Study Desk

No one is to work on that day—it is the Great Day of Forgiveness, when sacrifices will be offered to me, so that I will forgive your sins.

Remember—I am the Lord your God! I rescued you from Egypt and gave you the land of Canaan, so that I would be your God.

I am the Lord your God, and I rescued you from Egypt, so that you would never again be slaves. I have set you free; now walk with your heads held high.

While nations watched, I rescued your ancestors from Egypt so that I would be their God. Yes, I am your Lord , and I will never forget our agreement.

so that when the woman drinks this water, the curses will enter her body.

The priest will take these gifts to my altar and offer them, so that I will be pleased and will forgive you.

Aaron will present the Levites to me as a gift from the people, so that the Levites will do my work.

to say to the people of Israel: Offer sacrifices to me at the appointed times of worship, so that I will smell the smoke and be pleased.

For the next six days of the festival, you will sacrifice one less bull than the day before, so that on the seventh day, seven bulls will be sacrificed. The other sacrifices and offerings must remain the same for each of these days.

I will show you how to divide the land among the tribes, according to the number of clans in each one, so that the larger tribes will have more land than the smaller ones.

He also gave you manna, a kind of food your ancestors had never even heard about. The Lord was testing you to make you trust him, so that later on he could be good to you.

Each day the king must read and obey these laws, so that he will learn to worship the Lord with fear and trembling

you must choose three of your towns to be Safe Towns. Divide the land into three regions with one Safe Town near the middle of each, so that a Safe Town can be easily reached from anywhere in your land. Then, if one of you accidentally kills someone, you can run to a Safe Town and find protection from being put to death. But you must not have been angry with the person you killed.

Moses spoke the words of the song so that all the Israelites could hear, and Joshua helped him. When Moses had finished,

These Safe Towns were set up, so that if Israelites or even foreigners who lived in Israel accidentally killed someone, they could run to one of these towns. There they would be safe until a trial could be held, even if one of the victim's relatives came looking for revenge.

But the Lord has chosen you to be his own people. He will always take care of you so that everyone will know how great he is.

and he thought, "I'll tell David he can marry Michal, but I'll set it up so that the Philistines will kill him." He told David, "I'm going to give you a second chance to marry one of my daughters."

and told him, "When I shoot the arrows, you run and find them for me." The boy started running, and Jonathan shot an arrow so that it would go beyond him.

By the day after tomorrow, everyone will think you've been gone a long time. Then go to the place where you hid before and stay beside Going-Away Rock. I'll shoot three arrows at a target off to the side of the rock, and send my servant to find the arrows. You'll know if it's safe to come out by what I tell him. If it is safe, I swear by the living Lord that I'll say, "The arrows are on this side of you! Pick them up!" But if it isn't safe, I'll say to the boy, "The arrows are farther away!" This will mean that the Lord wants you to leave, and you must go. But he will always watch us to make sure that we keep the promise we made to each other. So David hid there in the field. During the New Moon Festival, Saul sat down to eat by the wall, just as he always did. Jonathan sat across from him, and Abner sat next to him. But David's place was empty. Saul didn't say anything that day, because he was thinking, "Something must have happened to make David unfit to be at the Festival. Yes, something must have happened." The day after the New Moon Festival, when David's place was still empty, Saul asked Jonathan, "Why hasn't that son of Jesse come to eat with us? He wasn't here yesterday, and he still isn't here today!" Jonathan answered, "The reason David hasn't come to eat with you is that he begged me to let him go to Bethlehem. He said, ‘Please let me go. My family is offering a sacrifice, and my brother told me I have to be there. Do me this favor and let me slip away to see my brothers.'" Saul was furious with Jonathan and yelled, "You're no son of mine, you traitor! I know you've chosen to be loyal to that son of Jesse. You should be ashamed of yourself! And your own mother should be ashamed that you were ever born. You'll never be safe, and your kingdom will be in danger as long as that son of Jesse is alive. Turn him over to me now! He deserves to die!" "Why do you want to kill David?" Jonathan asked. "What has he done?" Saul threw his spear at Jonathan and tried to kill him. Then Jonathan was sure that his father really did want to kill David. Jonathan was angry that his father had insulted David so terribly. He got up, left the table, and didn't eat anything all that day. In the morning, Jonathan went out to the field to meet David. He took a servant boy along and told him, "When I shoot the arrows, you run and find them for me." The boy started running, and Jonathan shot an arrow so that it would go beyond him. When the boy got near the place where the arrow had landed, Jonathan shouted, "Isn't the arrow on past you?" Jonathan shouted to him again, "Hurry up! Don't stop!" The boy picked up the arrows and brought them back to Jonathan, but he had no idea about what was going on. Only Jonathan and David knew. Jonathan gave his weapons to the boy and told him, "Take these back into town." After the boy had gone, David got up from beside the mound and bowed very low three times. Then he and Jonathan kissed each other and cried, but David cried louder.

You and your fifteen sons and twenty servants will work for Mephibosheth. You will farm his land and bring in his crops, so that Saul's family and servants will have food. But Mephibosheth will always eat with me at my table."