Loyalty Tested, Faith Sustained Through Betrayal

1. David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity? What is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?” 2. He said to him, “Far from it; you will not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small, but that he discloses it to me. Why would my father hide this thing from me? It is not so.” 3. David swore moreover, and said, “Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes; and he says, ‘Don’t let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved:’ but truly as Yahweh lives, and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.” 4. Then Jonathan said to David, “Whatever your soul desires, I will even do it for you.” 5. David said to Jonathan, “Behold, tomorrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to dine with the king; but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field to the third day at evening. 6. If your father misses me at all, then say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Bethlehem his city; for it is the yearly sacrifice there for all the family.’ 7. If he says, ‘It is well;’ your servant shall have peace: but if he is angry, then know that evil is determined by him. 8. Therefore deal kindly with your servant; for you have brought your servant into a covenant of Yahweh with you; but if there is iniquity in me, kill me yourself; for why should you bring me to your father?” 9. Jonathan said, “Far be it from you; for if I should at all know that evil were determined by my father to come on you, then wouldn’t I tell you that?” 10. Then David said to Jonathan, “Who will tell me if your father answers you roughly?” 11. Jonathan said to David, “Come, and let us go out into the field.” They both went out into the field. 12. Jonathan said to David, “By Yahweh, the God of Israel, when I have sounded my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good toward David, won’t I then send to you, and disclose it to you? 13. Yahweh do so to Jonathan, and more also, should it please my father to do you evil, if I don’t disclose it to you, and send you away, that you may go in peace. May Yahweh be with you, as he has been with my father. 14. You shall not only while yet I live show me the loving kindness of Yahweh, that I not die; 15. but you shall also not cut off your kindness from my house forever; no, not when Yahweh has cut off every one of the enemies of David from the surface of the earth.” 16. So Jonathan made a covenant with David’s house, saying, “Yahweh will require it at the hand of David’s enemies.” 17. Jonathan caused David to swear again, for the love that he had to him; for he loved him as he loved his own soul. 18. Then Jonathan said to him, “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19. When you have stayed three days, go down quickly, and come to the place where you hid yourself when this started, and remain by the stone Ezel. 20. I will shoot three arrows on its side, as though I shot at a mark. 21. Behold, I will send the boy, saying, ‘Go, find the arrows!’ If I tell the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are on this side of you. Take them;’ then come; for there is peace to you and no danger, as Yahweh lives. 22. But if I say this to the boy, ‘Behold, the arrows are beyond you;’ then go your way; for Yahweh has sent you away. 23. Concerning the matter which you and I have spoken of, behold, Yahweh is between you and me forever.” 24. So David hid himself in the field. When the new moon had come, the king sat himself down to eat food. 25. The king sat on his seat, as at other times, even on the seat by the wall; and Jonathan stood up, and Abner sat by Saul’s side, but David’s place was empty. 26. Nevertheless Saul didn’t say anything that day, for he thought, “Something has happened to him. He is not clean. Surely he is not clean.” 27. On the next day after the new moon, the second day, David’s place was empty. Saul said to Jonathan his son, “Why doesn’t the son of Jesse come to eat, either yesterday, or today?” 28. Jonathan answered Saul, “David earnestly asked permission of me to go to Bethlehem. 29. He said, ‘Please let me go, for our family has a sacrifice in the city. My brother has commanded me to be there. Now, if I have found favor in your eyes, please let me go away and see my brothers.’ Therefore he has not come to the king’s table.” 30. Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don’t I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother’s nakedness? 31. For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you will not be established, nor will your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die!” 32. Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, “Why should he be put to death? What has he done?” 33. Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death. 34. So Jonathan arose from the table in fierce anger, and ate no food the second day of the month; for he was grieved for David, because his father had treated him shamefully. 35. In the morning, Jonathan went out into the field at the time appointed with David, and a little boy with him. 36. He said to his boy, “Run, find now the arrows which I shoot.” As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37. When the boy had come to the place of the arrow which Jonathan had shot, Jonathan cried after the boy, and said, “Isn’t the arrow beyond you?” 38. Jonathan cried after the boy, “Go fast! Hurry! Don’t delay!” Jonathan’s boy gathered up the arrows, and came to his master. 39. But the boy didn’t know anything. Only Jonathan and David knew the matter. 40. Jonathan gave his weapons to his boy, and said to him, “Go, carry them to the city.” 41. As soon as the boy was gone, David arose out of the south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself three times. They kissed one another, and wept one with another, and David wept the most. 42. Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, because we have both sworn in Yahweh’s name, saying, ‘Yahweh is between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.’” He arose and departed; and Jonathan went into the city. 1. Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. Ahimelech came to meet David trembling, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no man with you?” 2. David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has commanded me to do something, and has said to me, ‘Let no one know anything about the business about which I send you, and what I have commanded you. I have sent the young men to a certain place.’ 3. Now therefore what is under your hand? Please give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or whatever is available.” 4. The priest answered David, and said, “I have no common bread, but there is holy bread; if only the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5. David answered the priest, and said to him, “Truly, women have been kept from us as usual these three days. When I came out, the vessels of the young men were holy, though it was only a common journey. How much more then today shall their vessels be holy?” 6. So the priest gave him holy bread; for there was no bread there but the show bread that was taken from before Yahweh, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away. 7. Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before Yahweh; and his name was Doeg the Edomite, the best of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul. 8. David said to Ahimelech, “Isn’t there here under your hand spear or sword? For I have neither brought my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king’s business required haste.” 9. The priest said, “Behold, the sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you would like to take that, take it; for there is no other except that here.” David said, “There is none like that. Give it to me.” 10. David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11. The servants of Achish said to him, “Isn’t this David the king of the land? Didn’t they sing to one another about him in dances, saying, ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?’” 12. David laid up these words in his heart, and was very afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13. He changed his behavior before them, and pretended to be insane in their hands, and scribbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down on his beard. 14. Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why then have you brought him to me? 15. Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Should this fellow come into my house?” 1. David therefore departed from there, and escaped to the cave of Adullam. When his brothers and all his father’s house heard it, they went down there to him. 2. Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men. 3. David went from there to Mizpeh of Moab, and he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come out with you, until I know what God will do for me.” 4. He brought them before the king of Moab; and they lived with him all the time that David was in the stronghold. 5. The prophet Gad said to David, “Don’t stay in the stronghold. Depart, and go into the land of Judah.” Then David departed, and came into the forest of Hereth. 6. Saul heard that David was discovered, with the men who were with him. Now Saul was sitting in Gibeah, under the tamarisk tree in Ramah, with his spear in his hand, and all his servants were standing around him. 7. Saul said to his servants who stood around him, “Hear now, you Benjamites! Will the son of Jesse give everyone of you fields and vineyards? Will he make you all captains of thousands and captains of hundreds, 8. that all of you have conspired against me, and there is no one who discloses to me when my son makes a treaty with the son of Jesse, and there is none of you who is sorry for me, or discloses to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?” 9. Then Doeg the Edomite, who stood by the servants of Saul, answered and said, “I saw the son of Jesse coming to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub. 10. He inquired of Yahweh for him, gave him food, and gave him the sword of Goliath the Philistine.” 11. Then the king sent to call Ahimelech the priest, the son of Ahitub, and all his father’s house, the priests who were in Nob; and they all came to the king. 12. Saul said, “Hear now, you son of Ahitub.” He answered, “Here I am, my lord.” 13. Saul said to him, “Why have you conspired against me, you and the son of Jesse, in that you have given him bread, and a sword, and have inquired of God for him, that he should rise against me, to lie in wait, as it is today?” 14. Then Ahimelech answered the king, and said, “Who among all your servants is so faithful as David, who is the king’s son-in-law, and is taken into your council, and is honorable in your house? 15. Have I today begun to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me! Don’t let the king impute anything to his servant, nor to all the house of my father; for your servant knows nothing of all this, less or more.” 16. The king said, “You shall surely die, Ahimelech, you, and all your father’s house.” 17. The king said to the guard who stood about him, “Turn, and kill the priests of Yahweh; because their hand also is with David, and because they knew that he fled, and didn’t disclose it to me.” But the servants of the king wouldn’t put out their hand to fall on the priests of Yahweh. 18. The king said to Doeg, “Turn and attack the priests!” Doeg the Edomite turned, and he attacked the priests, and he killed on that day eighty-five people who wore a linen ephod. 19. He struck Nob, the city of the priests, with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing babies, and cattle and donkeys and sheep, with the edge of the sword. 20. One of the sons of Ahimelech, the son of Ahitub, named Abiathar, escaped, and fled after David. 21. Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh’s priests. 22. David said to Abiathar, “I knew on that day, when Doeg the Edomite was there, that he would surely tell Saul. I am responsible for the death of all the persons of your father’s house. 23. Stay with me. Don’t be afraid, for he who seeks my life seeks your life. For you will be safe with me.”

