2 Samuel 14 Cross References - MSB

¹ Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king’s heart longed for Absalom. ² So Joab sent to Tekoa to bring a wise woman from there. He told her, “Please pretend to be a mourner; put on clothes for mourning and do not anoint yourself with oil. Act like a woman who has mourned for the dead a long time. ³ Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth. ⁴ When the woman from Tekoa went to the king, she fell facedown in homage and said, “Help me, O king!” ⁵ “What troubles you?” the king asked her. “Indeed,” she said, “I am a widow, for my husband is dead. ⁶ And your maidservant had two sons who were fighting in the field with no one to separate them, and one struck the other and killed him. ⁷ Now the whole clan has risen up against your maidservant and said, ‘Hand over the one who struck down his brother, that we may put him to death for the life of the brother whom he killed. Then we will cut off the heir as well!’ So they would extinguish my one remaining ember by not preserving my husband’s name or posterity on the earth.” ⁸ “Go home,” the king said to the woman, “and I will give orders on your behalf.” ⁹ But the woman of Tekoa said to the king, “My lord the king, may any blame be on me and on my father’s house, and may the king and his throne be guiltless.” ¹⁰ “If anyone speaks to you,” said the king, “bring him to me, and he will not trouble you again!” ¹¹ “Please,” she replied, “may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!” “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.” ¹² Then the woman said, “Please, may your servant speak a word to my lord the king?” “Speak,” he replied. ¹³ The woman asked, “Why have you devised a thing like this against the people of God? When the king says this, does he not convict himself, since he has not brought back his own banished son? ¹⁴ For surely we will die and be like water poured out on the ground, which cannot be recovered. Yet God does not take away a life; but He devises ways that the banished one may not be cast out from Him. ¹⁵ Now therefore, I have come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought, ‘I will speak to the king. Perhaps he will grant the request of his maidservant. ¹⁶ For the king will hear and deliver his maidservant from the hand of the man who would cut off both me and my son from God’s inheritance.’ ¹⁷ And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’” ¹⁸ Then the king said to the woman, “I am going to ask you something; do not conceal it from me!” “Let my lord the king speak,” she replied. ¹⁹ So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say. ²⁰ Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.” ²¹ Then the king said to Joab, “I hereby grant this request. Go, bring back the young man Absalom.” ²² Joab fell facedown in homage and blessed the king. “Today,” said Joab, “your servant knows that he has found favor with you, my lord the king, because the king has granted his request.” ²³ So Joab got up, went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. ²⁴ But the king added, “He may return to his house, but he must not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, but he did not see the king. ²⁵ Now there was not a man in all Israel as handsome and highly praised as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the top of his head, he did not have a single flaw. ²⁶ And when he cut the hair of his head—he shaved it every year because his hair got so heavy—he would weigh it out to be two hundred shekels, according to the royal standard. ²⁷ Three sons were born to Absalom, and a daughter named Tamar, who was a beautiful woman. ²⁸ Now Absalom lived in Jerusalem two years without seeing the face of the king. ²⁹ Then he sent for Joab to send him to the king, but Joab refused to come to him. So Absalom sent a second time, but Joab still would not come. ³⁰ Then Absalom said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire!” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. ³¹ Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?” ³² “Look,” said Absalom, “I sent for you and said, ‘Come here. I want to send you to the king to ask: Why have I come back from Geshur? It would be better for me if I were still there.’ So now, let me see the king’s face, and if there is iniquity in me, let him kill me.” ³³ So Joab went and told the king, and David summoned Absalom, who came to him and bowed facedown before him. Then the king kissed Absalom.

¹⁸ The three sons of Zeruiah were there: Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was fleet of foot like a wild gazelle,

³⁹ And King David longed to go to Absalom, for he had been consoled over Amnon’s death.

³³ The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

² And that day’s victory was turned into mourning for all the people, because on that day they were told, “The king is grieving over his son.”

⁴ But the king covered his face and cried out at the top of his voice, “O my son Absalom! O Absalom, my son, my son!”

