Mercy Spared, Madness Awaits

1. The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, “Doesn’t David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert?” 2. Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3. Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4. David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had certainly come. 5. Then David arose, and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, with Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army. Saul lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were encamped around him. 6. Then David answered and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother of Joab, saying, “Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?” Abishai said, “I will go down with you.” 7. So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. 8. Then Abishai said to David, “God has delivered up your enemy into your hand today. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.” 9. David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him; for who can stretch out his hand against Yahweh’s anointed, and be guiltless?” 10. David said, “As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. 11. Yahweh forbid that I should stretch out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.” 12. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul’s head; and they went away: and no man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen on them. 13. Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them; 14. and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, “Don’t you answer, Abner?” Then Abner answered, “Who are you who cries to the king?” 15. David said to Abner, “Aren’t you a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. 16. This thing isn’t good that you have done. As Yahweh lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, Yahweh’s anointed. Now see where the king’s spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head.” 17. Saul knew David’s voice, and said, “Is this your voice, my son David?” David said, “It is my voice, my lord, O king.” 18. He said, “Why does my lord pursue his servant? For what have I done? What evil is in my hand? 19. Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out today that I shouldn’t cling to Yahweh’s inheritance, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods!’ 20. Now therefore, don’t let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains.” 21. Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes today. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.” 22. David answered, “Behold the spear, O king! Then let one of the young men come over and get it. 23. Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn’t stretch out my hand against Yahweh’s anointed. 24. Behold, as your life was respected today in my eyes, so let my life be respected in Yahweh’s eyes, and let him deliver me out of all oppression.” 25. Then Saul said to David, “You are blessed, my son David. You will both do mightily, and will surely prevail.” So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. 1. David said in his heart, “I will now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand.” 2. David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3. David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal’s wife. 4. Saul was told that David had fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. 5. David said to Achish, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?” 6. Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: therefore Ziklag belongs to the kings of Judah to this day. 7. The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. 8. David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, on the way to Shur, even to the land of Egypt. 9. David struck the land, and saved no man or woman alive, and took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camels, and the clothing. Then he returned, and came to Achish. 10. Achish said, “Against whom have you made a raid today?” David said, “Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites.” 11. David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, “Lest they should tell about us, saying, ‘David did this, and this has been his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.’” 12. Achish believed David, saying, “He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he will be my servant forever.” 1. In those days, the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. Achish said to David, “Know assuredly that you will go out with me in the army, you and your men.” 2. David said to Achish, “Therefore you will know what your servant can do.” Achish said to David, “Therefore I will make you my bodyguard forever.” 3. Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had mourned for him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. Saul had sent away those who had familiar spirits and the wizards out of the land. 4. The Philistines gathered themselves together, and came and encamped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together, and they encamped in Gilboa. 5. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. 6. When Saul inquired of Yahweh, Yahweh didn’t answer him by dreams, by Urim, or by prophets. 7. Then Saul said to his servants, “Seek for me a woman who has a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and inquire of her.” His servants said to him, “Behold, there is a woman who has a familiar spirit at Endor.” 8. Saul disguised himself and put on other clothing, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. Then he said, “Please consult for me by the familiar spirit, and bring me up whomever I shall name to you.” 9. The woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life, to cause me to die?” 10. Saul swore to her by Yahweh, saying, “As Yahweh lives, no punishment will happen to you for this thing.” 11. Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up to you?” He said, “Bring Samuel up for me.” 12. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul!” 13. The king said to her, “Don’t be afraid! What do you see?” The woman said to Saul, “I see a god coming up out of the earth.” 14. He said to her, “What does he look like?” She said, “An old man comes up. He is covered with a robe.” Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground, and showed respect. 15. Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me, to bring me up?” Saul answered, “I am very distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answers me no more, by prophets, or by dreams. Therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I shall do.” 16. Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me, since Yahweh has departed from you and has become your adversary? 17. Yahweh has done to you as he spoke by me. Yahweh has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, even to David. 18. Because you didn’t obey Yahweh’s voice, and didn’t execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, therefore Yahweh has done this thing to you today. 19. Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.” 20. Then Saul fell immediately his full length on the earth, and was terrified, because of Samuel’s words. There was no strength in him; for he had eaten no bread all day long or all night long. 21. The woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very troubled, and said to him, “Behold, your servant has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me. 22. Now therefore, please listen also to the voice of your servant, and let me set a morsel of bread before you. Eat, that you may have strength, when you go on your way.” 23. But he refused, and said, “I will not eat.” But his servants, together with the woman, constrained him; and he listened to their voice. So he arose from the earth and sat on the bed. 24. The woman had a fattened calf in the house. She hurried and killed it; and she took flour, and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it. 25. She brought it before Saul, and before his servants; and they ate. Then they rose up, and went away that night.

1. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2. Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3. seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue; 4. by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5. Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; 6. and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control perseverance; and in perseverance godliness; 7. and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. 8. For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9. For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. 10. Therefore, brothers, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11. For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 12. Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. 13. I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you; 14. knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15. Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure. 16. For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 18. We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain. 19. We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts: 20. knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. 21. For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit. 1. But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber. 4. For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5. and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6. and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; 7. and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked 8. (for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): 9. the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment; 10. but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries; 11. whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord. 12. But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, 13. receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; 14. having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing; 15. forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; 16. but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. 17. These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 18. For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; 19. promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him. 20. For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire.” 1. This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you; 2. that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior: 3. knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts, 4. and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” 5. For this they willfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water, by the word of God; 6. by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. 7. But the heavens that now exist, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. 8. But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11. Therefore since all these things will be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be in holy living and godliness, 12. looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, which will cause the burning heavens to be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13. But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. 14. Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without defect and blameless in his sight. 15. Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; 16. as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. 17. You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness. 18. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

1. Sing aloud to God, our strength! Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob! 2. Raise a song, and bring here the tambourine, the pleasant lyre with the harp. 3. Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day. 4. For it is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob. 5. He appointed it in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out over the land of Egypt, I heard a language that I didn’t know. 6. “I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were freed from the basket. 7. You called in trouble, and I delivered you. I answered you in the secret place of thunder. I tested you at the waters of Meribah.” Selah. 8. “Hear, my people, and I will testify to you, Israel, if you would listen to me! 9. There shall be no strange god in you, neither shall you worship any foreign god. 10. I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. 11. But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. 12. So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels. 13. Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways! 14. I would soon subdue their enemies, and turn my hand against their adversaries. 15. The haters of Yahweh would cringe before him, and their punishment would last forever. 16. But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”