1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2. according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4. to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you, 5. who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6. Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials, 7. that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 8. whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory— 9. receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 10. Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11. searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them. 12. To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into. 13. Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ— 14. as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance, 15. but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior; 16. because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.” 17. If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear: 18. knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers, 19. but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ; 20. who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake, 21. who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God. 22. Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently: 23. having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever. 24. For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls; 25. but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you. 1. Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2. as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow, 3. if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 4. coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. 5. You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6. Because it is contained in Scripture, “Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed.” 7. For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, “The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone,” 8. and, “a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 9. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 10. who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11. Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12. having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13. Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 14. or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 15. For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16. as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God. 17. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 18. Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 19. For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 20. For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 21. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps, 22. who did not sin, “neither was deceit found in his mouth.” 23. Who, when he was cursed, didn’t curse back. When he suffered, didn’t threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 25. For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1. In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word; 2. seeing your pure behavior in fear. 3. Let your beauty be not just the outward adorning of braiding the hair, and of wearing jewels of gold, or of putting on fine clothing; 4. but in the hidden person of the heart, in the incorruptible adornment of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God very precious. 5. For this is how the holy women before, who hoped in God also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands: 6. as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, whose children you now are, if you do well, and are not put in fear by any terror. 7. You husbands, in the same way, live with your wives according to knowledge, giving honor to the woman, as to the weaker vessel, as being also joint heirs of the grace of life; that your prayers may not be hindered. 8. Finally, be all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tender hearted, courteous, 9. not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing; knowing that to this were you called, that you may inherit a blessing. 10. For, “He who would love life, and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. 11. Let him turn away from evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and pursue it. 12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13. Now who is he who will harm you, if you become imitators of that which is good? 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “Don’t fear what they fear, neither be troubled.” 15. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and always be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, with humility and fear: 16. having a good conscience; that, while you are spoken against as evildoers, they may be disappointed who curse your good way of life in Christ. 17. For it is better, if it is God’s will, that you suffer for doing well than for doing evil. 18. Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19. in which he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, 20. who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, while the ship was being built. In it, few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water. 21. This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22. who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.

1. God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. 2. They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. 3. Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. 4. We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us. 5. How long, Yahweh? Will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire? 6. Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you; on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name; 7. For they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland. 8. Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need. 9. Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us, and forgive our sins, for your name’s sake. 10. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out. 11. Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death. 12. Pay back to our neighbors seven times into their bosom their reproach with which they have reproached you, Lord. 13. So we, your people and sheep of your pasture, will give you thanks forever. We will praise you forever, to all generations.