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Psalm 32

1  Happy the one whose transgression is forgiven, ♦︎
   and whose sin is covered.
2  Happy the one to whom the Lord imputes no guilt, ♦︎
   and in whose spirit there is no guile.
3  For I held my tongue; ♦︎
   my bones wasted away
      through my groaning all the day long.
4  Your hand was heavy upon me day and night; ♦︎
   my moisture was dried up like the drought in summer.
5  Then I acknowledged my sin to you ♦︎
   and my iniquity I did not hide.
6  I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,’ ♦︎
   and you forgave the guilt of my sin.
7  Therefore let all the faithful make their prayers to you
      in time of trouble; ♦︎
   in the great water flood, it shall not reach them.
8  You are a place for me to hide in;
      you preserve me from trouble; ♦︎
   you surround me with songs of deliverance.
9  ‘I will instruct you and teach you
      in the way that you should go; ♦︎
   I will guide you with my eye.
10  ‘Be not like horse and mule which have no understanding; ♦︎
   whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle,
      or else they will not stay near you.’
11  Great tribulations remain for the wicked, ♦︎
   but mercy embraces those who trust in the Lord.
12  Be glad, you righteous, and rejoice in the Lord; ♦︎
   shout for joy, all who are true of heart.

The Defeat and Death of Absalom

18Then David mustered the men who were with him, and set over them commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds. ²And David divided the army into three groups:^* one-third under the command of Joab, one-third under the command of Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, and one-third under the command of Ittai the Gittite. The king said to the men, ‘I myself will also go out with you.’ ³But the men said, ‘You shall not go out. For if we flee, they will not care about us. If half of us die, they will not care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us;^* therefore it is better that you send us help from the city.’ ⁴The king said to them, ‘Whatever seems best to you I will do.’ So the king stood at the side of the gate, while all the army marched out by hundreds and by thousands. ⁵The king gave orders to Joab and Abishai and Ittai, saying, ‘Deal gently for my sake with the young man Absalom.’ And all the people heard when the king gave orders to all the commanders concerning Absalom.

6 So the army went out into the field against Israel; and the battle was fought in the forest of Ephraim. ⁷The men of Israel were defeated there by the servants of David, and the slaughter there was great on that day, twenty thousand men. ⁸The battle spread over the face of all the country; and the forest claimed more victims that day than the sword.

9 Absalom happened to meet the servants of David. Absalom was riding on his mule, and the mule went under the thick branches of a great oak. His head caught fast in the oak, and he was left hanging^* between heaven and earth, while the mule that was under him went on. ¹⁰A man saw it, and told Joab, ‘I saw Absalom hanging in an oak.’ ¹¹Joab said to the man who told him, ‘What, you saw him! Why then did you not strike him there to the ground? I would have been glad to give you ten pieces of silver and a belt.’ ¹²But the man said to Joab, ‘Even if I felt in my hand the weight of a thousand pieces of silver, I would not raise my hand against the king’s son; for in our hearing the king commanded you and Abishai and Ittai, saying: For my sake protect the young man Absalom! ¹³On the other hand, if I had dealt treacherously against his life^* (and there is nothing hidden from the king), then you yourself would have stood aloof.’ ¹⁴Joab said, ‘I will not waste time like this with you.’ He took three spears in his hand, and thrust them into the heart of Absalom, while he was still alive in the oak. ¹⁵And ten young men, Joab’s armour-bearers, surrounded Absalom and struck him, and killed him.

16 Then Joab sounded the trumpet, and the troops came back from pursuing Israel, for Joab restrained the troops. ¹⁷They took Absalom, threw him into a great pit in the forest, and raised over him a very great heap of stones. Meanwhile all the Israelites fled to their homes. ¹⁸Now Absalom in his lifetime had taken and set up for himself a pillar that is in the King’s Valley, for he said, ‘I have no son to keep my name in remembrance’; he called the pillar by his own name. It is called Absalom’s Monument to this day.

Jesus’ Authority Is Questioned

27 Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him ²⁸and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ ²⁹Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. ³⁰Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ ³¹They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” ³²But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. ³³So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

The Parable of the Wicked Tenants

12Then he began to speak to them in parables. ‘A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the wine press, and built a watch-tower; then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ²When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. ³But they seized him, and beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. ⁵Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. ⁶He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, “They will respect my son.” ⁷But those tenants said to one another, “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.” ⁸So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you not read this scripture:
“The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the cornerstone;^*
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
   and it is amazing in our eyes”?’

12 When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.