Then the king and his men advanced to Jerusalem ¹  against the Jebusites who lived in the land. The Jebusites ²  said to David, “You cannot invade this place! Even the blind and the lame will turn you back, saying, ‘David cannot invade this place!’”

The king got up in the night and said to his advisers, ¹  “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.’”

When the men of that place asked him about his wife, he replied, “She is my sister.” ¹  He was afraid to say, “She is my wife,” for he thought to himself, ²  “The men of this place will kill me to get ³  Rebekah because she is very beautiful.”

I considered these things carefully ¹  and then registered a complaint with the wealthy ²  and the officials. I said to them, “Each one of you is seizing the collateral ³  from your own countrymen!” ⁴  Because of them I called for ⁵  a great public assembly.

But ¹  he knew ²  their thoughts, ³  and said to the man who had the withered hand, “Get up and stand here.” ⁴  So ⁵  he rose and stood there.

For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

And the eye of the adulterer watches for the twilight, thinking, ¹  ‘No eye can see me,’ and covers his face with a mask.

They encourage one another to carry out their evil deed. ¹  They plan how to hide ²  snares, and boast, ³  “Who will see them?” ⁴ 

for he is ¹  like someone calculating the cost ²  in his mind. ³  “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you;

Moreover, I, the Lord, warn you not to deceive yourselves into thinking that the Babylonian forces ¹  will go away and leave you alone. For they will not go away. ² 

He had one left, his one dear son. ¹  Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

but (because they assumed that he was in their group of travelers) ¹  they went a day’s journey. Then ²  they began to look for him among their relatives and acquaintances. ³ 

But Jesus, ¹  realizing their thoughts, said to them, ²  “Every kingdom divided against itself is destroyed, ³  and a divided household falls. ⁴ 

So I say this, and insist ¹  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ²  of their thinking. ³ 

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition ¹  or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself.

Dear friends, this is already the second letter I have written ¹  you, in which ²  I am trying to stir up ³  your pure mind by way of reminder:

Saul replied, “May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me.

Neither man nor woman would David leave alive so as to bring them back to Gath. He was thinking, “This way they can’t tell on us, saying, ‘This is what David did.’” Such was his practice the entire time ¹  that he lived in the country of the Philistines.

“How long until you ¹  make an end of words? ²  You must consider, ³  and then ⁴  we can talk.

I said to myself, ‘Age ¹  should speak, ²  and length of years ³  should make wisdom known.’