Two and a Half Acres of Faith

Finding Freedom: With Confidence

IHCC Daily Bible Reading Plan - July

We're So Blessed: A Fun 5-Day Family Devotional From CAIN

The Unseen God — Part Two

What Do Christians Believe?

A Great Harvest

Week 1: Being Human in the Age of AI

Building Living Bridges

How to Overcome Temptation

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">25</div><div class="s1">David, Nabal and Abigail</div><div class="p"> 1Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Paran.#25:1 Hebrew and some Septuagint manuscripts; other Septuagint manuscripts Maon</div><div class="p"> 2A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel. 3His name was Nabal and his wife&#8217;s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings&#8212;he was a Calebite.</div><div class="p"> 4While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep. 5So he sent ten young men and said to them, &#8220;Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name. 6Say to him: &#8216;Long life to you! Good health to you and your household! And good health to all that is yours!</div><div class="p"> 7&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. 8Ask your own servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favorable toward my men, since we come at a festive time. Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9When David&#8217;s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David&#8217;s name. Then they waited.</div><div class="p"> 10Nabal answered David&#8217;s servants, &#8220;Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12David&#8217;s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13David said to his men, &#8220;Each of you strap on your sword!&#8221; So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.</div><div class="p"> 14One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal&#8217;s wife, &#8220;David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them. 17Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs#25:18 That is, probably about 60 pounds or about 27 kilograms of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19Then she told her servants, &#8220;Go on ahead; I&#8217;ll follow you.&#8221; But she did not tell her husband Nabal.</div><div class="p"> 20As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them. 21David had just said, &#8220;It&#8217;s been useless&#8212;all my watching over this fellow&#8217;s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22May God deal with David,#25:22 Some Septuagint manuscripts; Hebrew with David&#8217;s enemies be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24She fell at his feet and said: &#8220;Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name&#8212;his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal. 27And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.</div><div class="p"> 28&#8220;Please forgive your servant&#8217;s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord&#8217;s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live. 29Even though someone is pursuing you to take your life, the life of my lord will be bound securely in the bundle of the living by the Lord your God, but the lives of your enemies he will hurl away as from the pocket of a sling. 30When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel, 31my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32David said to Abigail, &#8220;Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me. 33May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands. 34Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 35Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, &#8220;Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 36When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak. 37Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone. 38About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.</div><div class="p"> 39When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, &#8220;Praise be to the Lord, who has upheld my cause against Nabal for treating me with contempt. He has kept his servant from doing wrong and has brought Nabal&#8217;s wrongdoing down on his own head.&#8221;</div><div class="p">Then David sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife. 40His servants went to Carmel and said to Abigail, &#8220;David has sent us to you to take you to become his wife.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 41She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, &#8220;I am your servant and am ready to serve you and wash the feet of my lord&#8217;s servants.&#8221; 42Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five female servants, went with David&#8217;s messengers and became his wife. 43David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. 44But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David&#8217;s wife, to Paltiel#25:44 Hebrew Palti, a variant of Paltiel son of Laish, who was from Gallim.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch26" data-usfm="1SA.26">
 <div class="label">26</div><div class="s1">David Again Spares Saul&#8217;s Life</div><div class="p"> 1The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, &#8220;Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. 3Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there, 4he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.</div><div class="p"> 5Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.</div><div class="p"> 6David then asked Ahimelek the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab&#8217;s brother, &#8220;Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;I&#8217;ll go with you,&#8221; said Abishai.</div><div class="p"> 7So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.</div><div class="p"> 8Abishai said to David, &#8220;Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won&#8217;t strike him twice.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9But David said to Abishai, &#8220;Don&#8217;t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord&#8217;s anointed and be guiltless? 10As surely as the Lord lives,&#8221; he said, &#8220;the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 11But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord&#8217;s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let&#8217;s go.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12So David took the spear and water jug near Saul&#8217;s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.</div><div class="p"> 13Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away; there was a wide space between them. 14He called out to the army and to Abner son of Ner, &#8220;Aren&#8217;t you going to answer me, Abner?&#8221;</div><div class="p">Abner replied, &#8220;Who are you who calls to the king?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15David said, &#8220;You&#8217;re a man, aren&#8217;t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn&#8217;t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king. 16What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord&#8217;s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king&#8217;s spear and water jug that were near his head?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Saul recognized David&#8217;s voice and said, &#8220;Is that your voice, David my son?&#8221;</div><div class="p">David replied, &#8220;Yes it is, my lord the king.&#8221; 18And he added, &#8220;Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of? 19Now let my lord the king listen to his servant&#8217;s words. If the Lord has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. If, however, people have done it, may they be cursed before the Lord! They have driven me today from my share in the Lord&#8217;s inheritance and have said, &#8216;Go, serve other gods.&#8217; 20Now do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the Lord. The king of Israel has come out to look for a flea&#8212;as one hunts a partridge in the mountains.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21Then Saul said, &#8220;I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool and have been terribly wrong.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 22&#8220;Here is the king&#8217;s spear,&#8221; David answered. &#8220;Let one of your young men come over and get it. 23The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord&#8217;s anointed. 24As surely as I valued your life today, so may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 25Then Saul said to David, &#8220;May you be blessed, David my son; you will do great things and surely triumph.&#8221;</div><div class="p">So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.</div>
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New International Version

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkLUK">
 <div class="chapter ch16" data-usfm="LUK.16.19+LUK.16.20+LUK.16.21+LUK.16.22+LUK.16.23+LUK.16.24+LUK.16.25+LUK.16.26+LUK.16.27+LUK.16.28+LUK.16.29+LUK.16.30+LUK.16.31">
 <div class="p">19 &#8220;There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man&#8217;s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.</div><div class="p"> 22 &#8220;The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham&#8217;s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, &#8216;Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 25 &#8220;But Abraham replied, &#8216;Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 27 &#8220;He answered, &#8216;Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 29 &#8220;Abraham replied, &#8216;They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 30 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;No, father Abraham,&#8217; he said, &#8216;but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 31 &#8220;He said to him, &#8216;If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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