¹ And death came to Samuel; and all Israel came together, weeping for him, and put his body in its resting-place in his house at Ramah. Then David went down to the waste land of Maon.

² Now there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel; he was a great man and had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats: and he was cutting the wool of his sheep in Carmel.

³ Now this man was named Nabal, and his wife's name was Abigail: she was a woman of good sense and pleasing looks: but the man was cruel and evil in his ways; he was of the family of Caleb.

⁴ And David had word in the waste land that Nabal was cutting the wool of his sheep.

⁵ And David sent ten young men, and said to them, Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and say kind words to him in my name;

⁶ And say this to my brother, May all be well for you: peace be to you and your house and all you have.

⁷ I have had word that you have wool-cutters: now the keepers of your sheep have been with us, and we have done them no evil, and taken nothing of theirs while they were in Carmel.

⁸ If your young men are questioned they will say the same thing. So now, let my young men have grace in your eyes, for we are come at a good time; please give anything you may have by you to your servants and to your son David.

⁹ And when David's young men came, they said all this to Nabal, in David's name, and said nothing more.

¹⁰ And Nabal gave them his answer and said, Who is David? who is the son of Jesse? there are a number of servants in these days running away from their masters.

¹¹ Am I to take my bread and my wine and the meat I have got ready for my wool-cutters and give it to men coming from I have no idea where?

¹² So David's young men, turning away, went back and gave him an account of everything he had said.

¹³ And David said to his men, Put on your swords, every one of you. And every man Put on his sword; and David did the same; and about four hundred men went up with David, and two hundred kept watch over their goods.

¹⁴ But one of the young men said to Nabal's wife Abigail, David sent men from the waste land to say kind words to our master, and he gave them a rough answer.

¹⁵ But these men have been very good to us; they did us no wrong and nothing of ours was touched while we were with them in the fields:

¹⁶ But day and night they were like a wall round us while we were with them, looking after the sheep.

¹⁷ So now, give thought to what you are going to do; for evil is in store for our master and all his house: for he is such a good-for-nothing person that it is not possible to say anything to him.

¹⁸ Then Abigail quickly took two hundred cakes of bread and two skins full of wine and five sheep ready for cooking and five measures of dry grain and a hundred parcels of dry grapes and two hundred cakes of figs, and put them on asses.

¹⁹ And she said to her young men, Go on in front of me and I will come after you. But she said nothing to her husband Nabal.

²⁰ Now while she was going down under cover of the mountain on her ass, David and his men came down against her, and suddenly she came face to face with them.

²¹ Now David had said, What was the use of my taking care of this man's goods in the waste land, so that there was no loss of anything which was his? he has only given me back evil for good.

²² May God's punishment be on David, if when morning comes there is so much as one male of his people still living.

²³ And when Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her ass, falling down on her face before him.

²⁴ And falling at his feet she said, May the wrong be on me, my lord, on me: let your servant say a word to you, and give ear to the words of your servant.

²⁵ Let my lord give no attention to Nabal, that good-for-nothing: for as his name is, so is he, a man without sense: but I, your servant, did not see the young men whom my lord sent.

²⁶ So now, my lord, by the living God and by your living soul, seeing that the Lord has kept you from the crime of blood and from taking into your hands the punishment for your wrongs, may all your haters, and those who would do evil to my lord, be like Nabal.

²⁷ And let this offering, which your servant gives to my lord, be given to the young men who are with my lord.

²⁸ And may the sin of your servant have forgiveness: for the Lord will certainly make your family strong, because my lord is fighting in the Lord's war; and no evil will be seen in you all your days.

²⁹ And though a man has taken up arms against you, putting your life in danger, still the soul of my lord will be kept safe among the band of the living with the Lord your God; and the souls of those who are against you he will send violently away from him, like stones from a bag.

³⁰ And when the Lord has done for my lord all those good things which he has said he will do for you, and has made you a ruler over Israel;

³¹ Then you will have no cause for grief, and my lord's heart will not be troubled because you have taken life without cause and have yourself given punishment for your wrongs: and when the Lord has been good to you, then give a thought to your servant.

³² And David said to Abigail, May the Lord, the God of Israel, be praised, who sent you to me today:

³³ A blessing on your good sense and on you, who have kept me today from the crime of blood and from taking into my hands the punishment for my wrongs.

³⁴ For truly, by the living Lord, the God of Israel, who has kept me from doing you evil, if you had not been so quick in coming to me and meeting me, by dawn there would not have been in Nabal's house so much as one male living.

³⁵ Then David took from her hands her offering: and he said to her, Go back to your house in peace; see, I have given ear to your voice, and taken your offering with respect.

³⁶ And Abigail went back to Nabal; and he was feasting in his house like a king; and Nabal's heart was full of joy, for he had taken much wine; so she said nothing to him till dawn came.

³⁷ And in the morning, when the effect of the wine was gone, Nabal's wife gave him an account of all these things, and all the heart went out of him, and he became like stone.

³⁸ And about ten days after, the Lord sent disease on Nabal and death came to him.

³⁹ And David, hearing that Nabal was dead, said, May the Lord be praised, who has taken up my cause against Nabal for the shame which he put on me, and has kept back his servant from evil, and has sent on Nabal's head the reward of his evil-doing. And David sent word to Abigail, desiring to take her as his wife.

⁴⁰ And when David's servants came to Carmel, to Abigail, they said to her, David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.

⁴¹ And she got up, and going down on her face to the earth, said, See, I am ready to be a servant-girl, washing the feet of the servants of my lord.

⁴² Then Abigail got up quickly and went on her ass, with five of her young women, after the men whom David had sent; and she became David's wife.

⁴³ And David had taken Ahinoam of Jezreel, to be his wife; these two were his wives.

⁴⁴ Now Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Palti the son of Laish of Gallim.

¹ Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem.

² Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault.

³ (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don't eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders.

⁴ They don't eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.)

⁵ The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why don't your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?"

⁶ He answered them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

⁷ But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'

⁸ "For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things."

⁹ He said to them, "Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.

¹⁰ For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother;' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'

¹¹ But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban, that is to say, given to God;"'

¹² then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother,

¹³ making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this."

¹⁴ He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand.

¹⁵ There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man.

¹⁶ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"

¹⁷ When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable.

¹⁸ He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him,

¹⁹ because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus purifying all foods?"

²⁰ He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man.

²¹ For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,

²² covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.

²³ All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."

²⁴ From there he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house, and didn't want anyone to know it, but he couldn't escape notice.

²⁵ For a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet.

²⁶ Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter.

²⁷ But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

²⁸ But she answered him, "Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

²⁹ He said to her, "For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter."

³⁰ She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.

³¹ Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of Decapolis.

³² They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him.

³³ He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue.

³⁴ Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!"

³⁵ Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly.

³⁶ He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it.

³⁷ They were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear, and the mute speak!"