Today's Reading

¹Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle; and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongs to Judah, and encamped between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim.

²Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and encamped in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines.

³The Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them.

⁴There went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

⁵He had a helmet of brass on his head, and he was clad with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.

⁶He had brass shin armor on his legs, and a javelin of brass between his shoulders.

⁷The staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and his shield bearer went before him.

⁸He stood and cried to the armies of Israel, and said to them, "Why have you come out to set your battle in array? Am I not a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.

⁹If he be able to fight with me, and kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then you will be our servants, and serve us."

¹⁰The Philistine said, "I defy the armies of Israel this day! Give me a man, that we may fight together!"

¹¹When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

¹²Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Bethlehem Judah, whose name was Jesse; and he had eight sons: and the man was an old man in the days of Saul, stricken among men.

¹³The three eldest sons of Jesse had gone after Saul to the battle: and the names of his three sons who went to the battle were Eliab the firstborn, and next to him Abinadab, and the third Shammah.

¹⁴David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul.

¹⁵Now David went back and forth from Saul to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.

¹⁶The Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.

¹⁷Jesse said to David his son, "Now take for your brothers an ephah of this parched grain, and these ten loaves, and carry them quickly to the camp to your brothers;

¹⁸and bring these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your brothers are doing, and bring back news."

¹⁹Now Saul, and they, and all the men of Israel, were in the valley of Elah, fighting with the Philistines.

²⁰David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the place of the wagons, as the army which was going forth to the fight shouted for the battle.

²¹Israel and the Philistines put the battle in array, army against army.

²²David left his baggage in the hand of the keeper of the baggage, and ran to the army, and came and greeted his brothers.

²³As he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the ranks of the Philistines, and spoke according to the same words: and David heard them.

²⁴All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were terrified.

²⁵The men of Israel said, "Have you seen this man who has come up? He has surely come up to defy Israel. It shall be, that the man who kills him, the king will enrich him with great riches, and will give him his daughter, and make his father's house exempt in Israel."

²⁶David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "What shall be done to the man who kills this Philistine, and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

²⁷The people answered him in this way, saying, "So shall it be done to the man who kills him."

²⁸Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab's anger was kindled against David, and he said, "Why have you come down? With whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your heart; for you have come down that you might see the battle."

²⁹David said, "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?"

³⁰He turned away from him toward another, and spoke like that again; and the people answered him again the same way.

³¹When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him.

³²David said to Saul, "Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine."

³³Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth."

³⁴David said to Saul, "Your servant was keeping his father's sheep; and when a lion or a bear came, and took a lamb out of the flock,

³⁵I went out after him, and struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and struck him, and killed him.

³⁶Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God."

³⁷David said, "The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine." Saul said to David, "Go; and the Lord shall be with you."

³⁸Saul dressed David with his clothing. He put a helmet of brass on his head, and he clad him with a coat of mail.

³⁹David strapped his sword on his clothing, and he tried to move; for he had not tested it. David said to Saul, "I can't go with these; for I have not tested them." David took them off.

⁴⁰He took his staff in his hand, and chose for himself five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag which he had, even in his wallet. His sling was in his hand; and he drew near to the Philistine.

⁴¹The Philistine came on and drew near to David; and the man who bore the shield went before him.

⁴²When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him; for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and withal of a fair face.

⁴³The Philistine said to David, "Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?" The Philistine cursed David by his gods.

⁴⁴The Philistine said to David, "Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the field."

⁴⁵Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a javelin: but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

⁴⁶Today, the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you, and take your head from off you. I will give the dead bodies of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky, and to the wild animals of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,

⁴⁷and that all this assembly may know that the Lord doesn't save with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hand."

⁴⁸It happened, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew near to meet David, that David hurried, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

⁴⁹David put his hand in his bag, took a stone, and slung it, and struck the Philistine in his forehead; and the stone sank into his forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.

⁵⁰So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine, and killed him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

⁵¹Then David ran, and stood over the Philistine, and took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath, and killed him, and cut off his head therewith. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled.

⁵²The men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until you come to Gai, and to the gates of Ekron. The wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even to Gath, and to Ekron.

⁵³The children of Israel returned from chasing after the Philistines, and they plundered their camp.

⁵⁴David took the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armor in his tent.

⁵⁵When Saul saw David go forth against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the captain of the army, "Abner, whose son is this youth?" Abner said, "As your soul lives, O king, I can't tell."

⁵⁶The king said, "Inquire whose son the young man is!"

⁵⁷As David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand.

⁵⁸Saul said to him, "Whose son are you, you young man?" David answered, "I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite."

¹It happened, when he had made an end of speaking to Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

²Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father's house.

³Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

⁴Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his sash.

⁵David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely: and Saul set him over the men of war, and it was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul's servants.

⁶It happened as they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.

⁷The women sang one to another as they played, and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, David his ten thousands."

⁸Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him; and he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?"

⁹Saul eyed David from that day and forward.

¹⁰It happened on the next day, that an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;

¹¹and Saul threw the spear; for he said, "I will pin David even to the wall!" David escaped from his presence twice.

¹²Saul was afraid of David, because the Lord was with him, and was departed from Saul.

¹³Therefore Saul removed him from him, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

¹⁴David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and the Lord was with him.

¹⁵When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.

¹⁶But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them.

¹⁷Saul said to David, "Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles." For Saul said, "Do not let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him."

¹⁸David said to Saul, "Who am I, and what is my life, or my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?"

¹⁹But it happened at the time when Merab, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, that she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

²⁰Michal, Saul's daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

²¹Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, "You shall this day be my son-in-law a second time."

²²Saul commanded his servants, "Talk with David secretly, and say, 'Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you: now therefore be the king's son-in-law.'"

