Listen to today's reading by Tom Dooley © MasterMedia Ministries/Tyndale.
This content from World English Bible (public domain)
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. Behold, Zadok also came, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God; and they set down God’s ark; and Abiathar went up until all the people finished passing out of the city. The king said to Zadok, “Carry God’s ark back into the city. If I find favor in Yahweh’s eyes, he will bring me again, and show me both it and his habitation; but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you ,’ behold, here I am. Let him do to me as seems good to him.” 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. Behold, I will stay at the fords of the wilderness until word comes from you to inform me.” Zadok therefore and Abiathar carried God’s ark to Jerusalem again; and they stayed there. 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. All the people who were with him each covered his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
Someone told David, saying, “Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom.”
David said, “Yahweh, please turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness.”
When David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his tunic torn and earth on his head. David said to him, “If you pass on with me, then you will be a burden to me; 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 I will now be your servant; then will you defeat for me the counsel of Ahithophel.’ Don’t you have Zadok and Abiathar the priests there with you? Therefore whatever you hear out of the king’s house, tell it to Zadok and Abiathar the priests. Behold, they have there with them their two sons, Ahimaaz, Zadok’s son, and Jonathan, Abiathar’s son. Send to me everything that you shall hear by them.”
So Hushai, David’s friend, came into the city; and Absalom came into Jerusalem.
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 container of wine. 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 those who are faint in the wilderness may drink.”
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.’”
Then the king said to Ziba, “Behold, all that belongs to Mephibosheth is yours.”
Ziba said, “I bow down. Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, O king.”
When King David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of Saul’s house came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out and cursed as he came. 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. Shimei said when he cursed, “Be gone, be gone, you man of blood, and wicked fellow! Yahweh has returned on you all the blood of Saul’s house, in whose place you have reigned! Yahweh 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!”
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.” The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David ,’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”
David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him. It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.” 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. The king and all the people who were with him arrived weary; and he refreshed himself there.
Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem, and Ahithophel with him. When Hushai the Archite, David’s friend, had come to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, “Long live the king! Long live the king!”
Absalom said to Hushai, “Is this your kindness to your friend? Why didn’t you go with your friend?”
Hushai said to Absalom, “No; but whomever Yahweh and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, I will be his, and I will stay with him. 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 I will be in your presence.”
Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, “Give your counsel what we shall do.”
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.”
So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.
The counsel of Ahithophel, which he gave in those days, was as if a man inquired at the inner sanctuary of God. All the counsel of Ahithophel was like this both with David and with Absalom. (WEB)
This content from OpenEnglishBible (public domain)
Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing there, warming himself; so they said to him, “Aren’t you also one of his disciples?” Peter denied it. “No, I am not,” he said. One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, exclaimed, “Didn’t I myself see you with him in the garden?” Peter again denied it; and at that moment a cock crowed.
From Caiaphas they took Jesus to the Government house. It was early in the morning. But they did not enter the Government house themselves, otherwise they might become defiled, and so be unable to eat the Passover. Therefore Pilate came outside to speak to them. “What charge do you bring against this man?” he asked. “If he had not been a criminal, we should not have given him up to you,” they answered. “Take him yourselves,” said Pilate, “and try him by your own Law.”
“We have no power to put anyone to death,” the authorities replied – in fulfillment of what Jesus had said when indicating the death that he was destined to die. After that, Pilate went into the Government house again, and calling Jesus up, asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
“Do you ask me that yourself?” replied Jesus, “or did others say it to you about me?”
“Do you take me for a Jew?” was Pilate’s answer. “It is your own nation and the chief priests who have given you up to me. What have you done?”
“My kingly power,” replied Jesus, “is not due to this world. If it had been so, my servants would be doing their utmost to prevent my being given up to the authorities; but my kingly power is not from the world.”
“So you are a king after all!” exclaimed Pilate. “Yes, it is true I am a king,” answered Jesus. “I was born for this, I have come into the world for this – to bear testimony to the truth. Everyone who is on the side of truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth?” exclaimed Pilate. After saying this, he went out to the crowd again, and said, “For my part, I find nothing with which he can be charged. It is, however, the custom for me to grant you the release of one man at the Passover Festival. Do you wish for the release of the king of the Jews?”
“No, not this man,” they shouted again, “but Barabbas!” This Barabbas was a robber.
After that, Pilate had Jesus scourged. The soldiers made a crown with some thorns and put it on his head and threw a purple robe around him. They kept coming up to him and saying, “Long live the king of the Jews!” and they gave him blow after blow with their hands. Pilate again came outside, and said to the people, “Look! I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find nothing with which he can be charged.” Then Jesus came outside, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe; and Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!” When the chief priests and the guards saw him, they shouted, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” said Pilate. “For my part, I find nothing with which he can be charged.”
“But we,” replied the crowd, “have a Law, under which he deserves death for making himself out to be the Son of God.” When Pilate heard what they said, he became still more alarmed; and, going into the Government house again, he said to Jesus, “Where do you come from?” But Jesus made no reply. So Pilate said to him, “Do you refuse to speak to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?”
“You would have no power over me at all,” answered Jesus, “if it had not been given you from above; and, therefore, the man who betrayed me to you is guilty of the greater sin.” This made Pilate anxious to release him; but the crowd shouted, “If you release that man, you are no friend of the Emperor! Anyone who makes himself out to be a king is setting himself against the Emperor!” On hearing what they said, Pilate brought Jesus out, and took his seat on the Bench at a place called ‘The Stone Pavement’ – in Hebrew ‘Gabbatha.’ It was the Passover Preparation day, and about noon. Then he said to the crowd, “Here is your king!” At that the people shouted, “Kill him! Kill him! Crucify him!”
“What! Should I crucify your king?” exclaimed Pilate. “We have no king but the Emperor,” replied the chief priests; so Pilate gave Jesus up to them to be crucified.
So they took Jesus; and he went out, carrying his cross himself, to the place which is named from a skull, or, in Hebrew, Golgotha. There they crucified him, and two others with him – one on each side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also had these words written and put up over the cross – ‘JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.’ These words were read by many people, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and they were written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The chief priests said to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The king of the Jews’, but write what the man said – ‘I am the king of the Jews.’” But Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
(OEB)
This content from OpenEnglishBible (public domain)
I hate people of divided heart,
but your law do I love.
You are my shelter and shield:
in your word do I hope.
Begone, you wicked people,
I will keep the commands of my God.
Uphold me and spare me, as you have promised:
O disappoint me not.
Hold me up, and I shall be saved:
and your statutes shall be my unceasing delight.
All who swerve from your statutes you spurn:
their cunning is in vain.
All the wicked of earth you count as dross,
therefore I love your charges.
My flesh, for fear of you, shudders,
and I stand in awe of your judgments.
Justice and right have I practised,
do not leave me to my oppressors.
Be your servant’s surety for good,
let not the proud oppress me.
My eyes pine for your salvation,
and for your righteous promise.
Deal in your love with your servant,
and teach me your statutes.
Your servant am I; instruct me,
that I may know your charges.
It is time for the Lᴏʀᴅ to act:
they have violated your law.
Therefore I love your commandments
above gold, above fine gold.
So by all your precepts I guide me,
and every false way I hate.
(OEB)
Psalm 119:33-40: Teach Me, O Lord
This content pulled from bible.org.
The divine verdict is in the words of the king;his pronouncements must not act treacherously against justice. Honest scales and balances are from the Lord;all the weights in the bag are his handiwork.
(NET)