¹⁶ Their sisters were Zeruiah and Abigail. And the three sons of Zeruiah were Abishai, Joab, and Asahel.

²⁶ Many seek the ruler’s favor, but a man receives justice from the LORD.

³ Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.

²⁰ Then David got up from the ground, washed and anointed himself, changed his clothes, and went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they set food before him, and he ate.

⁶ He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

²⁰ Early in the morning they got up and left for the Wilderness of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Hear me, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be upheld; believe in His prophets, and you will succeed.”

⁵ Next to him, the Tekoites made repairs, but their nobles did not put their shoulders to the work under their supervisors.

²⁷ And next to them, the Tekoites repaired another section, from a point opposite the great tower that juts out to the wall of Ophel.

¹⁵ wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.

⁸ Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.

¹ “Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction.

¹ These are the words of Amos, who was among the sheepherders of Tekoa—what he saw concerning Israel two years before the earthquake, in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

¹⁷ But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

¹⁵ You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do.

⁵ Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. I will put My words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.

¹⁹ So the king asked, “Is the hand of Joab behind all this?” The woman answered, “As surely as you live, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right or to the left from anything that my lord the king says. Yes, your servant Joab is the one who gave me orders; he told your maidservant exactly what to say.

¹⁶ I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with the shadow of My hand, to establish the heavens, to found the earth, and to say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

²¹ “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.

⁹ Then the LORD reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

⁴¹ When the young man had gone, David got up from the south side of the stone, fell facedown, and bowed three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and wept together—though David wept more.

²³ When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off the donkey, fell facedown, and bowed before him.

² On the third day a man with torn clothes and dust on his head arrived from Saul’s camp. When he came to David, he fell to the ground to pay him homage.

²⁶ As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help me, my lord the king!” ²⁷ He answered, “If the LORD does not help you, where can I find help for you? From the threshing floor or the winepress?” ²⁸ Then the king asked her, “What is the matter?” And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son, that we may eat him, and tomorrow we will eat my son.’

¹² because I rescued the poor who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper. ¹³ The dying man blessed me, and I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. ¹⁴ I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; justice was my robe and my turban.

³ And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Then she will stop wearing me out with her perpetual requests.’”

⁸ One day the trees set out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’ ⁹ But the olive tree replied, ‘Should I stop giving my oil that honors both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?’ ¹⁰ Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and reign over us.’ ¹¹ But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I stop giving my sweetness and my good fruit, to hold sway over the trees?’ ¹² Then the trees said to the grapevine, ‘Come and reign over us.’ ¹³ But the grapevine replied, ‘Should I stop giving my wine that cheers both God and man, to hold sway over the trees?’ ¹⁴ Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and reign over us.’ ¹⁵ But the thornbush replied, ‘If you really are anointing me as king over you, come and find refuge in my shade. But if not, may fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon.’

¹ Then the LORD sent Nathan to David, and when he arrived, he said, “There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. ² The rich man had a great number of sheep and cattle, ³ but the poor man had nothing except one small ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food and drank from his cup; it slept in his arms and was like a daughter to him.

⁸ Then Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out to the field.” And while they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.

¹³ The next day Moses went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your companion?”

²⁶ Do nothing to the young woman, because she has committed no sin worthy of death. This case is just like one in which a man attacks his neighbor and murders him. ²⁷ When he found her in the field, the betrothed woman cried out, but there was no one to save her.

¹⁴ Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

⁴⁵ until your brother’s rage against you wanes and he forgets what you have done to him. Then I will send for you and bring you back from there. Why should I lose both of you in one day?”

¹⁹ The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him.

¹² the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. ¹³ You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you.

⁶ The first son she bears will carry on the name of the dead brother, so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.

¹⁷ The elders of his household stood beside him to help him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.

³⁸ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take his inheritance.’

⁵ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan: “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! ⁶ Because he has done this thing and has shown no pity, he must pay for the lamb four times over.”

⁴ So the king said to Ziba, “All that belongs to Mephibosheth is now yours!” “I humbly bow before you,” said Ziba. “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord the king!”

