Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 118

Psalm 145

A Psalm of Praise. Of David.

¹⁵ She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me how your strength is so great.” ¹⁶ Every day she nagged him with her words and pleaded with him until he was tired to death.

¹⁷ So he told her all his secrets and said to her, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I were shaven, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like all other men.”

¹⁸ Delilah saw that he had told her all his secrets, so she sent for the Philistine rulers, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his secrets.” So the Philistine rulers came up to her and brought the money in their hands. ¹⁹ Delilah lulled Samson to sleep on her knees and called for a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to humiliate him, and his strength left him.

²⁰ She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.”

Then he awakened from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as before and shake myself free of them.” He did not know that the Lord had left him.

²¹ The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and he ground grain in prison. ²² Yet after it had been shaven, the hair on his head began to grow back.

The Death of Samson

²³ The Philistine rulers gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

²⁴ The people saw him and praised their god, for they said,

²⁵ When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, so he can entertain us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them.

They placed him between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Let me rest and touch the pillars on which the temple is set, then I can lean against them.” ²⁷ The temple was full of men and women, and all the Philistine rulers were there. There were about three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain. ²⁸ Samson called out to the Lord, “Lord God, remember me, I pray! Please strengthen me just this once, God, so that I may get full revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes!” ²⁹ Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the temple was set and leaned against them, one with his right hand and one with his left. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his strength, and the temple fell upon the rulers and all the people who were in it. At his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.

³¹ Then his brothers and all his family came down, carried him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the grave of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

Final Warnings and Greetings

13 This is the third time I am coming to you. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”^{[a] 2} I told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time. And being absent now, I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the others, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone, ³ since you seek proof of Christ speaking through me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you. ⁴ For though He was crucified through weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. So also we are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God serving you.

⁵ Examine yourselves, seeing whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. ⁶ I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. ⁷ Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do that which is honorable, whether or not we may seem disqualified. ⁸ For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ For we are glad when we are weak, and you are strong. We wish even your perfection. ¹⁰ Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should be sharp, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

¹¹ Finally, brothers, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, and live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

²⁵ And a certain woman had a hemorrhage for twelve years, ²⁶ and had suffered much under many physicians. She had spent all that she had, and was not better but rather grew worse. ²⁷ When she had heard of Jesus, she came in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If I may touch His garments, I shall be healed.” ²⁹ And immediately her hemorrhage dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.

³⁰ At once, Jesus knew within Himself that power had gone out of Him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?”

³¹ His disciples said to Him, “You see the crowd pressing against You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ ”

³² And He looked around to see her who had done it. ³³ But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the entire truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”