Visionary Marriage: God's Call to Husbands

Politics for People Who Hate Politics

Church Planting in the Book of Acts

The -Bilities of the Believer

Witness of Hope: Reflecting on Jesus's Suffering During Lent

Childrearing With the End in View: A 3-Day Parenting Plan

Exploring Biblical Wisdom - Words From the Wise

5 Prayers to Stop Thinking Negatively About Your Spouse

5 Prayers for Your Dating Relationship

The Breath of Lent

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">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch19" data-usfm="1SA.19">
 <div class="label">19</div><div class="s1">Saul Tries to Kill David</div><div class="p"> 1Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David 2and warned him, &#8220;My father Saul is looking for a chance to kill you. Be on your guard tomorrow morning; go into hiding and stay there. 3I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I&#8217;ll speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, &#8220;Let not the king do wrong to his servant David; he has not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. 5He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and were glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath: &#8220;As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 7So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation. He brought him to Saul, and David was with Saul as before.</div><div class="p"> 8Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.</div><div class="p"> 9But an evil#19:9 Or But a harmful spirit from the Lord came on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the lyre, 10Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove the spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape.</div><div class="p"> 11Saul sent men to David&#8217;s house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michal, David&#8217;s wife, warned him, &#8220;If you don&#8217;t run for your life tonight, tomorrow you&#8217;ll be killed.&#8221; 12So Michal let David down through a window, and he fled and escaped. 13Then Michal took an idol and laid it on the bed, covering it with a garment and putting some goats&#8217; hair at the head.</div><div class="p"> 14When Saul sent the men to capture David, Michal said, &#8220;He is ill.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15Then Saul sent the men back to see David and told them, &#8220;Bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him.&#8221; 16But when the men entered, there was the idol in the bed, and at the head was some goats&#8217; hair.</div><div class="p"> 17Saul said to Michal, &#8220;Why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?&#8221;</div><div class="p">Michal told him, &#8220;He said to me, &#8216;Let me get away. Why should I kill you?&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramah and told him all that Saul had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. 19Word came to Saul: &#8220;David is in Naioth at Ramah&#8221;; 20so he sent men to capture him. But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying, with Samuel standing there as their leader, the Spirit of God came on Saul&#8217;s men, and they also prophesied. 21Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. 22Finally, he himself left for Ramah and went to the great cistern at Seku. And he asked, &#8220;Where are Samuel and David?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Over in Naioth at Ramah,&#8221; they said.</div><div class="p"> 23So Saul went to Naioth at Ramah. But the Spirit of God came even on him, and he walked along prophesying until he came to Naioth. 24He stripped off his garments, and he too prophesied in Samuel&#8217;s presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say, &#8220;Is Saul also among the prophets?&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch20" data-usfm="1SA.20">
 <div class="label">20</div><div class="s1">David and Jonathan</div><div class="p"> 1Then David fled from Naioth at Ramah and went to Jonathan and asked, &#8220;What have I done? What is my crime? How have I wronged your father, that he is trying to kill me?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2&#8220;Never!&#8221; Jonathan replied. &#8220;You are not going to die! Look, my father doesn&#8217;t do anything, great or small, without letting me know. Why would he hide this from me? It isn&#8217;t so!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3But David took an oath and said, &#8220;Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said to himself, &#8216;Jonathan must not know this or he will be grieved.&#8217; Yet as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, there is only a step between me and death.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Jonathan said to David, &#8220;Whatever you want me to do, I&#8217;ll do for you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5So David said, &#8220;Look, tomorrow is the New Moon feast, and I am supposed to dine with the king; but let me go and hide in the field until the evening of the day after tomorrow. 6If your father misses me at all, tell him, &#8216;David earnestly asked my permission to hurry to Bethlehem, his hometown, because an annual sacrifice is being made there for his whole clan.&#8217; 7If he says, &#8216;Very well,&#8217; then your servant is safe. But if he loses his temper, you can be sure that he is determined to harm me. 8As for you, show kindness to your servant, for you have brought him into a covenant with you before the Lord. If I am guilty, then kill me yourself! Why hand me over to your father?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9&#8220;Never!&#8221; Jonathan said. &#8220;If I had the least inkling that my father was determined to harm you, wouldn&#8217;t I tell you?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10David asked, &#8220;Who will tell me if your father answers you harshly?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11&#8220;Come,&#8221; Jonathan said, &#8220;let&#8217;s go out into the field.&#8221; So they went there together.</div><div class="p"> 12Then Jonathan said to David, &#8220;I swear by the Lord, the God of Israel, that I will surely sound out my father by this time the day after tomorrow! If he is favorably disposed toward you, will I not send you word and let you know? 13But if my father intends to harm you, may the Lord deal with Jonathan, be it ever so severely, if I do not let you know and send you away in peace. May the Lord be with you as he has been with my father. 14But show me unfailing kindness like the Lord&#8217;s kindness as long as I live, so that I may not be killed, 15and do not ever cut off your kindness from my family&#8212;not even when the Lord has cut off every one of David&#8217;s enemies from the face of the earth.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16So Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, &#8220;May the Lord call David&#8217;s enemies to account.&#8221; 17And Jonathan had David reaffirm his oath out of love for him, because he loved him as he loved himself.</div><div class="p"> 18Then Jonathan said to David, &#8220;Tomorrow is the New Moon feast. You will be missed, because your seat will be empty. 19The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid when this trouble began, and wait by the stone Ezel. 20I will shoot three arrows to the side of it, as though I were shooting at a target. 21Then I will send a boy and say, &#8216;Go, find the arrows.&#8217; If I say to him, &#8216;Look, the arrows are on this side of you; bring them here,&#8217; then come, because, as surely as the Lord lives, you are safe; there is no danger. 