¹⁶ I was a father to the needy, and I took up the case of the stranger.

¹³ He who answers a matter before he hears it—this is folly and disgrace to him.

³ And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear, ⁴ but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips.

¹³ His mother replied, “Your curse be on me, my son. Just obey my voice and go get them for me.”

³³ Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.

¹ If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities. ³ Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, ⁴ bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream. ⁵ And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. ⁶ Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, ⁷ and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸ Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for. ⁹ So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD.

²⁴ She fell at his feet and said, “My lord, may the blame be on me alone, but please let your servant speak to you; hear the words of your servant.

²⁸ Afterward, David heard about this and said, “I and my kingdom are forever guiltless before the LORD concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner. ²⁹ May it whirl over the heads of Joab and the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”

³³ Their blood will come back upon the heads of Joab and his descendants forever; but for David, his descendants, his house, and his throne, there shall be peace from the LORD forever.”

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

²² But Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

² So Abraham instructed the chief servant of his household, who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh, ³ and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

⁵⁰ If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, although no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me.”

²¹ or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him.

²⁷ and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed

⁴ Now this is the situation regarding the manslayer who flees to one of these cities to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally, without intending to harm him: ⁵ If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life. ⁶ Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm. ⁷ This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. ⁸ And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them, ⁹ and if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰ Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed.

³ so that anyone who kills another unintentionally or accidentally may flee there. These will be your refuge from the avenger of blood. ⁴ When someone flees to one of these cities, stands at the entrance of the city gate, and states his case before its elders, they are to bring him into the city and give him a place to live among them. ⁵ Now if the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the manslayer into his hand, because that man killed his neighbor accidentally without prior malice. ⁶ He is to stay in that city until he stands trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest serving at that time. Then the manslayer may return to his own home in the city from which he fled.”

⁴⁵ But the people said to Saul, “Must Jonathan die—he who accomplished such a great deliverance for Israel? Never! As surely as the LORD lives, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground, for with God’s help he has accomplished this today.” So the people rescued Jonathan, and he did not die.

⁴² And Jonathan said to David, “Go in peace, for the two of us have sworn in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘May the LORD be a witness between you and me, and between your descendants and mine forever.’” Then David got up and departed, and Jonathan went back into the city.

¹⁰ Then Saul swore to her by the LORD: “As surely as the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this.”

⁵² And Solomon replied, “If he is a man of character, not a single hair of his will fall to the ground. But if evil is found in him, he will die.”

² and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”

³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

³⁴ So for your own preservation, I urge you to eat something, because not a single hair of your head will be lost.”

²⁷ Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes—

³² Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

¹⁸ Then Judah approached Joseph and said, “Sir, please let your servant speak personally to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh himself.

¹ Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

¹ Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

² The leaders of all the people and all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in the assembly of God’s people: 400,000 men on foot, armed with swords.

⁸ Now then, you are to tell My servant David that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: I took you from the pasture, from following the flock, to be the ruler over My people Israel.

⁷ Then Nathan said to David, “You are that man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

³⁷ Now Absalom fled and went to Talmai son of Ammihud, the king of Geshur. But David mourned for his son every day. ³⁸ After Absalom had fled and gone to Geshur, he stayed there three years.

⁴⁰ But while your servant was busy here and there, the man disappeared.” And the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you have pronounced it on yourself.” ⁴¹ Then the prophet quickly removed the bandage from his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² And the prophet said to the king, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have let slip from your hand the man I had devoted to destruction, your life will be exchanged for his life, and your people for his people.’”

⁴² When they were unable to repay him, he forgave both of them. Tell Me, which one, then, will love him more?” ⁴³ “I suppose the one who was forgiven more,” Simon replied. “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. ⁴⁴ And turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I entered your house, you did not give Me water for My feet, but she wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

¹³ If, however, he did not lie in wait, but God allowed it to happen, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

⁴⁰ But if they will confess their iniquity and that of their fathers in the unfaithfulness that they practiced against Me, by which they have also walked in hostility toward Me—

¹⁵ These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.

²⁵ The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil.

²⁸ because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns.

