Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Prayer for Protection from the Wicked.

To the Chief Musician; on wind instruments. A Psalm of David.

Jonah’s Displeasure Rebuked

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he became angry. ² He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my country? That is why I ran to Tarshish, because I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and great in lovingkindness, and [when sinners turn to You] You revoke the [sentence of] disaster [against them].^{(A) 3} Therefore now, O Lord, just take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ Then the Lord said, “Do you have a good reason to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat east of it. There he made himself a shelter and sat under its shade so that he could see what would happen in the city. ⁶ So the Lord God prepared a ^[a]plant and it grew up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head to spare him from discomfort. And Jonah was extremely happy about [the protection of] the plant. ⁷ But God prepared a worm when morning dawned the next day, and it attacked the plant and it withered. ⁸ When the sun came up God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he fainted and he wished to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have a good reason to be angry about [the loss of] the plant?” And he said, “I have a [very] good reason to be angry, angry enough to die!” ¹⁰ Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight. ¹¹ Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 [innocent] persons, who do not know the difference between their right and left hand [and are not yet accountable for sin], as well as many [blameless] animals?”

²⁶ But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go south to the road that runs from Jerusalem down to Gaza.” (This is a desert road). ²⁷ So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch [a man of great authority], a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and he was returning, and sitting in his chariot he was reading [the scroll of] the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then the [Holy] Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” ³⁰ Philip ran up and heard the man reading the prophet Isaiah, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “Well, how could I [understand] unless someone guides me [correctly]?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now this was the passage of Scripture which he was reading:

³⁴ The eunuch replied to Philip, “Please tell me, about whom does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip spoke and beginning with this Scripture he preached Jesus to him [explaining that He is the promised Messiah and the source of salvation]. ³⁶ As they continued along the road, they came to some water; and the eunuch exclaimed, “Look! Water! What forbids me from being baptized?” ^37 [a][Philip said to him, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he replied, “I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] ³⁸ And he ordered that the chariot be stopped; and both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and Philip baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord [suddenly] took Philip [and carried him] away [to a different place]; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but he went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip found himself at ^[b]Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the good news [of salvation] to all the cities, until he came to ^[c]Caesarea [Maritima].