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24 Then David went up from thence, and dwelt in strong holds of Engaddi.
2 And when Saul was returned from following the Philistines, they told him, saying: Behold, David is in the desert of Engaddi.
3 Saul therefore took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and went out to seek after David, and his men, even upon the most craggy rocks, which are accessible only to wild goats.
4 And he came to the sheepcotes, which were in his way. And there was a cave, into which Saul went, to ease nature: now David and his men lay hid in the inner part of the cave.
5 And the servants of David said to him: Behold the day, of which the Lord said to thee: I will deliver thy enemy unto thee, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good in thy eyes. Then David arose, and secretly cut off the hem of Saul's robe.
6 After which David's heart struck him, because he had cut off the hem of Saul's robe.
7 And he said to his men: The Lord be merciful unto me, that I may do no such thing to my master the Lord's anointed, as to lay my hand upon him, because he is the Lord's anointed.
8 And David stopped his men with his words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. But Saul rising up out of the cave, went on his way.
9 And David also rose up after him: and going out of the cave cried after Saul, saying: My lord the king. And Saul looked behind him: and David bowing himself down to the ground, worshipped,
10 And said to Saul: Why dost thou hear the words of men that say David seeketh thy hurt?
11 Behold this day thy eyes have seen, that the Lord hath delivered thee into my hand, in the cave, and I had a thought to kill thee, but my eye hath spared thee. For I said: I will not put out my hand against my lord, because he is the Lord's anointed.
12 Moreover see and know, O my father, the hem of thy robe in my hand, that when I cut, off the hem of thy robe, I would not put out my hand against thee. Reflect, and see, that there is no evil in my hand, nor iniquity, neither have I sinned against thee: but thou liest in wait for my life, to take it away.
13 The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord revenge me of thee: but my hand shall not be upon thee.
14 As also it is said in the old proverb: From the wicked shall wickedness come forth: therefore my hand shall not be upon thee. After whom dost thou come out, O king of Israel?
15 After whom dost thou pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea.
16 Be the Lord judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and judge my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand.
17 And when David had made an end of speaking these words to Saul, Saul said: Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice, and wept.
18 And he said to David: Thou art more just than I: for thou hast done good to me, and I have rewarded thee with evil.
19 And thou hast shewn this day what good things thou hast done to me: how the Lord delivered me into thy hand, and thou hast not killed me.
20 For who when he hath found his enemy, will let him go well away? But the Lord reward thee for this good turn, for what thou hast done to me this day.
21 And now as I know that thou shalt surely be king, and have the kingdom of Israel in thy hand:
22 Swear to me by the Lord, that thou wilt not destroy my seed after me, nor take away my name from the house of my father.
23 And David swore to Saul. So Saul went home: and David and his men went up into safer places.
25 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 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 a 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 man 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, 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 have 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 Gallium.
22 And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem: and it was winter.
23 And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon's porch.
24 The Jews therefore came round about him, and said to him: How long dost thou hold our souls in suspense? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.
25 Jesus answered them: I speak to you, and you believe not: the works that I do in the name of my Father, they give testimony of me.
26 But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep.
27 My sheep hear my voice: and I know them, and they follow me.
28 And I give them life everlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand.
29 That which my Father hath given me, is greater than all: and no one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father.
30 I and the Father are one.
31 The Jews then took up stones to stone him.
32 Jesus answered them: Many good works I have shewed you from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?
33 The Jews answered him: For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, maketh thyself God.
34 Jesus answered them: Is it not written in your law: I said you are gods?
35 If he called them gods, to whom the word of God was spoken, and the scripture cannot be broken;
36 Do you say of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world: Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.
38 But if I do, though you will not believe me, believe the works: that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.
39 They sought therefore to take him; and he escaped out of their hands.
40 And he went again beyond the Jordan, into that place where John was baptizing first; and there he abode.
41 And many resorted to him, and they said: John indeed did no sign.
42 But all things whatsoever John said of this man, were true. And many believed in him.
116 O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.
2 For his mercy is confirmed upon us: and the truth of the Lord remaineth for ever.
20 A wise son maketh a father joyful: but the foolish man despiseth his mother.
21 Folly is joy to the fool: and the wise man maketh straight his steps.
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