The One Year Bible TLB (110 page)
Read The One Year Bible TLB Online
Authors: Tyndale
A mocker stays away from wise men because he hates to be scolded.
13
A happy face means a glad heart; a sad face means a breaking heart.
14
A wise man is hungry for truth, while the mocker feeds on trash.
May 17David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan.
“What have I done?” he exclaimed. “Why is your father so determined to kill me?”
2
“That’s not true!” Jonathan protested. “I’m sure he’s not planning any such thing, for he always tells me everything he’s going to do, even little things, and I know he wouldn’t hide something like this from me. It just isn’t so.”
3
“Of course you don’t know about it!” David fumed. “Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, ‘I’ll not tell Jonathan—why should I hurt him?’ But the truth is that I am only a step away from death! I swear it by the Lord and by your own soul!”
4
“Tell me what I can do,” Jonathan begged.
5
And David replied, “Tomorrow is the beginning of the celebration of the new moon. Always before, I’ve been with your father for this occasion, but tomorrow I’ll hide in the field and stay there until the evening of the third day.
6
If your father asks where I am, tell him that I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family reunion.
7
If he says, ‘Fine!’ then I’ll know that all is well. But if he is angry, then I’ll know that he is planning to kill me.
8
Do this for me as my sworn brother. Or else kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father, but don’t betray me to him!”
9
“Of course not!” Jonathan exclaimed. “Look, wouldn’t I say so if I knew that my father was planning to kill you?”
10
Then David asked, “How will I know whether or not your father is angry?”
11
“Come out to the field with me,” Jonathan replied. And they went out there together.
12
Then Jonathan told David, “I promise by the Lord God of Israel that about this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father about you and let you know at once how he feels about you.
13
If he is angry and wants you killed, then may the Lord kill me if I don’t tell you, so you can escape and live. May the Lord be with you as he used to be with my father.
14
And remember, you must demonstrate the love and kindness of the Lord not only to me during my own lifetime,
15
but also to my children after the Lord has destroyed all of your enemies.”
16
So Jonathan made a covenant with the family of David, and David swore to it with a terrible curse against himself and his descendants, should he be unfaithful to his promise.
17
But Jonathan made David swear to it again, this time by his love for him, for he loved him as much as he loved himself.
18
Then Jonathan said, “Yes, they will miss you tomorrow when your place at the table is empty.
19
By the day after tomorrow, everyone will be asking about you, so be at the hideout where you were before, over by the stone pile.
20
I will come out and shoot three arrows in front of the pile as though I were shooting at a target.
21
Then I’ll send a lad to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, ‘They’re on this side,’ then you will know that all is well and that there is no trouble.
22
But if I tell him, ‘Go farther—the arrows are still ahead of you,’ then it will mean that you must leave immediately.
23
And may the Lord make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them.”
*
24-25
So David hid himself in the field.
When the new moon celebration began, the king sat down to eat at his usual place against the wall. Jonathan sat opposite him and Abner was sitting beside Saul, but David’s place was empty.
26
Saul didn’t say anything about it that day, for he supposed that something had happened so that David was ceremonially impure. Yes, surely that must be it!
27
But when his place was still empty the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, “Why hasn’t David been here for dinner either yesterday or today?”
28-29
“He asked me if he could go to Bethlehem to take part in a family celebration,” Jonathan replied. “His brother demanded that he be there, so I told him to go ahead.”
30
Saul boiled with rage. “You fool!”
*
he yelled at him. “Do you think I don’t know that you want this son of a nobody to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother?
31
As long as that fellow is alive, you’ll never be king. Now go and get him so I can kill him!”
32
“But what has he done?” Jonathan demanded. “Why should he be put to death?”
33
Then Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, intending to kill him; so at last Jonathan realized that his father really meant it when he said David must die.
34
Jonathan left the table in fierce anger and refused to eat all that day, for he was crushed by his father’s shameful behavior toward David.
35
The next morning, as agreed, Jonathan went out into the field and took a young boy with him to gather his arrows.
36
“Start running,” he told the boy, “so that you can find the arrows as I shoot them.” So the boy ran and Jonathan shot an arrow beyond him.
37
When the boy had almost reached the arrow, Jonathan shouted, “The arrow is still ahead of you.
38
Hurry, hurry, don’t wait.” So the boy quickly gathered up the arrows and ran back to his master.
39
He, of course, didn’t understand what Jonathan meant; only Jonathan and David knew.
40
Then Jonathan gave his bow and arrows to the boy and told him to take them back to the city.
41
As soon as he was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the south edge of the field. Both of them were crying as they said good-bye, especially David.
*
42
At last Jonathan said to David, “Cheer up, for we have entrusted each other and each other’s children into God’s hands forever.” So they parted, David going away and Jonathan returning to the city.
21:
1
David went to the city of Nob to see Ahimelech, the priest. Ahimelech trembled when he saw him.
“Why are you alone?” he asked. “Why is no one with you?”
2
“The king has sent me on a private matter,” David lied. “He told me not to tell anybody why I am here. I have told my men where to meet me later.
3
Now, what is there to eat? Give me five loaves of bread or anything else you can.”
