Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

This song is for the music leader.

The Lord's servant, David, wrote it.

David sang these words to the Lord when the Lord saved him from the power of his enemies. This was at the time when Saul was king.

Thank you, Lord!^[a]

Saul and his sons die in war

10 The Philistines fought against the Israelites.^[a] The Israelites ran away, and the Philistines killed many of them on Gilboa mountain. ² The Philistines chased after Saul and his sons to catch them. They killed Saul's sons Jonathan, Abinadab and Malki-Shua. ³ The Philistines were fighting the battle all around Saul. Some of their soldiers saw Saul and they shot their arrows at him. The arrows hurt Saul very much.

⁴ Saul said to the young man who carried his armour, ‘Kill me now with your sword. I do not want these foreign men to come and be cruel to me.’ But the young man would not agree to kill Saul because he was too afraid. So Saul took his own sword and he threw himself onto it so that he died. ⁵ The young man saw that Saul was dead. So he threw himself onto his own sword and he died too. ⁶ So Saul died there, with his three sons. His whole family died together.

⁷ All the Israelites who lived in Jezreel valley saw that their army had run away from the Philistines. They also saw that Saul and his sons were dead. So they left their towns and they ran away. Then the Philistines came to live in those towns.

⁸ On the day after the battle, the Philistines came to take all the valuable things from the dead soldiers. They found the dead bodies of Saul and his sons on Gilboa mountain. ⁹ They removed everything from Saul's dead body. They took away his head and his weapons. Then they sent men through all the country of the Philistines with the news of Saul's death. These men told the news to all their people and to their idols as well. ¹⁰ They put Saul's weapons in the temple of their gods. They hung his head in the temple of their god, Dagon.

¹¹ All the Israelites who lived in Jabesh Gilead heard about what the Philistines had done to Saul's body. ¹² So all their brave soldiers went to fetch the dead bodies of Saul and his sons. They took them to Jabesh Gilead. They buried the bones under the large tree there. The people in Jabesh Gilead did not eat any food for seven days because they were so sad.

¹³ Saul died because he turned away from the Lord. He did not obey the Lord's commands. He even tried to get advice from the spirits of dead people. ¹⁴ He did not ask the Lord to tell him what he should do. So the Lord punished him with death. The Lord gave the kingdom of Israel to Jesse's son, David, instead.

Jesus helps a boy who has a bad spirit

¹⁴ They reached the place where the other disciples were. They saw that there was a large crowd there with them. Some teachers of God's Law were arguing with the disciples. ¹⁵ The people in the crowd saw Jesus and immediately they were very surprised. They ran to say ‘hello’ to Jesus.

¹⁶ Jesus asked his disciples, ‘What are you arguing about with the teachers of God's Law?’

¹⁷ A man in the crowd answered. He said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, I brought my son to you. He is not able to speak because he has a bad spirit. ¹⁸ When the bad spirit takes hold of him, it throws him to the ground. Water comes out of his mouth and he bites his teeth together. Then his body stops moving. I asked your disciples to send the spirit out of him. But they were not able to do it.’

¹⁹ Jesus replied, ‘You people today still do not believe in God. I have been with you for a long time and still you do not believe. It is difficult for me to be patient with you. Bring the boy to me.’

²⁰ So the people brought the boy to Jesus. When the bad spirit saw Jesus, it immediately caused the boy's body to shake strongly. The boy fell onto the ground and he rolled about. Water was coming from his mouth.

²¹ Jesus asked the boy's father, ‘How long has he been like this?’

‘He has been like this since he was a small boy,’ the father replied. ²² ‘Often the spirit has caused him to fall into the fire or into water. It is trying to kill him. Please be kind to us. If you can do anything, help us!’

²³ Jesus said to the father, ‘You should not say, “If you can do anything.” Everything is possible for those people who believe.’

²⁴ Immediately, the boy's father shouted, ‘Oh! I believe! Help me to believe more!’

²⁵ Jesus saw that the crowd of people was quickly becoming bigger. So he told the bad spirit to stop. Jesus said to it, ‘Spirit, I am telling you that you must leave this boy. He cannot hear or speak because of you. I tell you to come out of him! You must never go into him again.’

²⁶ The spirit screamed. It caused the boy's body to shake many times. Then it came out of him. The boy seemed to be dead, so many people said, ‘He is dead.’ ²⁷ But Jesus held the boy's hand and he helped the boy to stand up.

²⁸ Jesus went into a house and the disciples were alone with him. Then they asked him, ‘Why could we not cause the bad spirit to leave the boy?’

²⁹ Jesus said to them, ‘You must pray. This kind of spirit will not leave a person unless you pray.’