Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Psalm 130

A Song of Ascents.

David and Jonathan

20 David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my offense? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”

² And he said to him, “Far from it! You shall not die. Look, my father does nothing either great or small that he does not reveal to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.”

³ David vowed again and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favor in your sight. And he says, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be distressed.’ However, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”

⁴ Jonathan said to David, “Whatever you say, I will do it for you.”

⁵ David said to Jonathan, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king to eat. But let me go that I may hide myself in the field until the evening of the third day. ⁶ If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David asked for leave from me that he might run to Bethlehem his city, for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ ⁷ If he says, ‘Good,’ it will be well for your servant. But if he gets angry, know that evil is determined by him. ⁸ Therefore deal kindly with your servant, for you have brought your servant into a covenant of the Lord with you. But if there is any guilt in me, kill me yourself. For why should you bring me to your father?”

⁹ Then Jonathan said, “Far be it from you. For if I indeed knew that my father had determined evil against you, would I not tell it you?”

¹⁰ David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me? Or what if your father answers you roughly?”

¹¹ So Jonathan said to David, “Come, let us go out into the field.” And the two of them went out to the field.

¹² Then Jonathan said to David, “The Lord God of Israel is witness. When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or by the third day, and if he is favorable toward David, then will I not send and reveal it to you? ¹³ May the Lord do so to Jonathan and much more. If it pleases my father to do you evil, then I will reveal it you and send you away that you may go in peace. And may the Lord be with you as He has been with my father. ¹⁴ And if I live, not only will you show me the kindness of the Lord, that I shall not die, ¹⁵ but you will not cut off your faithfulness from my house forever, even when the Lord has cut off each one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”

¹⁶ So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, “May the Lord require it at the hand of the enemies of David.” ¹⁷ Jonathan made David swear again, because he loved him. For he loved him as he loved his own soul.

¹⁸ Then Jonathan said to David, “Tomorrow is the New Moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. ¹⁹ When you have stayed three days, you will surely go down and come to the place where you hid yourself on the day this happened, and wait there beside the stone Ezel. ²⁰ And I will shoot three arrows to its side, as though I shot at a target. ²¹ Then I will send a boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows.’ If I expressly say to the boy, ‘See, the arrows are on this side of you, take them,’ then come, for it will be safe for you. And as the Lord lives, it is nothing of concern. ²² But if I say to the young man, ‘See, the arrows are beyond you,’ go, for the Lord has sent you away. ²³ As for the matter upon which you and I have spoken, the Lord is between you and me forever.”

²⁴ So David hid himself in the field. And when the New Moon appeared, the king sat down over food to eat. ²⁵ Now the king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on a seat by the wall. Then Jonathan arose and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty.

Liberal Giving

8 Moreover, brothers, we want you to experience the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia, ² how in a great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty overflowed toward the riches of their generous giving. ³ For I bear record that according to their means, and beyond their means, they freely gave, ⁴ begging us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of ministering to the saints. ⁵ This they did, not as we expected. First, they gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God. ⁶ So we urged Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete this gracious deed for you. ⁷ But as you abound in everything—in faith, in utterance, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love to us—see that you abound in this grace also.