1 Samuel 18.0:

1 Samuel 18.1: 18When he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

1 Samuel 18.2: 2 Saul took him that day, and wouldn’t let him go home to his father’s house any more.

1 Samuel 18.3: 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.

1 Samuel 18.4: 4 Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him, and gave it to David, and his clothing, even including his sword, his bow, and his sash.

1 Samuel 18.5: 5 David went out wherever Saul sent him, and behaved himself wisely; and Saul set him over the men of war. It was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

1 Samuel 18.6: 6 As they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with instruments of music.

1 Samuel 18.7: 7 The women sang to one another as they played, and said,

“Saul has slain his thousands,

and David his ten thousands.”

1 Samuel 18.8: 8 Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have creditd David with ten thousands, and they have only credited me with thousands. What can he have more but the kingdom?”

1 Samuel 18.9: 9 Saul watched David from that day and forward.

1 Samuel 18.10: 10 On the next day, an evil spirit from God came mightily on Saul, and he prophesied in the middle of the house. David played with his hand, as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand;

1 Samuel 18.11: 11 and Saul threw the spear, for he said, “I will pin David to the wall!” David escaped from his presence twice.

1 Samuel 18.12: 12 Saul was afraid of David, because Yahweh was with him, and had departed from Saul.

1 Samuel 18.13: 13 Therefore Saul removed him from his presence, and made him his captain over a thousand; and he went out and came in before the people.

1 Samuel 18.14: 14 David behaved himself wisely in all his ways; and Yahweh was with him.

1 Samuel 18.15: 15 When Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he stood in awe of him.

1 Samuel 18.16: 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David; for he went out and came in before them.

1 Samuel 18.17: 17 Saul said to David, “Behold, my elder daughter Merab, I will give her to you as wife. Only be valiant for me, and fight Yahweh’s battles.” For Saul said, “Don’t let my hand be on him, but let the hand of the Philistines be on him.”

1 Samuel 18.18: 18 David said to Saul, “Who am I, and what is my life, or my father’s family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?”

1 Samuel 18.19: 19 But at the time when Merab, Saul’s daughter, should have been given to David, she was given to Adriel the Meholathite as wife.

1 Samuel 18.20: 20 Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved David; and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.

1 Samuel 18.21: 21 Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul said to David, “You shall today be my son-in-law a second time.”

1 Samuel 18.22: 22 Saul commanded his servants, “Talk with David secretly, and say, ‘Behold, the king has delight in you, and all his servants love you. Now therefore be the king’s son-in-law.’”

1 Samuel 18.23: 23 Saul’s servants spoke those words in the ears of David. David said, “Does it seem to you a light thing to be the king’s son-in-law, since I am a poor man, and little known?”

1 Samuel 18.24: 24 The servants of Saul told him, saying, “David spoke like this.”

1 Samuel 18.25: 25 Saul said, “Tell David, ‘The king desires no dowry except one hundred foreskins of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king’s enemies.’” Now Saul thought he would make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.

1 Samuel 18.26: 26 When his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king’s son-in-law. Before the deadline,

1 Samuel 18.27: 27 David arose and went, he and his men, and killed two hundred men of the Philistines. Then David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king’s son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife.

1 Samuel 18.28: 28 Saul saw and knew that Yahweh was with David; and Michal, Saul’s daughter, loved him.

1 Samuel 18.29: 29 Saul was even more afraid of David; and Saul was David’s enemy continually.

1 Samuel 18.30: 30 Then the princes of the Philistines went out; and as often as they went out, David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was highly esteemed.

Psalms 41.0:

For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

Psalms 41.1: 41Blessed is he who considers the poor.

Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

Psalms 41.2: 2 Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.

He shall be blessed on the earth,

and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

Psalms 41.3: 3 Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,

and restore him from his bed of illness.

Psalms 41.4: 4 I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

Psalms 41.5: 5 My enemies speak evil against me:

“When will he die, and his name perish?”

Psalms 41.6: 6 If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.

His heart gathers iniquity to itself.

When he goes abroad, he tells it.

Psalms 41.7: 7 All who hate me whisper together against me.

They imagine the worst for me.

Psalms 41.8: 8 “An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him.

Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

Psalms 41.9: 9 Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,

who ate bread with me,

has lifted up his heel against me.

Psalms 41.10: 10 But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up,

that I may repay them.

Psalms 41.11: 11 By this I know that you delight in me,

because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.

Psalms 41.12: 12 As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,

and set me in your presence forever.

Psalms 41.13: 13 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,

from everlasting and to everlasting!

Amen and amen.

2 Maccabees 10.0:

2 Maccabees 10.1: 10And Maccabaeus and those who were with him, the Lord leading them on, recovered the temple and the city;

2 Maccabees 10.2: 2 and they pulled down the altars that had been built in the marketplace by the aliens, and also the walls of sacred inclosures.

2 Maccabees 10.3: 3 And having cleansed the sanctuary they made another altar of sacrifice; and 1 striking stones and taking fire out of them, they offered sacrifices, after they had ceased for two years, and burned incense, and lighted lamps, and set forth the show bread.

2 Maccabees 10.4: 4 And when they had done these things, they fell prostrate and implored the Lord that they might fall no more into such evils; but that, if ever they should sin, they might be chastened by him with forbearance, and not be delivered to blaspheming and barbarous heathen.

2 Maccabees 10.5: 5 Now on the same day that the sanctuary was profaned by aliens, upon that very day did it come to pass that the cleansing of the sanctuary was made, even on the five and twentieth day of the same month, which is Chislev.

2 Maccabees 10.6: 6 And they kept eight days with gladness in the manner of the feast of tabernacles, remembering how that 2 not long before, during the feast of tabernacles, they were wandering in the mountains and in the caves after the manner of wild beasts.

