He instructed them to say to Nabal: "David sends you greetings, my friend, with his best wishes for you, your family, and all that is yours.

Their children run and play like lambs

They live out their lives in peace and quietly die without suffering.

They think there is no need to serve God nor any advantage in praying to him.

They do not suffer as other people do; they do not have the troubles that others have.

their hearts pour out evil, and their minds are busy with wicked schemes.

Instead, you laughed and celebrated. You killed sheep and cattle to eat, and you drank wine. You said, "We might as well eat and drink! Tomorrow we'll be dead."

You like to compose songs, as David did, and play them on harps.

You drink wine by the bowlful and use the finest perfumes, but you do not mourn over the ruin of Israel.

Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself !'

After a few days the younger son sold his part of the property and left home with the money. He went to a country far away, where he wasted his money in reckless living.

"There was once a rich man who dressed in the most expensive clothes and lived in great luxury every day.

Your life here on earth has been full of luxury and pleasure. You have made yourselves fat for the day of slaughter.

Give her as much suffering and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. For she keeps telling herself: 'Here I sit, a queen! I am no widow, I will never know grief !'

Even the most refined man of noble birth will become so desperate during the siege that he will eat some of his own children because he has no other food. He will not even give any to his brother or to the wife he loves or to any of his children who are left.

Even the most refined woman of noble birth, so rich that she has never had to walk anywhere, will behave in the same way. When the enemy besieges her town, she will become so desperate for food that she will secretly eat her newborn child and the afterbirth as well. She will not share them with the husband she loves or with any of her children.

"Bring King Agag here to me," Samuel ordered. Agag came to him, trembling with fear, thinking to himself, "What a bitter thing it is to die!"

If you give your servants everything they want from childhood on, some day they will take over everything you own.

The LORD says, "Babylon, come down from your throne, and sit in the dust on the ground. You were once like a virgin, a city unconquered, but you are soft and delicate no longer! You are now a slave!

The city of Zion is beautiful, but it will be destroyed;

People who once ate the finest foods die starving in the streets; those raised in luxury are pawing through garbage for food.

What did you go out to see? A man dressed up in fancy clothes? People who dress like that and live in luxury are found in palaces!

"Follow me," Jesus answered, "and let the dead bury their own dead."

For this son of mine was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.' And so the feasting began.

But we had to celebrate and be happy, because your brother was dead, but now he is alive; he was lost, but now he has been found.' "

We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death.

He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.

In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins.

that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God's grace that you have been saved.

for anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said, "Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you."

You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins;

"To the angel of the church in Sardis write: "This is the message from the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know what you are doing; I know that you have the reputation of being alive, even though you are dead!