4
“We don’t have any regular bread,” the priest replied, “but there is the holy bread, which I guess you can have if only your young men have not slept with any women for a while.”
5
“Rest assured,” David replied. “I never let my men run wild when they are on an expedition, and since they stay clean even on ordinary trips, how much more so on this one!”
6
So, since there was no other food available, the priest gave him the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle. It had just been replaced that day with fresh bread.
7
(Incidentally, Doeg the Edomite, Saul’s chief herdsman, was there at that time for ceremonial purification.
*
)
8
David asked Ahimelech if he had a spear or sword he could use. “The king’s business required such haste, and I left in such a rush that I came away without a weapon!” David explained.
9
“Well,” the priest replied, “I have the sword of Goliath, the Philistine—the fellow you killed in the valley of Elah. It is wrapped in a cloth in the clothes closet.
*
Take that if you want it, for there is nothing else here.”
“Just the thing!” David replied. “Give it to me!”
10
Then David hurried on, for he was fearful of Saul, and went to King Achish of Gath.
11
But Achish’s officers weren’t happy about his being there. “Isn’t he the top leader of Israel?” they asked.
“Isn’t he the one the people honor at their dances, singing, ‘Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands’?”
12
David heard these comments and was afraid of what King Achish might do to him,
13
so he pretended to be insane! He scratched on doors and let his spittle flow down his beard,
14-15
until finally King Achish said to his men, “Must you bring me a madman? We already have enough of them around here! Should such a fellow as this be my guest?”
As he [Jesus] was walking along, he saw a man blind from birth.
2
“Master,” his disciples asked him, “why was this man born blind? Was it a result of his own sins or those of his parents?”
3
“Neither,”
Jesus answered.
“But to demonstrate the power of God.
4
All of us must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent me, for there is little time left before the night falls and all work comes to an end.
5
But while I am still here in the world, I give it my light.”
6
Then he spat on the ground and made mud from the spittle and smoothed the mud over the blind man’s eyes,
7
and told him,
“Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam”
(the word
Siloam
means “Sent”). So the man went where he was sent and washed and came back seeing!
8
His neighbors and others who knew him as a blind beggar asked each other, “Is this the same fellow—that beggar?”
9
Some said yes, and some said no. “It can’t be the same man,” they thought, “but he surely looks like him!”
And the beggar said, “I
am
the same man!”
10
Then they asked him how in the world he could see. What had happened?
11
And he told them, “A man they call Jesus made mud and smoothed it over my eyes and told me to go to the Pool of Siloam and wash off the mud. I did, and I can see!”
12
“Where is he now?” they asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
13
Then they took the man to the Pharisees.
14
Now as it happened, this all occurred on a Sabbath.
*
15
Then the Pharisees asked him all about it. So he told them how Jesus had smoothed the mud over his eyes, and when it was washed away, he could see!
16
Some of them said, “Then this fellow Jesus is not from God because he is working on the Sabbath.”
Others said, “But how could an ordinary sinner do such miracles?” So there was a deep division of opinion among them.
17
Then the Pharisees turned on the man who had been blind and demanded, “This man who opened your eyes—who do you say he is?”
“I think he must be a prophet sent from God,” the man replied.
18
The Jewish leaders wouldn’t believe he had been blind, until they called in his parents
19
and asked them, “Is this your son? Was he born blind? If so, how can he see?”
20
His parents replied, “We know this is our son and that he was born blind,
21
but we don’t know what happened to make him see, or who did it. He is old enough to speak for himself. Ask him.”
22-23
They said this in fear of the Jewish leaders who had announced that anyone saying Jesus was the Messiah would be excommunicated.
24
So for the second time they called in the man who had been blind and told him, “Give the glory to God, not to Jesus, for we know Jesus is an evil person.”
25
“I don’t know whether he is good or bad,” the man replied, “but I know this:
I was blind, and now I see!”
26
“But what did he do?” they asked. “How did he heal you?”
27
“Look!” the man exclaimed. “I told you once; didn’t you listen? Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”
28
Then they cursed him and said, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.
29
We know God has spoken to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t know anything about him.”
30
“Why, that’s very strange!” the man replied. “He can heal blind men, and yet you don’t know anything about him!
31
Well, God doesn’t listen to evil men, but he has open ears to those who worship him and do his will.
32
Since the world began there has never been anyone who could open the eyes of someone born blind.
33
If this man were not from God, he couldn’t do it.”
34
“You illegitimate bastard,
*
you!” they shouted. “Are you trying to teach
us?”
And they threw him out.
35
When Jesus heard what had happened, he found the man and said,
“Do you believe in the Messiah?”
*
36
The man answered, “Who is he, sir, for I want to.”
37
“You have seen him,”
Jesus said,
“and he is speaking to you!”
38
“Yes, Lord,” the man said, “I believe!” And he worshiped Jesus.
39
Then Jesus told him,
“I have come into the world to give sight to those who are spiritually blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”
40
The Pharisees who were standing there asked, “Are you saying we are blind?”
41
“If you were blind, you wouldn’t be guilty,”
Jesus replied.
“But your guilt remains because you claim to know what you are doing.”