But you will be able to counter the advice of Ahithophel if you go back to the city and say to Absalom, ‘I will be your servant, O king! Previously I was your father’s servant, and now I will be your servant.’

He replied, “My lord the king, my servant deceived me! I ¹  said, ‘Let me get my donkey saddled so that I can ride on it and go with the king,’ for I ²  am lame.

Let me ¹  return so that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But look, here is your servant Kimham. Let him cross over with my lord the king. Do for him whatever seems appropriate to you.”

Now a wife of one of the prophets ¹  appealed ²  to Elisha for help, saying, “Your servant, my husband is dead. You know that your servant was a loyal follower of the Lord. ³  Now the creditor is coming to take away my two boys to be his servants.”

He commanded them, “This is what you must say to my lord Esau: ‘This is what your servant ¹  Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban until now.

When his master heard his wife say, ¹  “This is the way ²  your slave treated me,” ³  he became furious. ⁴ 

When he sees the boy is not with us, ¹  he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father in sorrow to the grave.

Indeed, ¹  your servant pledged security for the boy with my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I will bear the blame before my father all my life.’

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; on it ¹  you shall not do any work, you, ²  or your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or your cattle, or the resident foreigner who is in your gates. ³ 

Then the Lord came and stood nearby, calling as he had previously done, “Samuel! Samuel!” Samuel replied, “Speak, for your servant is listening!”

David said to Saul, “Don’t let anyone be discouraged. ¹  Your servant will go and fight this Philistine!”

David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been a shepherd for his father’s flock. Whenever a lion or bear would come and carry off a sheep from the flock,

Your servant has struck down both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be just like one of them. ¹  For he has defied the armies of the living God!”

Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” David replied, “I am the son of your servant Jesse in Bethlehem.” ¹ 

Then David said, “O Lord God of Israel, your servant has clearly heard that Saul is planning ¹  to come to Keilah to destroy the city because of me.

Will the leaders of Keilah deliver me into his hand? Will Saul come down as your servant has heard? O Lord God of Israel, please inform your servant!” Then the Lord said, “He will come down.”

And you didn’t stop there, O Lord God! You have also spoken about the future of your servant’s family. ¹  Is this your usual way of dealing with men, ²  O Lord God?

So now, O Lord God, make this promise you have made about your servant and his family a permanent reality. ¹  Do as you promised, ² 

so you may gain lasting fame, ¹  as people say, ²  ‘The Lord of hosts is God over Israel!’ The dynasty ³  of your servant David will be established before you,

Now, O sovereign Lord, you are the true God! ¹  May your words prove to be true! ²  You have made this good promise to your servant! ³