against me. You should work with me to bring people to me for help. If you do not do that, you are making people run away from me.’^[d]

²⁴ Jesus then said, ‘When a bad spirit goes out of a person, it travels through dry places. It looks for a new place to live. But maybe it does not find anywhere. So it says to itself, “I will return to the place where I lived before.” ²⁵ Then it goes back to that person. It finds that the place is empty. Everything there is now good and clean. ²⁶ So the bad spirit goes out and it brings back seven other spirits. They are even worse than itself. They all go into the person and they live there. Now the person's life is even worse than it was before.’^[e]

²⁷ While Jesus was saying this, a woman in the crowd shouted out. ‘How happy is the woman that gave birth to you! How happy is the woman that fed you from her breasts!’

²⁸ Jesus replied, ‘It is the people who hear God's message who are happy. They are happy if they obey it.’