Friday in Season after Pentecost

55Verse 55. As Saul had watched David going out to confront the Philistine, he said to Abner the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this young man?” “As surely as you live, O king,” Abner replied, “I do not know.” 56Verse 56. “Find out whose son this young man is!” said the king. 57Verse 57. So when David returned from killing the Philistine, still holding his head in his hand, Abner took him and brought him before Saul. 58Verse 58. “Whose son are you, young man?” asked Saul. “I am the son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem,” David replied. 1Verse 1. After David had finished speaking with Saul, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and Jonathan loved him as himself. 2Verse 2. And from that day Saul kept David with him and did not let him return to his father’s house. 3Verse 3. Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. 4Verse 4. And Jonathan removed the robe he was wearing and gave it to David, along with his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt. 5Verse 5. So David marched out and prospered in everything Saul sent him to do, and Saul set him over the men of war. And this was pleasing in the sight of all the people, and of Saul’s officers as well.

21Verse 21. Men listened to me with expectation, waiting silently for my counsel. 22Verse 22. After my words, they spoke no more; my speech settled on them like dew. 23Verse 23. They waited for me as for rain and drank in my words like spring showers. 24Verse 24. If I smiled at them, they did not believe it; the light of my countenance was precious. 25Verse 25. I chose their course and presided as chief. So I dwelt as a king among his troops, as a comforter of the mourners.[’’] 1Verse 1. “But now they mock me, men younger than I am, whose fathers I would have refused to put with my sheep dogs. 2Verse 2. What use to me was the strength of their hands, since their vigor had left them? 3Verse 3. Gaunt from poverty and hunger, they gnawed the dry land, and the desolate wasteland by night. 4Verse 4. They plucked mallow among the shrubs, and the roots of the broom tree were their food. 5Verse 5. They were banished from among men, shouted at like thieves, 6Verse 6. so that they lived on the slopes of the wadis, among the rocks and in holes in the ground. 7Verse 7. They cried out among the shrubs and huddled beneath the nettles. 8Verse 8. A senseless and nameless brood, they were driven off the land. 9Verse 9. And now they mock me in song; I have become a byword among them. 10Verse 10. They abhor me and keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. 11Verse 11. Because God has unstrung my bow and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint in my presence. 12Verse 12. The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me. 13Verse 13. They tear up my path; they profit from my destruction, with no one to restrain them. 14Verse 14. They advance as through a wide breach; through the ruins they keep rolling in. 15Verse 15. Terrors are turned loose against me; they drive away my dignity as by the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.