The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NIV. Switch to the NIV to read along with the audio.
24 When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the Wilderness of En-gedi.
2 Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men among the Rocks of the Wild Goats.
3 He came to the sheepfolds on the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the cave’s innermost recesses.
4 David’s men said to him, Behold the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will deliver your enemy into your hands and you shall do to him as seems good to you. Then David arose [in the darkness] and stealthily cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe.
5 Afterward, David’s heart smote him because he had cut off Saul’s skirt.
6 He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this to my master, the Lord’s anointed, to put my hand out against him, when he is the anointed of the Lord.
7 So David checked his men with these words and did not let them rise against Saul. But Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.
8 David also arose afterward and went out of the cave and called after Saul, saying, My lord the king! And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and did obeisance.
9 And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, David seeks to do you harm?
10 Behold, your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hands in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s anointed.
11 See, my father, see the skirt of your robe in my hand! Since I cut off the skirt of your robe and did not kill you, you know and see that there is no evil or treason in my hands. I have not sinned against you, yet you hunt my life to take it.
12 May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord avenge me upon you, but my hand shall not be upon you.
13 As the proverb of the ancients says, Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness; but my hand shall not be against you.
14 After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea?
15 May the Lord be judge and judge between me and you, and see and plead my cause, and deliver me out of your hands.(A)
16 When David had said this to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17 He said to David, You are more upright in God’s eyes than I, for you have repaid me good, but I have rewarded you evil.
18 You have declared today how you have dealt well with me; for when the Lord gave me into your hand, you did not kill me.
19 For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away unharmed? Therefore may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done for me this day.
20 And now, behold, I well know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hands.
21 Swear now therefore to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father’s house.
22 David gave Saul his oath; and Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
25 Now Samuel died, and all the Israelites assembled and mourned for him, and buried him at his house in Ramah. David arose and went to the Wilderness of Paran.
2 A very rich man was in Maon, whose possessions and business were in Carmel. He had 3,000 sheep and 1,000 goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.
3 The man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail; she was a woman of good understanding, and beautiful. But the man was rough and evil in his doings; he was a Calebite.
4 David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep.
5 And David sent out ten young men and said to [them], Go up to Carmel to Nabal and greet him in my name;
6 And salute him thus: Peace be to you and to your house and to all that you have.
7 I have heard that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel.
8 Ask your young men and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your sight, for we come at an opportune time. I pray you, give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.
9 And when David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then paused.
10 And Nabal answered David’s servants and said, Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants nowadays who are each breaking away from his master.
11 Shall I then take my bread and my water, and my meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they belong?
12 So David’s young men turned away, and came and told him all that was said.
13 And David said to his men, Every man gird on his sword. And they did so, and David also girded on his sword; and there went up after David about 400 men, and 200 remained with the baggage.
14 But one of Nabal’s young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed at them.
15 But David’s men were very good to us, and we were not harmed, nor did we miss anything as long as we went with them, when we were in the fields.
16 They were a wall to us night and day, all the time we were with them keeping the sheep.
17 So know this and consider what you will do, for evil is determined against our master and all his house. For he is such a wicked man that one cannot speak to him.
18 Then Abigail made haste and took 200 loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep already dressed, five measures of parched grain, 100 clusters of raisins, and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys.
19 And she said to her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she rode on her donkey, she came down hidden by the mountain, and behold, David and his men came down opposite her, and she met them.
21 Now David had said, Surely in vain have I protected all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has repaid me evil for good.
22 May God do so, and more also, to David [a]if I leave of all who belong to him one male alive by morning.
23 When Abigail saw David, she hastened and lighted off the donkey, and fell before David on her face and did obeisance.
24 Kneeling at his feet she said, Upon me alone let this guilt be, my lord. And let your handmaid, I pray you, speak in your presence, and hear the words of your handmaid.
25 Let not my lord, I pray you, regard this foolish and wicked fellow Nabal, for as his name is, so is he—Nabal [foolish, wicked] is his name, and folly is with him. But I, your handmaid, did not see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
26 So now, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, seeing that the Lord has prevented you from bloodguiltiness and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal.
27 And now this gift, which your handmaid has brought my lord, let it be given to the young men who follow my lord.
28 Forgive, I pray you, the trespass of your handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the Lord’s battles, and evil has not been found in you all your days.
29 Though man is risen up to pursue you and to seek your life, yet the life of my lord shall be bound in the living bundle with the Lord your God. And the lives of your enemies—them shall He sling out as out of the center of a sling.