¹⁷ For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe.

²⁵ Then David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Do not let this matter upset you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city and demolish it.’ Encourage him with these words.”

⁷ For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail. ⁸ If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump dies in the soil, ⁹ at the scent of water it will bud and put forth twigs like a sapling. ¹⁰ But a man dies and is laid low; he breathes his last, and where is he? ¹¹ As water disappears from the sea and a river becomes parched and dry, ¹² so a man lies down and does not rise. Until the heavens are no more, he will not be awakened or roused from sleep.

¹⁴ When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes.

²³ Yes, I know that You will bring me down to death, to the place appointed for all the living.

¹⁵ all flesh would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.

¹⁹ who is not partial to princes and does not favor rich over poor? For they are all the work of His hands.

¹⁴ I am poured out like water, and all my bones are disjointed. My heart is like wax; it melts away within me.

⁷ May they vanish like water that runs off; when they draw the bow, may their arrows be blunted.

³ They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.

³ You return man to dust, saying, “Return, O sons of mortals.”

¹⁰ The length of our days is seventy years—or eighty if we are strong—yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.

¹⁹ For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile. ²⁰ All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.

⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

¹ This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold for your iniquities, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away. ² Why was no one there when I arrived? Why did no one answer when I called? Is My hand too short to redeem you? Or do I lack the strength to deliver you? Behold, My rebuke dries up the sea; I turn the rivers into a desert; the fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to Him along with the Herodians. “Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and that You teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You seek favor from no one, because You pay no attention to external appearance.

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now truly understand that God does not show favoritism,

¹¹ For God does not show favoritism.

²⁷ Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment,

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each one’s work impartially, conduct yourselves in reverent fear during your stay as foreigners.

¹⁹ Now please, may my lord the king hear the words of his servant: If the LORD has stirred you up against me, then may He accept an offering. But if men have done it, may they be cursed in the presence of the LORD! For today they have driven me away from sharing in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, ‘Go, serve other gods.’

⁹ Achish replied, “I know that you are as pleasing in my sight as an angel of God. But the commanders of the Philistines have said, ‘He must not go into battle with us.’

²⁰ Joab your servant has done this to bring about this change of affairs, but my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know everything that happens in the land.”

²⁷ and he has slandered your servant to my lord the king. Yet my lord the king is like the angel of God, so do what is good in your eyes.

⁹ Therefore give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to govern this great people of Yours?”

²⁸ When all Israel heard of the judgment the king had given, they stood in awe of him, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.

³⁰ Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

²¹ A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but a man is tested by the praise accorded him.

⁵ A man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet.

¹⁴ The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. ¹⁵ The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained their senses to distinguish good from evil.

¹⁷ “What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God punish you, and ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He said to you.” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and did not hide a thing from him. “He is the LORD,” replied Eli. “Let Him do what is good in His eyes.”

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” said the king to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”

²⁵ If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,’

¹⁷ Please let us pass through your land. We will not cut through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will stay on the King’s Highway; we will not turn to the right or to the left until we have passed through your territory.”

³² So be careful to do as the LORD your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

¹⁴ Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.

⁷ Above all, be strong and very courageous. Be careful to observe all the law that My servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.

²⁶ “Please, my lord,” said Hannah, “as surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.

⁵⁵ As Saul had watched David going out to confront the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” “As surely as you live, O king,” Abner replied, “I do not know.”

³ But David again vowed, “Your father knows very well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Jonathan must not know of this, or he will be grieved.’ As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, there is but a step between me and death.”

²⁶ Now, my lord, as surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, the LORD has held you back from coming to bloodshed and avenging yourself with your own hand. May your enemies and those who seek harm for my lord be like Nabal.

²⁷ When Abner returned to Hebron, Joab pulled him aside into the gateway, as if to speak to him privately, and there Joab stabbed him in the stomach. So Abner died on account of the blood of Joab’s brother Asahel.

²⁹ May it whirl over the heads of Joab and the entire house of his father, and may the house of Joab never be without one having a discharge or skin disease, or one who leans on a staff or falls by the sword or lacks food.”

