Day 162 of 365

2 Sam 15:1–16:23

15:1 It happened after this, that Absalom prepared him a chariot and horses, and fifty men to run before him.

15:2 Absalom rose up early, and stood beside the way of the gate. It was so, that when any man had a suit which should come to the king for judgment, then Absalom called to him, and said, "What city are you from?" He said, "Your servant is of one of the tribes of Israel."

15:3 Absalom said to him, "Behold, your matters are good and right; but there is no man deputized by the king to hear you."

15:4 Absalom said moreover, "Oh that I were made judge in the land, that every man who has any suit or cause might come to me, and I would do him justice!"

15:5 It was so, that when any man came near to do him obeisance, he put forth his hand, and took hold of him, and kissed him.

15:6 Absalom did this sort of thing to all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

15:7 It happened at the end of forty years, that Absalom said to the king, "Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord, in Hebron.

15:8 For your servant vowed a vow while I stayed at Geshur in Syria, saying, 'If the Lord shall indeed bring me again to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord.'"

15:9 The king said to him, "Go in peace." So he arose, and went to Hebron.

15:10 But Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, "As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, 'Absalom is king in Hebron!'"

15:11 Two hundred men went with Absalom out of Jerusalem, who were invited, and went in their simplicity; and they did not know anything.

15:12 Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gilonite, David's counselor, from his city, even from Giloh, while he was offering the sacrifices. The conspiracy was strong; for the people increased continually with Absalom.

15:13 A messenger came to David, saying, "The hearts of the men of Israel are after Absalom."

15:14 David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, "Arise, and let us flee; for else none of us shall escape from Absalom. Make speed to depart, lest he overtake us quickly, and bring down evil on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword."

15:15 The king's servants said to the king, "Behold, your servants are ready to do whatever my lord the king chooses."

15:16 The king went forth, and all his household after him. The king left ten women, who were concubines, to keep the house.

15:17 The king went forth, and all the people after him; and they stayed in Beth Merhak.

15:18 All his servants passed on beside him; and all the Cherethites, and all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who came after him from Gath, passed on before the king.

15:19 Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why do you also go with us? Return, and stay with the king; for you are a foreigner, and also an exile. Return to your own place.

15:20 Whereas you came but yesterday, should I this day make you go up and down with us, since I go where I may? Return, and take back your brothers. Mercy and truth be with you."

15:21 Ittai answered the king, and said, "As the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, surely in what place my lord the king shall is, whether for death or for life, even there also will your servant be."

15:22 David said to Ittai, "Go and pass over." Ittai the Gittite passed over, and all his men, and all the little ones who were with him.

15:23 All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.

15:24 Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down the ark of God; and Abiathar went up, until all the people finished passing out of the city.

15:25 The king said to Zadok, "Carry back the ark of God into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation;

15:26 but if he say thus, 'I have no delight in you;' behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him."

15:27 The king said also to Zadok the priest, "Aren't you a seer? Return into the city in peace, and your two sons with you, Ahimaaz your son, and Jonathan the son of Abiathar.

15:28 Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness, until word comes from you to inform me."

15:29 Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried the ark of God again to Jerusalem; and they stayed there.

15:30 David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

15:31 Someone told David, saying, "Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom." David said, "Lord, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness."

15:32 It happened that when David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.

15:33 David said to him, "If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me;

15:34 but if you return to the city, and tell Absalom, 'I will be your servant, O king. As I have been your father's servant in time past, so will I now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.'

15:35 Do you not have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore it shall be, that whatever thing you shall hear out of the king's house, you shall tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests.

15:36 Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok's son, and Jonathan, Abiathar's son; and by them you shall send to me everything that you shall hear."

15:37 So Hushai, David's friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.

16:1 When David was a little past the top, behold, Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth met him, with a couple of donkeys saddled, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, and one hundred clusters of raisins, and one hundred summer fruits, and a bottle of wine.

16:2 The king said to Ziba, "What do you mean by these?" Ziba said, "The donkeys are for the king's household to ride on; and the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat; and the wine, that such as are faint in the wilderness may drink."

16:3 The king said, "Where is your master's son?" Ziba said to the king, "Behold, he is staying in Jerusalem; for he said, 'Today the house of Israel will restore me the kingdom of my father.'"

16:4 Then the king said to Ziba, "Behold, all that pertains to Mephibosheth is yours." Ziba said, "I do obeisance. Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king."

16:5 When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of the house of Saul came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out, and cursed still as he came.

16:6 He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

16:7 Shimei said when he cursed, "Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and base fellow!

16:8 The Lord has returned on you all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned! The Lord has delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom your son! Behold, you are caught by your own mischief, because you are a man of blood!"

16:9 Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, "Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Please let me go over and take off his head."

16:10 The king said, "What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because the Lord has said to him, 'Curse David;' who then shall say, 'Why have you done so?'"

16:11 David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, "Behold, my son, who came forth from my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has invited him.

16:12 It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done to me, and that the Lord will repay me good for the cursing of me today."

16:13 So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust.

16:14 The king, and all the people who were with him, came weary; and he refreshed himself there.

16:15 Absalom, and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him.

16:16 It happened, when Hushai the Archite, David's friend, had come to Absalom, that Hushai said to Absalom, "Long live the king! Long live the king!"

16:17 Absalom said to Hushai, "Is this your kindness to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend?"

16:18 Hushai said to Absalom, "No; but whomever the Lord, and this people, and all the men of Israel have chosen, his will I be, and with him I will stay.

16:19 Again, whom should I serve? Shouldn't I serve in the presence of his son? As I have served in your father's presence, so will I be in your presence."

16:20 Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, "Give your counsel what we shall do."

16:21 Ahithophel said to Absalom, "Go in to your father's concubines, that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong."

16:22 So they spread Absalom a tent on the top of the house; and Absalom went in to his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel.

16:23 The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the oracle of God: so was all the counsel of Ahithophel both with David and with Absalom.

John 19:12–30

12 At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, saying, "If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"

13 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called "The Pavement," but in Hebrew, "Gabbatha."

14 Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jewish leaders, "Behold, your King!"

15 They shouted, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"

16 So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus.

17 He went out, carrying the cross himself, to the place called "The Place of a Skull," which is called in Hebrew, "Golgotha,"

18 where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle.

19 Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS."

20 Therefore many Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.

21 The chief priests of the Jewish people therefore said to Pilate, "Do not write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'he said, I am King of the Jews.'"

22 Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

23 Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

24 Then they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, "They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots." Therefore the soldiers did these things.

25 But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene.

26 Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!"

27 Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.

28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty."

29 Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth.

30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.

Eccl 6:1–5

1 There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is heavy on men:

2 a man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God gives him no power to eat of it, but a foreigner eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

3 If a man fathers a hundred children, and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not filled with good, and moreover he has no burial; I say, that a stillborn child is better than he:

4 for it comes in vanity, and departs in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.

5 Moreover it has not seen the sun nor known it. This has rest rather than the other.