2 Maccabees 10.7: 7 Wherefore bearing wands wreathed with leaves, and fair boughs, and palms also, they offered up hymns of thanksgiving to him that had prosperously brought to pass the cleansing of his own place.

2 Maccabees 10.8: 8 They ordained also with a common statute and decree, for all the nation of the Jews, that they should keep these days every year.

2 Maccabees 10.9: 9 And 3 such was the end of Antiochus, who was called Epiphanes.

2 Maccabees 10.10: 10 But now will we declare what came to pass under Antiochus named 4 Eupator, who proved himself a true son of that ungodly man, and will gather up briefly the 5 successive evils of the wars.

2 Maccabees 10.11: 11 For this man, when he succeeded to the kingdom, appointed one Lysias to be chancellor, and supreme governor of Coelesyria and Phoenicia.

2 Maccabees 10.12: 12 For Ptolemy that was called Macron, setting an example of observing justice toward the Jews because of the wrong that had been done to them, endeavored to 6 conduct his dealings with them on peaceful terms.

2 Maccabees 10.13: 13 Whereupon being accused by the king’s 7 Friends before Eupator, and hearing himself called traitor at every turn, because he had abandoned Cyprus which Philometor had entrusted to him, and had withdrawn himself to Antiochus called Epiphanes, and 8 failing to uphold the honor of his office, he took poison and made away with himself.

2 Maccabees 10.14: 14 But Gorgias, when he was made governor of the district, maintained a force of mercenaries, and at every turn kept up war with the Jews.

2 Maccabees 10.15: 15 And together with him the Idumaeans also, being masters of important strongholds, harassed the Jews; and receiving to them those that had taken refuge there from Jerusalem, they assayed to keep up war.

2 Maccabees 10.16: 16 But Maccabaeus and his men, having made solemn supplication and implored God to fight on their side, rushed upon the strongholds of the Idumaeans;

2 Maccabees 10.17: 17 and assaulting them vigorously they made themselves masters of the positions, and kept off all that fought upon the wall, and killed those that fell in their way, and killed no fewer than twenty thousand.

2 Maccabees 10.18: 18 And because no less than nine thousand were fled into two towers exceedingly strong and having all things needed for a seige,

2 Maccabees 10.19: 19 Maccabaeus, having left Simon and Joseph, and Zacchaeus besides and those who were with him, a force sufficient to besiege them, departed himself to places where he was most needed.

2 Maccabees 10.20: 20 But Simon and those who were with him, yielding to covetousness, were bribed by certain of those that were in the towers, and receiving seventy thousand drachmas let some of them slip away.

2 Maccabees 10.21: 21 But when word was brought to Maccabaeus of what was done, he gathered the leaders of the people together, and accused those men of having sold their kindred for money, by setting their enemies free to fight against them.

2 Maccabees 10.22: 22 So he killed these men for having turned traitors, and forthwith took possession of the two towers.

2 Maccabees 10.23: 23 And prospering with his arms in all things he took in hand, he destroyed in the two strongholds more than twenty thousand.

2 Maccabees 10.24: 24 Now Timotheus, who had been before defeated by the Jews, having gathered together foreign forces in great multitudes, and having collected the 9 horsemen which belonged to Asia, not a few, came as though he would take Judea by force of arms.

2 Maccabees 10.25: 25 But as he drew near, Maccabaeus and his men sprinkled earth upon their heads and girded their loins with sackcloth, in supplication to God,

2 Maccabees 10.26: 26 and falling down upon the step in front of the altar, implored him to become 1 gracious to them, and 2 be an enemy to their enemies and an adversary to their adversaries, as the law declares.

2 Maccabees 10.27: 27 And rising from their prayer they took up their arms, and advanced some distance from the city; and when they had come near to their enemies they 3 halted.

2 Maccabees 10.28: 28 And when the dawn was now spreading, the two armies joined battle; the one part having this, beside their virtue, for a pledge of success and victory, that they had fled to the Lord for refuge, the others making their passion their leader in the strife.

2 Maccabees 10.29: 29 But when the battle waxed strong, there appeared out of heaven to their adversaries five men on horses with bridles of gold, in splendid array; 4 and two of them, leading on the Jews,

2 Maccabees 10.30: 30 and taking Maccabaeus in the midst of them, and covering him with their own armor, guarded him from wounds, while on the adversaries they shot forth arrows and thunderbolts; by reason whereof they were blinded and thrown into confusion, and were cut to pieces, filled with bewilderment.

2 Maccabees 10.31: 31 And there were slain twenty thousand and five hundred, beside six hundred horsemen.

2 Maccabees 10.32: 32 But Timotheus himself fled into a stronghold called Gazara, a fortress of exceedingly strength, 5 Chaereas being in command there.

2 Maccabees 10.33: 33 But Maccabaeus and his men were glad and laid siege to the fortress four and twenty days.

2 Maccabees 10.34: 34 And those who were within, trusting to the strength of the place, blasphemed exceedingly, and hurled forth impious words.

2 Maccabees 10.35: 35 But at dawn of the five and twentieth day certain young men of the company of Maccabaeus, inflamed with passion because of the blasphemies, assaulted the wall with masculine force and with 6 furious passion, and cut down whoever came in their way.

2 Maccabees 10.36: 36 And others climbing up in like manner, while the besieged were distracted with them that had made their way within, set fire to the towers, and kindling fires burned the blasphemers alive; while others broke open the gates, and, having given entrance to the rest of the band, occupied the city.

2 Maccabees 10.37: 37 And they killed Timotheus, who was hidden in a cistern, and his brother Chaereas, and Apollophanes.

2 Maccabees 10.38: 38 And when they had accomplished these things, they blessed the Lord with hymns and thanksgiving, him who does great benefits to Israel, and gives them the victory.