³⁴ Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. As a man falls before the wicked, so also you fell.” And all the people wept over him even more.

¹¹ Uriah answered, “The ark and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camped in the open field. How can I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing!”

¹⁴ The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. ¹⁵ In the letter he wrote: “Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest battle; then withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and killed.”

³ Then go to the king and speak these words to him.” And Joab put the words in her mouth.

⁵ Moreover, you know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me—what he did to Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether, the two commanders of the armies of Israel. He killed them in peacetime to avenge the blood of war. He stained with the blood of war the belt around his waist and the sandals on his feet. ⁶ So act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head go down to Sheol in peace.

² and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil.

¹⁵ For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to contradict or resist.

⁵ “For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

²³ So David inquired of the LORD, who answered, “Do not march straight up, but circle around behind them and attack them in front of the balsam trees.

¹⁷ And now your servant says, ‘May the word of my lord the king bring me rest, for my lord the king is able to discern good and evil, just like the angel of God. May the LORD your God be with you.’”

²¹ I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man. ²² For I do not know how to flatter, or my Maker would remove me in an instant.

¹⁶ Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep? ¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? ¹⁸ Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this. ¹⁹ Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides, ²⁰ so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home? ²¹ Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great! ²² Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail, ²³ which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle? ²⁴ In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth? ²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt, ²⁶ to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives, ²⁷ to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass? ²⁸ Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew? ²⁹ From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven, ³⁰ when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen? ³¹ Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion? ³² Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs? ³³ Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth? ³⁴ Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you? ³⁵ Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’? ³⁶ Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind? ³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens ³⁸ when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together? ³⁹ Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions ⁴⁰ when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket? ⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?

²⁸ A lying tongue hates those it crushes, and a flattering mouth causes ruin.

¹ Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ² The one who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.

³⁹ As surely as the LORD who saves Israel lives, even if it is my son Jonathan, he must die!” But not one of the troops said a word.

¹¹ “Please,” she replied, “may the king invoke the LORD your God to prevent the avenger of blood from increasing the devastation, so that my son may not be destroyed!” “As surely as the LORD lives,” he vowed, “not a hair of your son’s head will fall to the ground.”

²⁶ The king was consumed with sorrow, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to refuse her.

⁸ Noah, however, found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

¹⁶ For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?” ¹⁷ So the LORD said to Moses, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor in My sight, and I know you by name.”

² And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.” “Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.

³⁹ So all the people crossed the Jordan, and then the king crossed over. The king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and Barzillai returned home.

² And the people blessed all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem.

¹¹ For those who heard me called me blessed, and those who saw me commended me,

²⁰ if his heart has not blessed me for warming him with the fleece of my sheep,

²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband praises her as well:

³ his second was Chileab, by Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel; his third was Absalom, the son of Maacah daughter of King Talmai of Geshur;

³ But Judah replied, “The man solemnly warned us, ‘You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you.’

²⁸ “Depart from me!” Pharaoh said to Moses. “Make sure you never see my face again, for on the day you see my face, you will die.”

¹³ “Good,” replied David, “I will make a covenant with you. But there is one thing I require of you: Do not appear before me unless you bring Saul’s daughter Michal when you come to see me.”

²⁸ Now Absalom lived in Jerusalem two years without seeing the face of the king.

⁴ They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.

³⁵ The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

² And he had a son named Saul, choice and handsome, without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the people.

⁷ But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or height, for I have rejected him; the LORD does not see as man does. For man sees the outward appearance, but the LORD sees the heart.”

⁷ So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.

³⁰ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

⁶ From the sole of your foot to the top of your head, there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and festering sores neither cleansed nor bandaged nor soothed with oil.

²⁷ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of impurity.

²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

¹⁶ Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.

³⁶ You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.

⁹ Now Absalom was riding on his mule when he met the servants of David, and as the mule went under the thick branches of a large oak, Absalom’s head was caught fast in the tree. The mule under him kept going, so that he was suspended in midair.

