David Anointed King
1 The Lord said to Samuel, r“How long will you grieve over Saul, since sI have rejected him from being king over Israel? tFill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, ufor I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” 2 And Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you and say, v‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. wAnd you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.” 4 Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city xcame to meet him trembling and said, y“Do you come peaceably?” 5 And he said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. zConsecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
6 When they came, he looked on aEliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, b“Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, cbut the Lord looks on the heart.” 8 Then Jesse called dAbinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 9 Then Jesse made dShammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” 10 And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.” 11 Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, e“There remains yet the youngest,1 but behold, he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, f“Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.” 12 And he sent and brought him in. Now he was gruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, h“Arise, anoint him, for this is he.” 13 Then Samuel took ithe horn of oil jand anointed him in the midst of his brothers. kAnd the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
David in Saul’s Service
14 lNow the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, mand a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. 15 And Saul’s servants said to him, “Behold now, a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you. 16 Let our lord now command your servants nwho are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the lyre, and when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will oplay it, and you will be well.” 17 So Saul said to his servants, “Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me.” 18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, pa man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, qand the Lord is with him.” 19 Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, “Send me David your son, rwho is with the sheep.” 20 sAnd Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David his son to Saul. 21 And David came to Saul tand entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor-bearer. 22 And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And uwhenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre oand played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
1 As for mthe one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 nOne person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and olet not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 pWho are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master1 that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 qOne person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. rEach one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since she gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For tnone of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, uwhether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ vdied and lived again, that he might be Lord both wof the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For wwe will all stand before xthe judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
y“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess2 to God.”
12 So then zeach of us will give an account of himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
13 aTherefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide bnever to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus cthat nothing is unclean in itself, dbut it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, eyou are no longer walking in love. fBy what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 gSo do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 hFor the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but iof righteousness and jpeace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is kacceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us lpursue what makes for peace and for mmutual upbuilding.
20 nDo not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. oEverything is indeed clean, but pit is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 qIt is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.3 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. rBlessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.4
How Lonely Sits the City
1 aHow lonely sits the city
that was full of people!
How like ba widow has she become,
she who was great among the nations!
She who was ca princess among the provinces
has become da slave.
2 eShe weeps bitterly in the night,
with tears on her cheeks;
famong all her lovers
she has gnone to comfort her;
hall her friends have dealt treacherously with her;
they have become her enemies.
3 iJudah has gone into exile because of affliction1
and hard servitude;
jshe dwells now among the nations,
kbut finds no resting place;
her pursuers have all overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.2
4 The roads to Zion mourn,
for none come to lthe festival;
mall her gates are desolate;
her priests ngroan;
her virgins have been afflicted,3
and she herself suffers bitterly.
5 oHer foes have become the head;
her penemies prosper,
because qthe Lord has afflicted her
rfor the multitude of her transgressions;
sher children have gone away,
captives before the foe.
6 From the daughter of Zion
all her majesty has departed.
Her princes have become like deer
tthat find no pasture;
they fled without strength
before the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers
in the days of her affliction and wandering
uall the precious things
that were hers from vdays of old.
When her people fell into the hand of the foe,
and there was none to help her,
her foes gloated over her;
they wmocked at her downfall.
8 xJerusalem sinned grievously;
therefore she became filthy;
all who honored her despise her,
yfor they have seen her nakedness;
she herself zgroans
and turns her face away.
9 Her uncleanness was ain her skirts;
bshe took no thought of her future;4
therefore her fall is terrible;
cshe has no comforter.
“O Lord, behold my affliction,
for the enemy has dtriumphed!”
10 The enemy has stretched out his hands
over all her eprecious things;
for she has seen fthe nations
enter her sanctuary,
those whom you gforbade
to enter your congregation.
11 All her people zgroan
as hthey search for bread;
they trade their etreasures for ifood
to revive their strength.
“Look, O Lord, and see,
for I am despised.”
12 “Is it nothing to you, all jyou who pass by?
kLook and see
if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,
which was brought upon me,
which lthe Lord inflicted
on mthe day of his fierce anger.
13 “From on high he nsent fire;
into my bones5 he made it descend;
ohe spread a net for my feet;
he turned me back;
phe has left me stunned,
faint all the day long.
14 “My transgressions were bound6 into qa yoke;
by his hand they were fastened together;
they were set upon my neck;
he caused my strength to fail;
the Lord gave me into the hands
of those whom I cannot withstand.
15 “The Lord rejected
all my mighty men in my midst;
he summoned an assembly against me
to crush my young men;
rthe Lord has trodden as in a winepress
the virgin daughter of Judah.
16 “For these things sI weep;
my eyes flow with tears;
for ta comforter is far from me,
one to urevive my spirit;
my children are desolate,
for the enemy has prevailed.”
17 vZion stretches out her hands,
but tthere is none to comfort her;
the Lord has commanded against Jacob
that his neighbors should be his foes;
Jerusalem has become
a filthy thing among them.
18 w“The Lord is in the right,
xfor I have rebelled against his word;
but hear, all you peoples,
and see my suffering;
ymy young women and my young men
have gone into captivity.
19 “I called to zmy lovers,
but they deceived me;
my priests and elders
perished in the city,
while athey sought food
to revive their strength.
20 “Look, O Lord, for I am in distress;
bmy stomach churns;
my heart is wrung within me,
because I have been very rebellious.
cIn the street the sword bereaves;
in the house it is like death.
yet ethere is no one to comfort me.
All my enemies have heard of my trouble;
fthey are glad that you have done it.
You have brought8 the day you announced;
fnow let them be as I am.
22 g“Let all their evildoing come before you,
and deal with them
as hyou have dealt with me
because of all my transgressions;
for dmy groans are many,
and imy heart is faint.”
Blessed Are the Forgiven
A Maskil1 of David.
1 jBlessed is the one whose ktransgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord lcounts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit mthere is no deceit.
3 For when I kept silent, my nbones wasted away
through my ogroaning all day long.
4 For day and night your phand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up2 as by the heat of summer. Selah
5 I qacknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I rwill confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
6 Therefore let everyone who is sgodly
offer prayer to you at a time when you tmay be found;
surely in the rush of ugreat waters,
they shall not reach him.
7 You are a vhiding place for me;
you preserve me from wtrouble;
you surround me with xshouts of deliverance. Selah
8 I will yinstruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will zcounsel you with my eye upon you.
9 aBe not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bbit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.
10 cMany are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who dtrusts in the Lord.
11 eBe glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