30 And when the Lord has done to my lord according to all the good that He has promised concerning you and has made you ruler over Israel,
31 This shall be no staggering grief to you or cause for pangs of conscience to my lord, either that you have shed blood without cause or that my lord has avenged himself. And when the Lord has dealt well with my lord, then [[b]earnestly] remember your handmaid.
32 And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, Who sent you this day to meet me.
33 And blessed be your discretion and advice, and blessed be you who have kept me today from bloodguiltiness and from avenging myself with my own hand.
34 For as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, Who has prevented me from hurting you, if you had not hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning there would not have been left so much as one male to Nabal.
35 So David accepted what she had brought him and said to her, Go up in peace to your house. See, I have hearkened to your voice and have granted your petition.
36 And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house like the feast of a king. And [his] heart was merry, for he was very drunk; so she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
37 But in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife told him these things, his heart died within him and he became [paralyzed, helpless as] a stone.
38 And about ten days after that, the Lord smote Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the Lord, Who has pleaded the cause of my reproach at the hand of Nabal, and kept His servant from evil. For the Lord has returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him as his wife.
40 And when the servants of David had come to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, David sent us to you to take you to him to be his wife.
41 And she arose and bowed herself to the earth and said, Behold, let your handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.
42 And Abigail hastened and arose and rode on a donkey, with five of her maids who followed her, and she went after the messengers of David and became his wife.
43 David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both became his wives.
44 Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Phalti son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
22 After this the Feast of Dedication [of the reconsecration of the temple] was taking place at Jerusalem. It was winter,
23 And Jesus was walking in Solomon’s Porch in the temple area.
24 So the Jews surrounded Him and began asking Him, How long are You going to keep us in doubt and suspense? If You are really the Christ (the Messiah), tell us so plainly and openly.
25 Jesus answered them, I have told you so, yet you do not believe Me [you do not trust Me and rely on Me]. The very works that I do by the power of My Father and in My Father’s name bear witness concerning Me [they are My credentials and evidence in support of Me].
26 But you do not believe and trust and rely on Me because you do not belong to My fold [you are no sheep of Mine].
27 The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.
28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.
29 My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [else]; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are One.
31 Again the Jews [a]brought up stones to stone Him.
32 Jesus said to them, My Father has enabled Me to do many good deeds. [I have shown many acts of mercy in your presence.] For which of these do you mean to stone Me?
33 The Jews replied, We are not going to stone You for a good act, but for blasphemy, because You, a mere [b]Man, make Yourself [out to be] God.
34 Jesus answered, Is it not written in your Law, I said, You are gods?(A)
35 So men are called gods [by the Law], men to whom God’s message came—and the Scripture cannot be set aside or cancelled or broken or annulled—
36 [If that is true] do you say of the One Whom the Father consecrated and dedicated and set apart for Himself and sent into the world, You are blaspheming, because I said, I am the Son of God?
37 If I am not doing the works [performing the deeds] of My Father, then do not believe Me [do not adhere to Me and trust Me and rely on Me].
38 But if I do them, even though you do not believe Me or have faith in Me, [at least] believe the works and have faith in what I do, in order that you may know and understand [clearly] that the Father is in Me, and I am in the Father [One with Him].
39 They sought again to arrest Him, but He escaped from their hands.
40 He went back again across the Jordan to the locality where John was when he first baptized, and there He remained.
41 And many came to Him, and they kept saying, John did not perform a [single] sign or miracle, but everything John said about this Man was true.
42 And many [people] there became believers in Him. [They adhered to and trusted in and relied on Him.]
Psalm 116
1 I love the Lord, because He has heard [and now hears] my voice and my supplications.
2 Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.
3 The cords and sorrows of death were around me, and the terrors of Sheol (the place of the dead) had laid hold of me; I suffered anguish and grief (trouble and sorrow).
4 Then called I upon the name of the Lord: O Lord, I beseech You, save my life and deliver me!
5 Gracious is the Lord, and [rigidly] righteous; yes, our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He helped and saved me.
7 Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.(A)
8 For You have delivered my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling and falling.
9 I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
10 I believed (trusted in, relied on, and clung to my God), and therefore have I spoken [even when I said], I am greatly afflicted.(B)
11 I said in my haste, All men are deceitful and liars.
12 What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? [How can I repay Him for all His bountiful dealings?]
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation and deliverance and call on the name of the Lord.
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people.
15 Precious (important and no light matter) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints (His loving ones).
16 O Lord, truly I am Your servant; I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid; You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all His people,
19 In the courts of the Lord’s house—in the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
20 A wise son makes a glad father, but a self-confident and foolish man despises his mother and puts her to shame.
21 Folly is pleasure to him who is without heart and sense, but a man of understanding walks uprightly [making straight his course].(A)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation