Book of Common Prayer

Aleph^[a]

Beth

Gimel

To the director: With the sheminith. A song of David.

To the director: A song of David.

To the director: A song of David.

Samuel Goes to Bethlehem

16 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you feel sorry for Saul? I have rejected him as king of Israel. Fill your horn^[a] with oil and go to Bethlehem. I am sending you to Jesse who lives in Bethlehem, because I have chosen one of his sons to be the new king.”

² But Samuel said, “If I go, Saul will hear the news and try to kill me.”

The Lord said, “Go to Bethlehem. Take a young calf with you and tell them, ‘I have come to make a sacrifice to the Lord.’ ³ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice. Then I will show you what to do. You must anoint the person I show you.”

⁴ Samuel did what the Lord told him to do and went to Bethlehem. The elders of Bethlehem shook with fear. They met Samuel and asked, “Do you come in peace?”

⁵ Samuel answered, “Yes, I come in peace. I come to make a sacrifice to the Lord. Prepare yourselves and come to the sacrifice with me.” Samuel prepared Jesse and his sons. Then he invited them to come and share the sacrifice.

⁶ When Jesse and his sons arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the man who the Lord has chosen.”

⁷ But the Lord said to Samuel, “Eliab is tall and handsome, but don’t judge by things like that. God doesn’t look at what people see. People judge by what is on the outside, but the Lord looks at the heart. Eliab is not the right man.”

⁸ Then Jesse called his second son, Abinadab. Abinadab walked by Samuel. But Samuel said, “No, this is not the man who the Lord chose.”

⁹ Then Jesse told Shammah to walk by Samuel. But Samuel said, “No, the Lord did not choose this man, either.”

¹⁰ Jesse showed seven of his sons to Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these men.”

¹¹ Then he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”

Jesse answered, “No, I have another son—my youngest, but he is out taking care of the sheep.”

Samuel said, “Send for him. Bring him here. We won’t sit down to eat until he arrives.”

¹² Jesse sent someone to get his youngest son. This son was a good-looking, healthy^[b] young man. He was very handsome.

The Lord said to Samuel, “Get up and anoint him. He is the one.”

¹³ Samuel took the horn with the oil in it, and poured the special oil on Jesse’s youngest son in front of his brothers. The Spirit of the Lord came on David with great power from that day on. Then Samuel went back home to Ramah.

Peter and Cornelius

10 In the city of Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a Roman army officer in what was called the Italian Unit. ² He was a religious man. He and all the others who lived in his house were worshipers of the true God. He gave much of his money to help the poor people and always prayed to God. ³ One afternoon about three o’clock, Cornelius had a vision. He clearly saw an angel from God coming to him and saying, “Cornelius!”

⁴ Staring at the angel and feeling afraid, Cornelius said, “What do you want, sir?”

The angel said to him, “God has heard your prayers and has seen your gifts to the poor. He remembers you and all you have done. ⁵ Send some men now to the city of Joppa to get a man named Simon, who is also called Peter. ⁶ He is staying with someone also named Simon, a leatherworker who has a house beside the sea.” ⁷ The angel who spoke to Cornelius left. Then Cornelius called two of his servants and a soldier. The soldier was a religious man, one of his close helpers. ⁸ Cornelius explained everything to these three men and sent them to Joppa.

⁹ The next day they were coming near Joppa about noon, when Peter was going up to the roof to pray. ¹⁰ He was hungry and wanted to eat. But while they were preparing the food for Peter to eat, he had a vision. ¹¹ He saw something coming down through the open sky. It looked like a big sheet being lowered to the ground by its four corners. ¹² In it were all kinds of animals, reptiles, and birds. ¹³ Then a voice said to him, “Get up, Peter; kill anything here and eat it.”

¹⁴ But Peter said, “I can’t do that, Lord! I have never eaten anything that is not pure or fit to be used for food.”

¹⁵ But the voice said to him again, “God has made these things pure. Don’t say they are unfit to eat.” ¹⁶ This happened three times. Then the whole thing was taken back up into heaven.

¹² But Peter got up and ran to the tomb to see. He looked in, but he saw only the cloth that Jesus’ body had been wrapped in. It was just lying there. Peter went away to be alone, wondering what had happened.^[a]

On The Road to Emmaus^(A)

¹³ That same day two of Jesus’ followers were going to a town named Emmaus. It is about seven miles^[b] from Jerusalem. ¹⁴ They were talking about everything that had happened. ¹⁵ While they were talking, discussing these things, Jesus himself came near and walked with them. ¹⁶ (But the two men were not allowed to recognize Jesus.) ¹⁷ He asked them, “What’s this I hear you discussing with each other as you walk?”

The two men stopped, their faces looking very sad. ¹⁸ The one named Cleopas said, “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who doesn’t know what has just happened there.”

¹⁹ Jesus said, “What are you talking about?”

They said, “It’s about Jesus, the one from Nazareth. To God and to all the people he was a great prophet. He said and did many powerful things. ²⁰ But our leaders and the leading priests handed him over to be judged and killed. They nailed him to a cross. ²¹ We were hoping that he would be the one to free Israel. But then all this happened.

“And now something else: It has been three days since he was killed, ²² but today some of our women told us an amazing thing. Early this morning they went to the tomb where the body of Jesus was laid. ²³ But they did not find his body there. They came and told us they had seen some angels in a vision. The angels told them Jesus was alive! ²⁴ So some of our group went to the tomb too. It was just as the women said. They saw the tomb, but they did not see Jesus.”

²⁵ Then Jesus said to the two men, “You are foolish and slow to realize what is true. You should believe everything the prophets said. ²⁶ The prophets said the Messiah must suffer these things before he begins his time of glory.” ²⁷ Then he began to explain everything that had been written about himself in the Scriptures. He started with the books of Moses and then he talked about what the prophets had said about him.

²⁸ They came near the town of Emmaus, and Jesus acted as if he did not plan to stop there. ²⁹ But they wanted him to stay. They begged him, “Stay with us. It’s almost night. There’s hardly any daylight left.” So he went in to stay with them.

³⁰ Joining them at the supper table, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks. Then he broke some off and gave it to them. ³¹ Just then the men were allowed to recognize him. But when they saw who he was, he disappeared. ³² They said to each other, “When he talked to us on the road, it felt like a fire burning in us. How exciting it was when he explained to us the true meaning of the Scriptures!”

³³ So the two men got up then and went back to Jerusalem. There they found the followers of Jesus meeting together. The eleven apostles and the people with them ³⁴ said, “The Lord really has risen from death! He appeared to Simon.”

³⁵ Then the two men told what had happened on the road. They talked about how they recognized Jesus when he shared the bread with them.