1 Samuel 25; 1 Samuel 26; Luke 12:32-59

1 And Samuel died, and all Israel was gathered together, and they mourned for him, and buried him in his house in Ramatha. And David rose, and went down into the wilderness of Pharan.

2 Now there was a certain man in the wilderness of Maon, and his possessions were in Carmel, and the man was very great: and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand goats: and it happened that he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3 Now the name of the man was Nabal: and the name of his wife was Abigail. And she was a prudent and very comely woman: but her husband was churlish, and very bad and ill natured: and he was of the house of Caleb.

4 And when David heard in the wilderness, that Nabal was shearing his sheep,

5 He sent ten young men, and said to them: Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and salute him in my name with peace.

6 And you shall say: Peace be to my brethren, and to thee, and peace to thy house, and peace to all that thou hast.

7 I have heard that thy shepherds that were with us in the desert were shearing: we never molested them, neither was there ought missing to them of the flock at any time, all the while they were with us in Carmel.

8 Ask thy servants, and they will tell thee. Now therefore let thy servants find favour in thy eyes: for we are come in a good day, whatsoever thy hand shall find give to thy servants, and to thy son David.

9 And when David’s servants came, they spoke to Nabal all these words in David’s name, and then held their peace.

10 But Nabal answering the servants of David, said: Who is David? and what is the son of Isai? servants are multiplied now days who flee from their masters.

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and the flesh of my cattle, which I have killed for my shearers, and give to men whom I know not whence they are?

12 So the servants of David went back their way, and returning came and told him all the words that he said.

13 Then David said to his young men: Let every man gird on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword: and there followed David about four hundred men, and two hundred remained with the baggage.

14 But one of the servants told, Abigail, the wife of Nabal, saying: Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness, to salute our master: and he rejected them.

15 These men were very good to us, and gave us no trouble: Neither did we ever lose any thing all the time that we conversed with them in the desert.

16 They were a wall unto us, both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep.

17 Wherefore consider, and think what thou hast to do: for evil is determined against thy husband, and against thy house, and he is a son of Belial, so that no man can speak to him.

18 Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves, and two vessels of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and a hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of dry figs, and laid them upon asses:

19 And she said to her servants: Go before me: behold, I will follow after you: but she told not her husband, Nabal.

20 And when she had gotten upon an ass, and was coming down to the foot of the mountain, David and his men came down over against her, and she met them.

21 And David said: Truly in vain have I kept all that belonged to this fellow in the wilderness, and nothing was lost of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.

22 May God do so and so, and add more to the foes of David, if I leave of all that belong to him till the morning, any that pisseth against the wall.

23 And when Abigail saw David, she made haste and lighted off the ass, and fell before David, on her face, and adored upon the ground.

24 And she fell at his feet, and said: Upon me let this iniquity be, my lord: let thy handmaid speak, I beseech thee, in thy ears, and hear the words of thy servant.

25 Let not my lord the king, I pray thee, regard this naughty man, Nabal: for according to his name, he is a fool, and folly is with him: but I, thy handmaid, did not see thy servants, my lord, whom thou sentest.

26 Now therefore, my lord, the Lord liveth, and thy soul liveth, who hath withholden thee from coming to blood, and hath saved thy hand to thee: and now let thy enemies be as Nabal, and all they that seek evil to my lord.

27 Wherefore receive this blessing, which thy handmaid hath brought to thee, my lord: and give it to the young men that follow thee, my lord.

28 Forgive the iniquity of thy handmaid: for the Lord will surely make for my lord a faithful house, because thou, my lord, fightest the battles of the Lord: let not evil therefore be found in thee all the days of thy life.

29 For if a man at any time shall rise, and persecute thee, and seek thy life, the soul of my lord shall be kept, as in the bundle of the living, with the Lord thy God: but the souls of thy enemies shall be whirled, as with the violence and whirling of a sling.

30 And when the Lord shall have done to thee, my lord, all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have made thee prince over Israel,

31 This shall not be an occasion of grief to thee, and a scruple of heart to my lord, that thou hast shed innocent blood, or hast revenged thyself: and when the Lord shall have done well by my lord, thou shalt remember thy handmaid.

32 And David said to Abigail: Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, who sent thee this day to meet me, and blessed be thy speech:

33 And blessed be thou, who hast kept me to day from coming to blood, and revenging me with my own hand.

34 Otherwise, as the Lord liveth, the God of Israel, who hath withholden me from doing thee any evil, if thou hadst not quickly come to meet me, there had not been left to Nabal by the morning light, any that pisseth against the wall.

35 And David received at her hand all that she had brought him, and said to her: Go in peace into thy house, behold I have heard thy voice, and honoured thy face.

36 And Abigail came to Nabal: and behold he had a feast in his house, like the feast of a king: and Nabal’s heart was merry, for he was very drunk: and she told him nothing less or more until morning.

37 But early in the morning, when Nabal had digested his wine, his wife told him these words, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

38 And after ten days had passed, the Lord struck Nabal, and he died.

39 And when David had heard that Nabal was dead, he said: Blessed be the Lord, who hath judged the cause of my reproach, at the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil, and the Lord hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his head. Then David sent and treated with Abigail, that he might take her to himself for a wife.

40 And David’s servants came to Abigail, to Carmel, and spoke to her, saying: David hath sent us to thee, to take thee to himself for a wife.

41 And she arose, and bowed herself down with her face to the earth, and said: Behold, let thy servant be a handmaid, to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

42 And Abigail arose, and made haste, and got upon an ass, and five damsels went with her, her waiting maids, and she followed the messengers of David, and became his wife.

