Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A song to sing as we climb.

I have great trouble

²⁷ The next day after the new moon, David's seat was still empty at the meal. So Saul said to his son Jonathan, ‘Why has Jesse's son not come to the meal? He did not come yesterday or today.’

²⁸ Jonathan answered, ‘David asked me very strongly to let him go to Bethlehem. ²⁹ He said, “Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice to God in the town. My brother told me that I must be there. If you agree as my friend, let me go to visit my brothers.” That is why David has not come to eat this meal with the king.’

³⁰ Saul became very angry with Jonathan. He said, ‘You stupid man! I see that you have turned against me! You have become a friend of that son of Jesse. You have brought shame on yourself. Your mother should be ashamed that she gave birth to you! ³¹ You will never rule as king while that son of Jesse is still alive. Send men to go and bring him to me now. He must die!’^[a]

³² Jonathan said to his father, King Saul, ‘Why must David die? What wrong thing has he done?’

³³ Then Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. So Jonathan knew that his father had decided to kill David. ³⁴ Jonathan was very angry. He got up from the table. He did not eat anything on that second day of the special meal. He was very upset because his father had insulted David.

³⁵ The next morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a young boy with him. ³⁶ He said to the boy, ‘I will shoot some arrows. You must run and find them.’ While the boy was running, Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him. ³⁷ The boy ran to the place where the arrow had reached. Jonathan shouted to him, ‘I think that the arrow is beyond you.’ ³⁸ Then he shouted, ‘Hurry now! Go quickly. Do not wait.’ The boy picked up the arrow and he brought it back to Jonathan. ³⁹ (The boy did not understand what this meant. Only Jonathan and David knew.) ⁴⁰ Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows back to the boy. He said to the boy, ‘Go now and take these things back to the town.’

⁴¹ When the boy had left, David came out from beside the rock. He went down on his knees in front of Jonathan. He bent down on the ground three times. Then David and Jonathan kissed each other and they wept. David wept even more than Jonathan did.

⁴² Jonathan said to David, ‘Go now and God will keep you safe. We have promised each other in the Lord's name that we will always be friends. The Lord will watch us to make sure that we always keep this promise. He will watch our descendants too, for ever.’

Then David left. Jonathan returned to the town.

Jesus causes a bad spirit to leave a man

³¹ Jesus went to a town in Galilee called Capernaum. On the Jewish day of rest, he taught the people there. ³² The people were very surprised at the things that Jesus taught them. He spoke with authority. ³³ There was a sick man in the meeting place. He had a spirit of a bad demon that was living inside him. The spirit caused the man to shout loudly. ³⁴ He said, ‘Jesus from Nazareth, leave us alone! Do not destroy us! I know who you are. You are God's Holy One!’

³⁵ Jesus said to the spirit, ‘Be quiet! Come out of the man!’ Then the bad spirit caused the man to fall to the ground in front of the people. It came out of the man but it did not hurt him.

³⁶ All the people were very surprised and they said to each other, ‘Listen to what this man says! He has power and authority. He tells bad spirits to come out of people, and they come out.’ ³⁷ So they began to tell everyone about Jesus. Because of this, people in all the places near Capernaum heard the news about Jesus.