Thursday

2 Samuel 11:1-27

[1]

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David
sent Jo'ab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they ravaged
the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.

[2]

It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was
walking upon the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a
woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

[3] And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not
this Bathshe'ba, the daughter of Eli'am, the wife of Uri'ah the Hittite?"
[4] So David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he
lay with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then
she returned to her house.
[5] And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am with
child."
[6]

So David sent word to Jo'ab, "Send me Uri'ah the Hittite." And Jo'ab sent
Uri'ah to David.

[7] When Uri'ah came to him, David asked how Jo'ab was doing, and how the
people fared, and how the war prospered.
[8] Then David said to Uri'ah, "Go down to your house, and wash your
feet." And Uri'ah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a
present from the king.
[9] But Uri'ah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants
of his lord, and did not go down to his house.
[10] When they told David, "Uri'ah did not go down to his house," David
said to Uri'ah, "Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down
to your house?"
[11] Uri'ah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths;
and my lord Jo'ab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open
field; shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with
my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing."
[12] Then David said to Uri'ah, "Remain here today also, and tomorrow I
will let you depart." So Uri'ah remained in Jerusalem that day, and the
next.
[13] And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that
he made him drunk; and in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with
the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
[14]

In the morning David wrote a letter to Jo'ab, and sent it by the hand of
Uri'ah.

[15] In the letter he wrote, "Set Uri'ah in the forefront of the hardest
fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and
die."
[16] And as Jo'ab was besieging the city, he assigned Uri'ah to the place
where he knew there were valiant men.
[17] And the men of the city came out and fought with Jo'ab; and some of
the servants of David among the people fell. Uri'ah the Hittite was slain
also.
[18] Then Jo'ab sent and told David all the news about the fighting;
[19] and he instructed the messenger, "When you have finished telling all
the news about the fighting to the king,
[20] then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, `Why did you
go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from
the wall?
[21] Who killed Abim'elech the son of Jerub'besheth? Did not a woman cast
an upper millstone upon him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why
did you go so near the wall?' then you shall say, `Your servant Uri'ah the
Hittite is dead also.'"
[22]

So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Jo'ab had sent him
to tell.

[23] The messenger said to David, "The men gained an advantage over us,
and came out against us in the field; but we drove them back to the
entrance of the gate.
[24] Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall; some of the
king's servants are dead; and your servant Uri'ah the Hittite is dead
also."
[25] David said to the messenger, "Thus shall you say to Jo'ab, `Do not
let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now
another; strengthen your attack upon the city, and overthrow it.' And
encourage him."
[26]

When the wife of Uri'ah heard that Uri'ah her husband was dead, she made
lamentation for her husband.

[27] And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his
house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that
David had done displeased the LORD.

Acts 19:11-20

[11]

And God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

[12] so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to
the sick, and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.
[13] Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to pronounce
the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "I
adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."
[14] Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.
[15] But the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know;
but who are you?"
[16] And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, mastered all
of them, and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded.
[17] And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and
Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was
extolled.
[18] Many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and
divulging their practices.
[19] And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books
together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value
of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
[20] So the word of the Lord grew and prevailed mightily.

Mark 9:2-13

[2]

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led
them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured
before them,

[3] and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on
earth could bleach them.
[4] And there appeared to them Eli'jah with Moses; and they were talking
to Jesus.
[5] And Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is well that we are here; let us
make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Eli'jah."
[6] For he did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.
[7] And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud,
"This is my beloved Son; listen to him."
[8] And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but
Jesus only.
[9]

And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one
what they had seen, until the Son of man should have risen from the dead.

[10] So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what the rising
from the dead meant.
[11] And they asked him, "Why do the scribes say that first Eli'jah must
come?"
[12] And he said to them, "Eli'jah does come first to restore all things;
and how is it written of the Son of man, that he should suffer many things
and be treated with contempt?
[13] But I tell you that Eli'jah has come, and they did to him whatever
they pleased, as it is written of him."