²³Saul's servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, "Does it seems to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and lightly esteemed?"

²⁴The servants of Saul told him, saying, "David spoke like this."

²⁵Saul said, "You shall tell David, 'The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.'" Now Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

²⁶When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. The days were not expired;

²⁷and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.

²⁸Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David; and Michal, Saul's daughter, loved him.

²⁹Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul was David's enemy continually.

³⁰Then the princes of the Philistines went forth: and it happened, as often as they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was highly esteemed.

¹Saul spoke to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David.

²Jonathan told David, saying, "Saul my father seeks to kill you. Now therefore, please take care of yourself in the morning, and live in a secret place, and hide yourself.

³I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are, and I will talk with my father about you; and if I see anything, I will tell you."

⁴Jonathan spoke good of David to Saul his father, and said to him, "Do not let the king sin against his servant, against David; because he has not sinned against you, and because his works have been very good toward you;

⁵for he put his life in his hand, and struck the Philistine, and the Lord worked a great victory for all Israel. You saw it, and rejoiced. Why then will you sin against innocent blood, to kill David without a cause?"

⁶Saul listened to the voice of Jonathan: and Saul swore, "As the Lord lives, he shall not be put to death."

⁷Jonathan called David, and Jonathan showed him all those things. Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as before.

⁸There was war again. David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and killed them with a great slaughter; and they fled before him.

⁹An evil spirit from the Lord was on Saul, as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand; and David was playing with his hand.

¹⁰Saul sought to pin David even to the wall with the spear; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he stuck the spear into the wall. David fled, and escaped that night.

¹¹Saul sent messengers to David's house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David's wife, told him, saying, "If you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed."

¹²So Michal let David down through the window. He went, fled, and escaped.

¹³Michal took the teraphim, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair at its head, and covered it with the clothes.

¹⁴When Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, "He is sick."

¹⁵Saul sent the messengers to see David, saying, "Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may kill him."

¹⁶When the messengers came in, behold, the teraphim was in the bed, with the pillow of goats' hair at its head.

¹⁷Saul said to Michal, "Why have you deceived me thus, and let my enemy go, so that he is escaped?" Michal answered Saul, "He said to me, 'Let me go! Why should I kill you?'"

¹⁸Now David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. He and Samuel went and lived in Naioth.

¹⁹It was told Saul, saying, "Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah."

²⁰Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

²¹When it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they also prophesied. Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied.

²²Then went he also to Ramah, and came to the great well that is in Secu: and he asked, "Where are Samuel and David?" One said, "Behold, they are at Naioth in Ramah."

²³He went there to Naioth in Ramah. Then the Spirit of God came on him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

²⁴He also stripped off his clothes, and he also prophesied before Samuel, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Therefore they say, "Is Saul also among the prophets?"

¹Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you;

²even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

³This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

⁴I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do.

⁵Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.

⁶I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word.

⁷Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you,

⁸for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me.

⁹I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours.

¹⁰All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them.

¹¹I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are.

¹²While I was with them, I kept them in your name which you have given me; I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves.

¹⁴I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

¹⁵I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one.

¹⁶They are not of the world even as I am not of the world.

¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.

¹⁸As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.

¹⁹For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

²⁰Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word,

²¹that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us; that the world may believe that you sent me.

²²The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one;

²³I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me.

²⁴Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵Righteous Father, the world hasn't known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me.

²⁶I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them."

¹ Lord, you have been favorable to your land. You have restored the fortunes of Jacob.

²You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.

³You have taken away all your wrath. You have turned from the fierceness of your anger.

⁴Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.

⁵Will you be angry with us forever? Will you draw out your anger to all generations?

⁶Won't you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

⁷Show us your loving kindness, Lord. Grant us your salvation.

⁸I will hear what God, the Lord, will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, his holy ones; but let them not turn again to folly.

⁹Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land.

¹⁰Mercy and truth meet together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

¹¹Truth springs out of the earth. Righteousness has looked down from heaven.

¹²Yes, the Lord will give that which is good. Our land will yield its increase.

¹³Righteousness goes before him, And prepares the way for his steps.

¹When you sit to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before you;

²put a knife to your throat, if you are a man given to appetite.

³Do not be desirous of his dainties, seeing they are deceitful food.

⁴Do not weary yourself to be rich. In your wisdom, show restraint.

⁵Why do you set your eyes on that which is not? For it certainly sprouts wings like an eagle and flies in the sky.

⁶Do not eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and do not crave his delicacies:

⁷for as he thinks about the cost, so he is. "Eat and drink!" he says to you, but his heart is not with you.

⁸The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.

⁹Do not speak in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of your words.

¹⁰Do not move the ancient boundary stone. Do not encroach on the fields of the fatherless:

¹¹for their Defender is strong. He will plead their case against you.

¹²Apply your heart to instruction, and your ears to the words of knowledge.

¹³Do not withhold correction from a child. If you punish him with the rod, he will not die.

¹⁴Punish him with the rod, and save his soul from Sheol.

¹⁵My son, if your heart is wise, then my heart will be glad, even mine:

¹⁶yes, my heart will rejoice, when your lips speak what is right.

¹⁷Do not let your heart envy sinners; but rather fear the Lord all the day long.

¹⁸Indeed surely there is a future hope, and your hope will not be cut off.

¹⁹Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path!

²⁰Do not be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:

²¹for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

²²Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

²³Buy the truth, and do not sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding.

²⁴The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.

²⁵Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice!

²⁶My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways.

²⁷For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well.

²⁸Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men.

²⁹Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

³⁰Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine.

³¹Do not look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly.

³²In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.

³³Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

³⁴Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

³⁵"They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I do not feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I can find another."