1 Samuel 20

• 1. David now fled from Naioth in Ramah and found Jonathan. "What have I done?" he exclaimed. "What is my crime? How have I offended your father that he is 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 the little things. I know he wouldn't hide something like this from me. It just isn't so!"
• 3. Then David took an oath before Jonathan and said, "Your father knows perfectly well about our friendship, so he has said to himself, `I won't tell Jonathan--why should I hurt him?' But I swear to you 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 exclaimed.
• 5. David replied, "Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. I've always eaten with your father on 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 I asked permission to go home to Bethlehem for an annual family sacrifice.
• 7. If he says, `Fine!' then you will know all is well. But if he is angry and loses his temper, then you will know he was planning to kill me.
• 8. Show me this kindness as my sworn friend--for we made a covenant together before the LORD--or kill me yourself if I have sinned against your father. But please don't betray me to him!"
• 9. "Never!" Jonathan exclaimed. "You know that if I had the slightest notion my father was planning to kill you, I would tell you at once."
• 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, the God of Israel, that by this time tomorrow, or the next day at the latest, I will talk to my father and let you know at once how he feels about you. If he speaks favorably about you, I will let you know.
• 13. But if he is angry and wants you killed, may the LORD kill me if I don't warn you so you can escape and live. May the LORD be with you as he used to be with my father.
• 14. And may you treat me with the faithful love of the LORD as long as I live. But if I die,
• 15. treat my family with this faithful love, even when the LORD destroys all your enemies."
• 16. So Jonathan made a covenant with David, saying, "May the LORD destroy all your enemies!"
• 17. And Jonathan made David reaffirm his vow of friendship again, for Jonathan loved David as much as he loved himself.
• 18. Then Jonathan said, "Tomorrow we celebrate the new moon festival. You will be missed when your place at the table is empty.
• 19. The day after tomorrow, toward evening, go to the place where you hid before, and wait there by the stone pile.
• 20. I will come out and shoot three arrows to the side of the stone pile as though I were shooting at a target.
• 21. Then I will send a boy to bring the arrows back. If you hear me tell him, `They're on this side,' then you will know, as surely as the LORD lives, that all is well, and 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, for the LORD is sending you away.
• 23. And may the LORD make us keep our promises to each other, for he has witnessed them."
• 24. So David hid himself in the field, and when the new moon festival began, the king sat down to eat.
• 25. He sat at his usual place against the wall, with Jonathan sitting opposite him and Abner beside him. But David's place was empty.
• 26. Saul didn't say anything about it that day, for he said to himself, "Something must have made David ceremonially unclean. Yes, that must be why he's not here."
• 27. But when David's place was empty again the next day, Saul asked Jonathan, "Why hasn't the son of Jesse been here for dinner either yesterday or today?"
• 28. Jonathan replied, "David earnestly asked me if he could go to Bethlehem.
• 29. He wanted to take part in a family sacrifice. His brother demanded that he be there, so I told him he could go. That's why he isn't here."
• 30. Saul boiled with rage at Jonathan. "You stupid son of a whore!" he swore at him. "Do you think I don't know that you want David to be king in your place, shaming yourself and your mother?
• 31. As long as that son of Jesse 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 was really determined to kill David.
• 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 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 the boy was gone, David came out from where he had been hiding near the stone pile. Then David bowed to Jonathan with his face to the ground. Both of them were in tears as they embraced each other and said good-bye, especially David.
• 42. At last Jonathan said to David, "Go in peace, for we have made a pact in the LORD's name. We have entrusted each other and each other's children into the LORD's hands forever." Then David left, and Jonathan returned to the city.

1 Corinthians 2

• 1. Dear brothers and sisters, when I first came to you I didn't use lofty words and brilliant ideas to tell you God's message.
• 2. For I decided to concentrate only on Jesus Christ and his death on the cross.
• 3. I came to you in weakness--timid and trembling.
• 4. And my message and my preaching were very plain. I did not use wise and persuasive speeches, but the Holy Spirit was powerful among you.
• 5. I did this so that you might trust the power of God rather than human wisdom.
• 6. Yet when I am among mature Christians, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world, and not the kind that appeals to the rulers of this world, who are being brought to nothing.
• 7. No, the wisdom we speak of is the secret wisdom of God, which was hidden in former times, though he made it for our benefit before the world began.
• 8. But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.
• 9. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."
• 10. But we know these things because God has revealed them to us by his Spirit, and his Spirit searches out everything and shows us even God's deep secrets.
• 11. No one can know what anyone else is really thinking except that person alone, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit.
• 12. And God has actually given us his Spirit (not the world's spirit) so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
• 13. When we tell you this, we do not use words of human wisdom. We speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths.
• 14. But people who aren't Christians can't understand these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them because only those who have the Spirit can understand what the Spirit means.
• 15. We who have the Spirit understand these things, but others can't understand us at all.
• 16. How could they? For, "Who can know what the Lord is thinking? Who can give him counsel?" But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

Lamentations 5

• 1. LORD, remember everything that has happened to us. See all the sorrows we bear!
• 2. Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our homes to foreigners.
• 3. We are orphaned and fatherless. Our mothers are widowed.
• 4. We have to pay for water to drink, and even firewood is expensive.
• 5. Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are exhausted but are given no rest.
• 6. We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough food to survive.
• 7. It was our ancestors who sinned, but they died before the hand of judgment fell. We have suffered the punishment they deserved!
• 8. Slaves have now become our masters; there is no one left to rescue us.
• 9. We must hunt for food in the wilderness at the risk of our lives.
• 10. Because of the famine, our skin has been blackened as though baked in an oven.
• 11. Our enemies rape the women and young girls in Jerusalem and throughout the towns of Judah.
• 12. Our princes are being hanged by their thumbs, and the old men are treated with contempt.
• 13. The young men are led away to work at millstones, and the children stagger under heavy loads of wood.
• 14. The old men no longer sit in the city gates; the young men no longer dance and sing.
• 15. The joy of our hearts has ended; our dancing has turned to mourning.
• 16. The garlands have fallen from our heads. Disaster has fallen upon us because we have sinned.
• 17. Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.
• 18. For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals.
• 19. But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation.
• 20. Why do you continue to forget us? Why have you forsaken us for so long?
• 21. Restore us, O LORD, and bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!
• 22. Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?

New Living Translation: 240 of 365 days.