Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

30 I will magnify You, O LORD. You have exalted me and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.

² O LORD, my God, I cried to You; and You have restored me.

³ O LORD, You have brought up my soul out of the grave. You have revived me from those who go down into the pit.

⁴ Sing praises to the LORD, His Saints, and give thanks before the remembrance of His Holiness.

⁵ For His anger endures but a while. In His favor is life. Weeping may abide at evening, but joy comes in the morning.

⁶ And in my prosperity, I said, “I shall never be moved.”

⁷ For You, LORD, from Your goodness, had made my mountain to stand strong. You hid Your face, and I was troubled.

⁸ Then I cried to You, O LORD, and prayed to my LORD.

⁹ What profit is there in my blood when I go down to the pit! Shall the dust give thanks to You? Or shall it declare Your Truth?

¹⁰ Hear, O LORD; and have mercy upon me. LORD, be my Helper.

¹¹ You have turned my mourning into joy. You have loosened my sackcloth and girded me with gladness.

¹² Therefore, my tongue shall praise You, and not cease. O LORD, my God, I will give thanks to You forever. To him who excels: A Psalm of David.

¹² Then the woman said, “Please, let your handmaid speak a word to my lord the king.” And he said, “Speak.”

¹³ Then the woman said, “Why, then, have you thought such a thing against the people of God? Or does the king speak as one who is at fault, in that he will not bring back his banished?

¹⁴ “For we must die and be as water, spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Yet does God take away life; but He appoints means by which not to cast the expelled out from Him.

¹⁵ “Now, therefore, I have come to speak of this thing to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Therefore, your handmaid said, ‘I will now speak to the king. It may be that the king will perform the request of his handmaid.

¹⁶ ‘For the king will hear and deliver his handmaid (and also my son) out of the hand of the man who would destroy me from the inheritance of God.’

¹⁷ “Therefore, your handmaid said, ‘The word of my lord the king shall now be comforting. For my lord the king is as an angel of God in hearing good and bad. Therefore, the LORD your God be with you.’”

¹⁸ Then the king answered, and said to the woman, “Please do not hide from me the thing that I shall ask you.” And the woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”

¹⁹ And the king said, “Is not the hand of Joab with you in all this?” Then the woman answered, and said, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, I will not turn, to the right or to the left, from anything that my lord the king has spoken. For your servant Joab commanded me. And he put all these words in the mouth of your handmaid.

²⁰ “For with the intent of changing appearances, your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to understand all things that are on the Earth.”

²¹ And the king said to Joab, “Behold, now, I have done this thing. Go, then, and bring the young man Absalom back.”

²² And Joab fell to the ground on his face and bowed himself and thanked the king. Then Joab said, “This day your servant knows that I have found grace in your sight, my lord the 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 not see my face.” So, Absalom turned to his own house, and did not see the king’s face.

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” So, Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself.

² “I consider myself happy, King Agrippa. Because today I shall answer before you all the things of which I am accused by the Jews;

³ “especially because you have knowledge of all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore, I beg you to hear me patiently.

⁴ “Regarding my life from childhood, all the Jews know that from the beginning it was among my own nation at Jerusalem,

⁵ “They knew me from the beginning and could testify (if they wished) that according to the straightest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.

⁶ “And now I stand accused of hope in the promise made by God to our Fathers;

⁷ “to which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God day and night, hope to come. For this hope’s sake, O King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.

⁸ “Why should it be thought an incredible thing by you that God should raise the dead again?

⁹ “Truly, I also thought to myself that I ought to do many things against the Name of Jesus of Nazareth;

¹⁰ “which I also did in Jerusalem. For I shut up many of the saints in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave sentence.

¹¹ “And I punished them throughout all the synagogues and compelled them to blaspheme. And being extremely enraged against them, I persecuted them, even to strange cities.