²⁴ Instead of fragrance there will be a stench; instead of a belt, a rope; instead of styled hair, baldness; instead of fine clothing, sackcloth; instead of beauty, shame.

²⁰ They must not shave their heads or let their hair grow long, but must carefully trim their hair.

⁹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord GOD.’ ¹⁰ You must use honest scales, a just ephah, and a just bath. ¹¹ The ephah and the bath shall be the same quantity so that the bath will contain a tenth of a homer, and the ephah a tenth of a homer; the homer will be the standard measure for both. ¹² The shekel will consist of twenty gerahs. Twenty shekels plus twenty-five shekels plus fifteen shekels will equal one mina. ¹³ This is the contribution you are to offer: a sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and a sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley. ¹⁴ The prescribed portion of oil, measured by the bath, is a tenth of a bath from each cor (a cor consists of ten baths or one homer, since ten baths are equivalent to a homer).

¹⁴ Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him,

¹ After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom.

¹⁸ During his lifetime, Absalom had set up for himself a pillar in the King’s Valley, for he had said, “I have no son to preserve the memory of my name.” So he gave the pillar his name, and to this day it is called Absalom’s Monument.

¹⁶ The roots beneath him dry up, and the branches above him wither away. ¹⁷ The memory of him perishes from the earth, and he has no name in the land. ¹⁸ He is driven from light into darkness and is chased from the inhabited world. ¹⁹ He has no offspring or posterity among his people, no survivor where he once lived.

²² “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD.

³⁰ This is what the LORD says: “Enroll this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime. None of his descendants will prosper to sit on the throne of David or to rule again in Judah.”

³⁰ Then Absalom said to his servants, “Look, Joab’s field is next to mine, and he has barley there. Go and set it on fire!” And Absalom’s servants set the field on fire. ³¹ Then Joab came to Absalom’s house and demanded, “Why did your servants set my field on fire?”

¹² Queen Vashti, however, refused to come at the king’s command brought by his eunuchs. And the king became furious, and his anger burned within him.

³ He sent his servants to call those he had invited to the banquet, but they refused to come.

⁴ Then Samson went out and caught three hundred foxes. And he took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and fastened a torch between each pair of tails. ⁵ Then he lit the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain of the Philistines, burning up the piles of grain and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves.

²⁸ Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!” ²⁹ So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.

⁹ In the letters she wrote: “Proclaim a fast and give Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹⁰ But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” ¹¹ So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had instructed in the letters she had written to them. ¹² They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹³ And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. ¹⁴ Then they sent word to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.”

³³ “Throw her down!” yelled Jehu. So they threw her down, and her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses as they trampled her underfoot.

⁶ Then Jehu wrote them a second letter and said: “If you are on my side, and if you will obey me, then bring the heads of your master’s sons to me at Jezreel by this time tomorrow.” Now the sons of the king, seventy in all, were being brought up by the leading men of the city. ⁷ And when the letter arrived, they took the sons of the king and slaughtered all seventy of them. They put their heads in baskets and sent them to Jehu at Jezreel.

¹² And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

¹² Did we not say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone so that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”

³ “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in the land of Egypt!” they said. “There we sat by pots of meat and ate our fill of bread, but you have brought us into this desert to starve this whole assembly to death!”

³ But the people thirsted for water there, and they grumbled against Moses: “Why have you brought us out of Egypt—to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?”

¹³ When Samuel reached him, Saul said to him, “May the LORD bless you. I have carried out the LORD’s instructions.”

⁸ Therefore deal faithfully with your servant, for you have brought me into a covenant with you before the LORD. If there is iniquity in me, then kill me yourself; why should you bring me to your father?”

² For his eyes are too full of conceit to detect or hate his own sin.

¹³ He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy.

²² Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD. ²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young she-camel galloping here and there,

¹² Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse, says the LORD.

⁴⁴ And they too will reply, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’

¹⁹ Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.

²⁶ Then his father Isaac said to him, “Please come near and kiss me, my son.”

⁴ Esau, however, ran to him and embraced him, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. And they both wept.

¹⁵ Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

²⁰ So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still in the distance, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.