22But if I say to the boy, &#8216;Look, the arrows are beyond you,&#8217; then you must go, because the Lord has sent you away. 23And about the matter you and I discussed&#8212;remember, the Lord is witness between you and me forever.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24So David hid in the field, and when the New Moon feast came, the king sat down to eat. 25He sat in his customary place by the wall, opposite Jonathan,#20:25 Septuagint; Hebrew wall. Jonathan arose and Abner sat next to Saul, but David&#8217;s place was empty. 26Saul said nothing that day, for he thought, &#8220;Something must have happened to David to make him ceremonially unclean&#8212;surely he is unclean.&#8221; 27But the next day, the second day of the month, David&#8217;s place was empty again. Then Saul said to his son Jonathan, &#8220;Why hasn&#8217;t the son of Jesse come to the meal, either yesterday or today?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 28Jonathan answered, &#8220;David earnestly asked me for permission to go to Bethlehem. 29He said, &#8216;Let me go, because our family is observing a sacrifice in the town and my brother has ordered me to be there. If I have found favor in your eyes, let me get away to see my brothers.&#8217; That is why he has not come to the king&#8217;s table.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 30Saul&#8217;s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, &#8220;You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Don&#8217;t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established. Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32&#8220;Why should he be put to death? What has he done?&#8221; Jonathan asked his father. 33But Saul hurled his spear at him to kill him. Then Jonathan knew that his father intended to kill David.</div><div class="p"> 34Jonathan got up from the table in fierce anger; on that second day of the feast he did not eat, because he was grieved at his father&#8217;s shameful treatment of David.</div><div class="p"> 35In the morning Jonathan went out to the field for his meeting with David. He had a small boy with him, 36and he said to the boy, &#8220;Run and find the arrows I shoot.&#8221; As the boy ran, he shot an arrow beyond him. 37When the boy came to the place where Jonathan&#8217;s arrow had fallen, Jonathan called out after him, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t the arrow beyond you?&#8221; 38Then he shouted, &#8220;Hurry! Go quickly! Don&#8217;t stop!&#8221; The boy picked up the arrow and returned to his master. 39(The boy knew nothing about all this; only Jonathan and David knew.) 40Then Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and said, &#8220;Go, carry them back to town.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 41After the boy had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone and bowed down before Jonathan three times, with his face to the ground. Then they kissed each other and wept together&#8212;but David wept the most.</div><div class="p"> 42Jonathan said to David, &#8220;Go in peace, for we have sworn friendship with each other in the name of the Lord, saying, &#8216;The Lord is witness between you and me, and between your descendants and my descendants forever.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221; Then David left, and Jonathan went back to the town.#20:42 In Hebrew texts this sentence (20:42b) is numbered 21:1.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bk1SA">
 <div class="chapter ch21" data-usfm="1SA.21">
 <div class="label">21</div><div class="s1">David at Nob</div><div class="p"> # In Hebrew texts 21:1-15 is numbered 21:2-16. 1David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest. Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, &#8220;Why are you alone? Why is no one with you?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 2David answered Ahimelek the priest, &#8220;The king sent me on a mission and said to me, &#8216;No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.&#8217; As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place. 3Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever you can find.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4But the priest answered David, &#8220;I don&#8217;t have any ordinary bread on hand; however, there is some consecrated bread here&#8212;provided the men have kept themselves from women.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5David replied, &#8220;Indeed women have been kept from us, as usual whenever#21:5 Or from us in the past few days since I set out. The men&#8217;s bodies are holy even on missions that are not holy. How much more so today!&#8221; 6So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.</div><div class="p"> 7Now one of Saul&#8217;s servants was there that day, detained before the Lord; he was Doeg the Edomite, Saul&#8217;s chief shepherd.</div><div class="p"> 8David asked Ahimelek, &#8220;Don&#8217;t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven&#8217;t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king&#8217;s mission was urgent.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 9The priest replied, &#8220;The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.&#8221;</div><div class="p">David said, &#8220;There is none like it; give it to me.&#8221;</div><div class="s1">David at Gath</div><div class="p"> 10That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath. 11But the servants of Achish said to him, &#8220;Isn&#8217;t this David, the king of the land? Isn&#8217;t he the one they sing about in their dances:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Saul has slain his thousands,</div><div class="q2">and David his tens of thousands&#8217;?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 13So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.</div><div class="p"> 14Achish said to his servants, &#8220;Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me? 15Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?&#8221;</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 ch15" data-usfm="LUK.15.11+LUK.15.12+LUK.15.13+LUK.15.14+LUK.15.15+LUK.15.16+LUK.15.17+LUK.15.18+LUK.15.19+LUK.15.20+LUK.15.21+LUK.15.22+LUK.15.23+LUK.15.24+LUK.15.25+LUK.15.26+LUK.15.27+LUK.15.28+LUK.15.29+LUK.15.30+LUK.15.31+LUK.15.32">
 <div class="p">11Jesus continued: &#8220;There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, &#8216;Father, give me my share of the estate.&#8217; So he divided his property between them.</div><div class="p"> 13 &#8220;Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.</div><div class="p"> 17 &#8220;When he came to his senses, he said, &#8216;How many of my father&#8217;s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.&#8217; 20So he got up and went to his father.</div><div class="p"> &#8220;But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.</div><div class="p"> 21 &#8220;The son said to him, &#8216;Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 22 &#8220;But the father said to his servants, &#8216;Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let&#8217;s have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.&#8217; So they began to celebrate.</div><div class="p"> 25 &#8220;Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27&#8216;Your brother has come,&#8217; he replied, &#8216;and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 28 &#8220;The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, &#8216;Look! All these years I&#8217;ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 31 &#8220;&#8198;&#8216;My son,&#8217; the father said, &#8216;you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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