¹⁸ Then Judah went up to him and said, ^(A)“Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears, and ^(B)let not your anger burn against your servant, for ^(C)you are like Pharaoh himself. ¹⁹ My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ ²⁰ And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, ^(D)and a young brother, ^(E)the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him.’ ²¹ Then you said to your servants, ^(F)‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ ²² We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, ^(G)his father would die.’ ²³ Then you said to your servants, ^(H)‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’

²⁴ “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. ²⁵ And when ^(I)our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ ²⁶ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ ²⁷ Then your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me ^(J)two sons. ²⁸ One left me, and I said, ^(K)“Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. ²⁹ If you ^(L)take this one also from me, ^(M)and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’

³⁰ “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, ³¹ as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. ³² For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ^(N)‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ ³³ Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. ³⁴ For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

Samuel's Farewell Address

12 And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed ^(A)your voice in all that you have said to me ^(B)and have made a king over you. ² And now, behold, the king ^(C)walks before you, ^(D)and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. ³ Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before ^(E)his anointed. ^(F)Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me^[a] and I will restore it to you.” ⁴ They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” ⁵ And he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and ^(G)his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything ^(H)in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”

⁶ And Samuel said to the people, ^(I)“The Lord is witness,^[b] who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. ⁷ Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. ^8 (J)When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them,^{[c] (K)}then your fathers cried out to the Lord and ^(L)the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, ^(M)who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. ⁹ But ^(N)they forgot the Lord their God. ^(O)And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,^{[d] (P)}and into the hand of the Philistines, ^(Q)and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. ^10 (R)And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord ^(S)and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now ^(T)deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ ¹¹ And the Lord sent ^(U)Jerubbaal ^(V)and Barak^{[e] (W)}and Jephthah and ^(X)Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. ¹² And when you saw that ^(Y)Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, ^(Z)you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ ^(AA)when the Lord your God was your king. ¹³ And now ^(AB)behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, ^(AC)the Lord has set a king over you. ¹⁴ If you will ^(AD)fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. ¹⁵ But ^(AE)if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then ^(AF)the hand of the Lord will be against you and ^(AG)your king.^{[f] 16} Now therefore ^(AH)stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. ^17 (AI)Is it not wheat harvest today? ^(AJ)I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that ^(AK)your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” ¹⁸ So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, ^(AL)and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.

¹⁹ And all the people said to Samuel, ^(AM)“Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” ²⁰ And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet ^(AN)do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. ²¹ And ^(AO)do not turn aside after ^(AP)empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. ^22 (AQ)For the Lord will not forsake his people, ^(AR)for his great name's sake, because ^(AS)it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. ²³ Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing ^(AT)to pray for you, ^(AU)and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. ^24 (AV)Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider ^(AW)what great things he has done for you. ²⁵ But if you still do wickedly, ^(AX)you shall be swept away, ^(AY)both you and your king.”

The Humble and Contrite in Spirit

Rejoice with Jerusalem

In You Do I Take Refuge

A ^(A)Shiggaion^[a] of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

25 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ^(A)ten virgins who took their lamps^[a] and went to meet ^(B)the bridegroom.^{[b] 2} Five of them were foolish, and five were ^(C)wise. ³ For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. ⁵ As the bridegroom ^(D)was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. ⁶ But ^(E)at midnight there was a cry, ‘Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ ⁷ Then all those virgins rose and ^(F)trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and ^(G)those who were ready went in with him to ^(H)the marriage feast, and ^(I)the door was shut. ¹¹ Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ^(J)‘Lord, lord, open to us.’ ^12 (K)But he answered, ‘Truly, I say to you, ^(L)I do not know you.’ ^13 (M)Watch therefore, for you ^(N)know neither the day nor the hour.

²⁵ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. ²⁶ But ^(A)we must ^(B)run aground on some island.”

²⁷ When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land. ²⁸ So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms.^[a] A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.^{[b] 29} And fearing that we might ^(C)run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come. ³⁰ And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered ^(D)the ship's boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow, ³¹ Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” ³² Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

³³ As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing. ³⁴ Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength,^[c] for ^(E)not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” ³⁵ And when he had said these things, he took bread, and ^(F)giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶ Then they all ^(G)were encouraged and ate some food themselves. ³⁷ (We were in all 276^{[d] (H)}persons in the ship.) ³⁸ And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, ^(I)throwing out the wheat into the sea.