Bible Reading for April 3

1 Samuel Chapter 25

1 And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and
lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and
went down to the wilderness of Paran.

2 And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the
man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a thousand
goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

3 Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail:
and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful
countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings; and he was
of the house of Caleb.

4 And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5 And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men,
Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

6 And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be both
to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast.

7 And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which
were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto
them, all the while they were in Carmel.

8 Ask thy young men, and they will shew thee. Wherefore let the young
men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day: give, I pray
thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son
David.

9 And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all
those words in the name of David, and ceased.

10 And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who
is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away
every man from his master.

11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have
killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence
they be?

12 So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and came and
told him all those sayings.

13 And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. And they
girded on every man his sword; and David also girded on his sword: and
there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode
by the stuff.

14 But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying, Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he
railed on them.

15 But the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither
missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with them, when we
were in the fields:

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

17 Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is
determined against our master, and against all his household: for he is
such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.

18 Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles
of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched
corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs,
and laid them on asses.

19 And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after
you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

20 And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the
covert of the hill, and, behold, David and his men came down against
her; and she met them.

21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow
hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained
unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good.

22 So and more also do God unto the enemies of David, if I leave of all
that pertain to him by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

23 And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and
fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24 And fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this
iniquity be: and let thine handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine
audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.

25 Let not my lord, I pray thee, regard this man of Belial, even Nabal:
for as his name is, so is he; Nabal is his name, and folly is with him:
but I thine handmaid saw not the young men of my lord, whom thou didst send.

26 Now therefore, my lord, as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth,
seeing the LORD hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from
avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine enemies, and they
that seek evil to my lord, be as Nabal.

27 And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord,
let it even be given unto the young men that follow my lord.

28 I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD
will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the
battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

29 Yet a man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul
of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God;
and the souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out of the
middle of a sling.

30 And it shall come to pass, when the LORD shall have done to my lord
according to all the good that he hath spoken concerning thee, and shall
have appointed thee ruler over Israel;

31 That this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my
lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath
avenged himself: but when the LORD shall have dealt well with my lord,
then remember thine handmaid.

32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which
sent thee this day to meet me:

33 And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me
this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine
own hand.

34 For in very deed, as the LORD God of Israel liveth, which hath kept
me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me,
surely there had not been left unto Nabal by the morning light any that
pisseth against the wall.

35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and
said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to
thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

36 And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house,
like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he
was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until
the morning light.

37 But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of
Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died
within him, and he became as a stone.

38 And it came to pass about ten days after, that the LORD smote Nabal,
that he died.

39 And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the
LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal,
and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the
wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with
Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

40 And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they
spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to
wife.

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

42 And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five
damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers
of David, and became his wife.

43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them
his wives.

44 But Saul had given Michal his daughter, David's wife, to Phalti the
son of Laish, which was of Gallim.

1 Samuel Chapter 26

1 And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, Doth not David hide
himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?

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

3 And Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by
the way. But David abode in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came
after him into the wilderness.

4 David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul was come in
very deed.

5 And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched: and
David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the
captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched
round about him.

6 Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai
the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to
Saul to the camp? And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.

7 So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul
lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his
bolster: but Abner and the people lay round about him.

8 Then said Abishai to David, God hath delivered thine enemy into thine
hand this day: now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the
spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time.

9 And David said to Abishai, Destroy him not: for who can stretch forth
his hand against the LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless?