from Bible readings:
books of the Prophets

Joshua, however, said to the people, “You will not be able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions and your sins. If you forsake the LORD and serve alien gods, He will turn and deal harshly with you and make an end of you, after having been gracious to you.”

After him arose Jair the Gileadite, and he led Israel for twenty-two years. (He had thirty sons, who rode on thirty burros and owned thirty boroughs in the region of Gilead; these are called Havvoth-jair to this day.)

He said, “This will be the practice of the king who will rule over you: He will take your sons and appoint them as his charioteers and horsemen, and they will serve as outrunners for his chariots. He will appoint them as his chiefs of thousands and of fifties; or they will have to plow his fields, reap his harvest, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters as perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will seize your choice fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers. He will take a tenth part of your grain and vintage and give it to his eunuchs and courtiers. He will take your male and female slaves, your choice young men, and your asses, and put them to work for him. He will take a tenth part of your flocks, and you shall become his slaves. The day will come when you cry out because of the king whom you yourselves have chosen; and the LORD will not answer you on that day.”

But the people would not listen to Samuel’s warning. “No,” they said. “We must have a king over us, that we may be like all the other nations: Let our king rule over us and go out at our head and fight our battles.”

“Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

As much as in obedience to the LORD’s command?

Surely, obedience is better than sacrifice,

Compliance than the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

Defiance, like the iniquity of teraphim.

Because you rejected the LORD’s command,

He has rejected you as king.”

David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam; and when his brothers and all his father’s house heard, they joined him down there. Everyone who was in straits and everyone who was in debt and everyone who was desperate joined him, and he became their leader; there were about four hundred men with him.

David went home to greet his household. And Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “Didn’t the king of Israel do himself honor today—exposing himself today in the sight of the slavegirls of his subjects, as one of the riffraff might expose himself!” David answered Michal, “It was before the LORD who chose me instead of your father and all his family and appointed me ruler of the LORD’s people Israel! I will dance before the LORD and dishonor myself even more, and be low in my own esteem; but among the slavegirls that you speak of I will be honored.”

King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. He said: “What answer do you advise [me] to give to this people?” They answered him, “If you will be a servant to those people today and serve them, and if you respond to them with kind words, they will be your servants always.” But he ignored the advice that the elders gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. “What,” he asked, “do you advise that we reply to the people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father placed upon us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him answered, “Speak thus to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us.’ Say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions.’ ”