43 Moreover David took also Achinoam of Jezrahel: and they were both of them his wives.

44 But Saul gave Michol, his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti, the son of Lais, who was of Gallim.

1 And the men of Ziph came to Saul in Gabaa, saying: Behold David is hid in the hill of Hachila, which is over against the wilderness.

2 And Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph having with him three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.

3 And Saul encamped in Gabaa Hachila, which was over against the wilderness in the way: and David abode in the wilderness. And seeing that Saul was come after him into the wilderness,

4 He sent spies, and learned that he was most certainly come thither.

5 And David arose secretly, and came to the place where Saul was: and when he had beheld the place, wherein Saul slept, and Abner, the son of Ner, the captain of his army, and Saul sleeping in a tent, and the rest of the multitude round about him,

6 David spoke to Achimelech, the Hethite, and Abisai, the son of Sarvia, the brother of Joab, saying: Who will go down with me to Saul into the camp? And Abisai said: I will go with thee.

7 So David and Abisai came to the people by night, and found Saul lying and sleeping in the tent, and his spear fixed in the ground at his head: and Abner and the people sleeping round about him.

8 And Abisai said to David: God hath shut up thy enemy this day into thy hands: now then I will run him through with my spear, even to the earth at once, and there shall be no need of a second time.

9 And David said to Abisai: Kill him not: for who shall put forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and shall be guiltless?

10 And David said: As the Lord liveth, unless the Lord shall strike him, or his day shall come to die, or he shall go down to battle, and perish:

11 The Lord be merciful unto me, and keep me that I never put forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed. But now take the spear which is at his head, and the cup of water, and let us go.

12 So David took the spear, and the cup of water which was at Saul’s head, and they went away: and no man saw it, or knew it, or awaked, but they were all asleep, for a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them.

13 And when David was gone over to the other side, and stood on the top of the hill afar off, and a good space was between them,

14 David cried to the people, and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying: Wilt thou not answer, Abner? And Abner answering, said: Who art thou, that criest, and disturbest the king?

15 And David said to Abner: Art not thou a man? and who is like unto thee in Israel? why then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to kill the king thy lord.

16 This thing is not good, that thou hast done: as the Lord liveth, you are the sons of death, who have not kept your master, the Lord’s anointed. And now where is the king’s spear, and the cup of water, which was at his head?

17 And Saul knew David’s voice, and said: Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said: It is my voice, my lord the king.

18 And he said: Wherefore doth my lord persecute his servant? What have I done? or what evil is there in my hand?

19 Now therefore hear, I pray thee, my lord the king, the words of thy servant: If the Lord stir thee up against me, let him accept of sacrifice: but if the sons of men, they are cursed in the sight of the Lord, who have cast me out this day, that I should not dwell in the inheritance of the Lord, saying: Go, serve strange gods.

20 And now let not my blood be shed upon the earth before the Lord: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as the partridge is hunted in the mountains.

21 And Saul said: I have sinned; return, my son David, for I will no more do thee harm, because my life hath been precious in thy eyes this day: for it appeareth that I have done foolishly, and have been ignorant in very many things.

22 And David answering, said: Behold the king’s spear: let one of the king’s servants come over and fetch it.

23 And the Lord will reward every one according to his justice, and his faithfulness: for the Lord hath delivered thee this day into my hand, and I would not put forth my hand against the Lord’s anointed.

24 And as thy life hath been much set by this day in my eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me from all distress.

25 Then Saul said to David: Blessed art thou, my son David: and truly doing thou shalt do, and prevailing thou shalt prevail. And David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

32 Fear not, little flock, for it hath pleased your Father to give you a kingdom.

33 Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in heaven which faileth not: where no thief approacheth, nor moth corrupteth.

34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35 Let your loins be girt and lamps burning in your hands.

36 And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately.

37 Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Amen I say to you that he will gird himself and make them sit down to meat and passing will minister unto them.

38 And if he shall come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so, blessed are those servants.

39 But this know ye, that if the householder did know at what hour the thief would come, he would surely watch and would not suffer his house to be broken open.

40 Be you then also ready: for at what hour you think not the Son of man will come.

41 And Peter said to him: Lord, dost thou speak this parable to us, or likewise to all?

42 And the Lord said: Who thinkest thou is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to give them their measure of wheat in due season?

43 Blessed is that servant whom, when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.

44 Verily I say to you, he will set him over all that he possesseth.

45 But if that servant shall say in his heart: My Lord is long a coming; and shall begin to strike the men-servants and maid-servants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk:

46 The lord of that servant will come in the day that he hopeth not, and at the hour that he knoweth not: and shall separate him and shall appoint him his portion with unbelievers.

47 And that servant, who knew the will of his lord and prepared not himself and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48 But he that knew not and did things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes. And unto whomsoever much is given, of him much shall be required: and to whom they have committed much, of him they will demand the more.

49 I am come to cast fire on the earth. And what will I, but that it be kindled?

50 And I have a baptism wherewith I am to be baptized. And how am I straitened until it be accomplished?

51 Think ye, that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, no; but separation.

52 For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three.

53 The father shall be divided against the son and the son against his father: the mother against the daughter and the daughter against her mother: the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law law against her mother-in-law.

54 And he said also to the multitudes: When you see a cloud rising from the west, presently you say: A shower is coming. And so it happeneth.

55 And when ye see the south wind blow, you say: There will heat. And it cometh to pass.

56 You hypocrites, you know how to discern the face of the heaven and of the earth: but how is it that you do not discern this time?

57 And why, even of yourselves, do you not judge that which is just?

58 And when thou goest with thy adversary to the prince, whilst thou art in the way, endeavour to be delivered from him: lest perhaps he draw thee to he judge, and the judge deliver thee to the exacter, and the exacter cast thee into prison.

59 I say to thee, thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the very last mite.