Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David: dedication-song of the house.

30 I will extol thee, Jehovah; for thou hast delivered me, and hast not made mine enemies to rejoice over me.

² Jehovah my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

³ Jehovah, thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol, thou hast quickened me from among those that go down to the pit.

⁴ Sing psalms unto Jehovah, ye saints of his, and give thanks in remembrance of his holiness.

⁵ For a moment [is passed] in his anger, a life in his favour; at even weeping cometh for the night, and at morn there is rejoicing.

⁶ As for me, I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved.

⁷ Jehovah, by thy favour thou hadst made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face; I was troubled.

⁸ I called to thee, Jehovah, and unto the Lord did I make supplication:

⁹ What profit is there in my blood, in my going down to the pit? shall the dust praise thee? shall it declare thy truth?

¹⁰ Hear, O Jehovah, and be gracious unto me; Jehovah, be my helper.

¹¹ Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing; thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;

¹² That [my] glory may sing psalms of thee, and not be silent. Jehovah my God, I will praise thee for ever.

¹² And the woman said, Let thy bondmaid, I pray thee, speak a word to my lord the king. And he said, Speak.

¹³ And the woman said, Why then hast thou thought such a thing against God's people? and the king in saying this thing, is as one guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.

¹⁴ For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again; and God has not taken away his life, but devises means that the banished one be not expelled from him.

¹⁵ And now that I am come to speak of this thing to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid; and thy bondmaid said, I will now speak to the king; perhaps the king will perform the request of his handmaid.

¹⁶ For the king will hear, to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of the man that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

¹⁷ And thy bondmaid said, Let the word of my lord the king now be comfortable; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad; and Jehovah thy God will be with thee.

¹⁸ And the king answered and said to the woman, Hide not from me, I pray thee, the thing that I shall ask thee. And the woman said, Let my lord the king now speak.

¹⁹ And the king said, Is the hand of Joab with thee in all this? And the woman answered and said, [As] thy soul liveth, my lord, O king, there is no turning to the right hand or to the left from aught that my lord the king has spoken; for thy servant Joab, he bade me, and he put all these words into the mouth of thy bondmaid:

²⁰ in order to turn the appearance of the thing has thy servant Joab done this thing; but my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all that is in the earth.

²¹ And the king said to Joab, Behold now, I have done this thing: so go, bring back the young man Absalom.

²² And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself, and blessed the king; and Joab said, To-day thy servant knows that I have found favour in thy sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has fulfilled the request of his servant.

²³ And Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. And Absalom withdrew to his own house, and saw not the king's face.

26 And Agrippa said to Paul, It is permitted thee to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretching out his hand answered in his defence:

² I count myself happy, king Agrippa, in having to answer to-day before thee concerning all of which I am accused by the Jews,

³ especially because thou art acquainted with all the customs and questions which are among the Jews; wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

⁴ My manner of life then from my youth, which from its commencement was passed among my nation in Jerusalem, know all the Jews,

⁵ who knew me before from the outset [of my life], if they would bear witness, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶ And now I stand to be judged because of the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,

⁷ to which our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night hope to arrive; about which hope, O king, I am accused of [the] Jews.

⁸ Why should it be judged a thing incredible in your sight if God raises the dead?

⁹ *I* indeed myself thought that I ought to do much against the name of Jesus the Nazaraean.

¹⁰ Which also I did in Jerusalem, and myself shut up in prisons many of the saints, having received the authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote.

¹¹ And often punishing them in all the synagogues, I compelled them to blaspheme. And, being exceedingly furious against them, I persecuted them even to cities out [of our own land].