New Testament·John 12:13–34
13They took palm branches and went out to meet Him, shouting: “Hosanna!” “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the King of Israel!” 14Finding a young donkey, Jesus sat on it, as it is written: 15“Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion. See, your King is coming, seated on the colt of a donkey.” 16At first His disciples did not understand these things, but after Jesus was glorified they remembered what had been done to Him, and they realized that these very things had also been written about Him. 17Meanwhile, many people continued to testify that they had been with Jesus when He called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead. 18That is also why the crowd went out to meet Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19Then the Pharisees said to one another, “You can see that this is doing you no good. Look how the whole world has gone after Him!” 20Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the feast. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested of him, “Sir, we want to see Jesus.” 22Philip relayed this appeal to Andrew, and both of them went and told Jesus. 23But Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Truly, truly, I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a seed; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Whoever loves his life will lose it, but whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be as well. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. 27Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? No, it is for this purpose that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify Your name!” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said that an angel had spoken to Him. 30In response, Jesus said, “This voice was not for My benefit, but yours. 31Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death He was going to die. 34The crowd replied, “We have heard from the Law that the Christ will remain forever. So how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?”
Old Testament·2 Samuel 20–21
1Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!” 2So all the men of Israel deserted David to follow Sheba son of Bichri. But the men of Judah stayed by their king all the way from the Jordan to Jerusalem. 3When David returned to his palace in Jerusalem, he took the ten concubines he had left to care for the palace, and he placed them in a house under guard. He provided for them, but he no longer slept with them. They were confined until the day of their death, living as widows. 4Then the king said to Amasa, “Summon the men of Judah to come to me within three days, and be here yourself.” 5So Amasa went to summon Judah, but he took longer than the time allotted him. 6And David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom. Take your lord’s servants and pursue him, or he will find fortified cities and elude us.” 7So Joab’s men, along with the Cherethites, the Pelethites, and all the mighty men, marched out of Jerusalem in pursuit of Sheba son of Bichri. 8And while they were at the great stone in Gibeon, Amasa joined them. Now Joab was dressed in military attire, with a dagger strapped to his belt. And as he stepped forward, he slipped the dagger from its sheath. 9“Are you well, my brother?” Joab asked Amasa. And with his right hand Joab grabbed Amasa by the beard to kiss him. 10Amasa was not on guard against the dagger in Joab’s hand, and Joab stabbed him in the stomach and spilled out his intestines on the ground. And Joab did not need to strike him again, for Amasa was dead. Then Joab and his brother Abishai pursued Sheba son of Bichri. 11One of Joab’s young men stood near Amasa and said, “Whoever favors Joab, and whoever is for David, let him follow Joab!” 12But Amasa wallowed in his blood in the middle of the road, and when the man saw that all the troops were stopping there, he dragged the body off the road into a field and threw a garment over it. 13As soon as Amasa’s body was removed from the road, all the men went on with Joab to pursue Sheba son of Bichri. 14Sheba passed through all the tribes of Israel to Abel-beth-maacah and through the entire region of the Berites, who gathered together and followed him. 15And Joab’s troops came and besieged Sheba in Abel-beth-maacah and built a siege ramp against the outer rampart of the city. As all the troops with Joab were battering the wall to topple it, 16a wise woman called out from the city, “Listen! Listen! Please tell Joab to come here so that I may speak with him.” 17When he had come near to her, the woman asked, “Are you Joab?” “I am,” he replied. “Listen to the words of your servant,” she said. “I am listening,” he answered. 18Then the woman said, “Long ago they used to say, ‘Seek counsel at Abel,’ and that is how disputes were settled. 19I am among the peaceable and faithful in Israel, but you are trying to destroy a city that is a mother in Israel. Why would you swallow up the LORD’s inheritance?” 20“Far be it!” Joab declared. “Far be it from me to swallow up or destroy! 21That is not the case. But a man named Sheba son of Bichri, from the hill country of Ephraim, has lifted up his hand against the king, against David. Deliver him alone, and I will depart from the city.” “Look,” the woman replied, “his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” 22Then the woman went to all the people with her wise counsel, and they cut off the head of Sheba son of Bichri and threw it to Joab. So he blew the ram’s horn and his men dispersed from the city, each to his own home. And Joab returned to the king in Jerusalem. 23Now Joab was over the whole army of Israel; Benaiah son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and Pelethites; 24Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was the recorder; 25Sheva was the scribe; Zadok and Abiathar were priests; 26and Ira the Jairite was David’s priest.
21During the reign of David there was a famine for three successive years, and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said, “It is because of the blood shed by Saul and his family, because he killed the Gibeonites.” 2At this, David summoned the Gibeonites and spoke to them. (Now the Gibeonites were not Israelites, but a remnant of the Amorites. The Israelites had taken an oath concerning them, but in his zeal for Israel and Judah, Saul had sought to kill them.) 3So David asked the Gibeonites, “What shall I do for you? How can I make amends so that you may bless the inheritance of the LORD?” 4The Gibeonites said to him, “We need no silver or gold from Saul or his house, nor should you put to death anyone in Israel for us.” “Whatever you ask, I will do for you,” he replied. 5And they answered the king, “As for the man who consumed us and plotted against us to exterminate us from existing within any border of Israel, 6let seven of his male descendants be delivered to us so that we may hang them before the LORD at Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of the LORD.” “I will give them to you,” said the king. 7Now the king spared Mephibosheth son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, because of the oath before the LORD between David and Jonathan son of Saul. 8But the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons whom Rizpah daughter of Aiah had borne to Saul, as well as the five sons whom Merab daughter of Saul had borne to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the LORD. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest. 10And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it out for herself on a rock. From the beginning of the harvest until the rain from heaven poured down on the bodies, she did not allow the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. 11When David was told what Saul’s concubine Rizpah, daughter of Aiah, had done, 12he went and took the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan from the men of Jabesh-gilead, who had stolen them from the public square of Beth-shan where the Philistines had hung the bodies after they had struck down Saul at Gilboa. 13So David had the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan brought from there, along with the bones of those who had been hanged. 14And they buried the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan in Zela in the land of Benjamin, in the tomb of Saul’s father Kish. After they had done everything the king had commanded, God answered their prayers for the land. 15Once again the Philistines waged war against Israel, and David and his servants went down and fought against the Philistines; but David became exhausted. 16Then Ishbi-benob, a descendant of Rapha, whose bronze spear weighed three hundred shekels and who was bearing a new sword, resolved to kill David. 17But Abishai son of Zeruiah came to his aid, struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then David’s men swore to him, “You must never again go out with us to battle, so that the lamp of Israel may not be extinguished.” 18Some time later at Gob, there was another battle with the Philistines. At that time Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, one of the descendants of Rapha. 19Once again there was a battle with the Philistines at Gob, and Elhanan son of Jair the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20And there was still another battle at Gath, where there was a man of great stature with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot—twenty-four in all. He too was descended from Rapha, 21and when he taunted Israel, Jonathan the son of David’s brother Shimei killed him. 22So these four descendants of Rapha in Gath fell at the hands of David and his servants.
Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), which is in the public domain.