Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Lead Me in Your Righteousness

For the choir director. For ^[a]the flutes. A Psalm of David.

Jonah’s Anger

4 But this was a great evil to Jonah, and he became ^(A)angry. ² And he ^(B)prayed to Yahweh and said, “Ah! O Yahweh, was not this my word to myself while I was still in my own land? Therefore I went ahead to ^(C)flee to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a ^(D)gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning evil. ³ So now, O Yahweh, please ^(E)take my ^[a]life from me, for death is ^(F)better to me than life.” ⁴ And Yahweh said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?”

⁵ Then Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. And there he made a booth for himself and ^(G)sat under it in the shade until he could see what would happen in the city. ⁶ So Yahweh God appointed a ^[b]plant, and it came up over Jonah to be a shade over his head to deliver him from his miserable evil. And Jonah was ^[c]extremely glad about the plant. ⁷ But God appointed a worm at the ^[d]breaking of dawn the next day, and it struck the plant, and ^[e]it ^(H)dried up. ⁸ Then it happened that as the sun rose up, God appointed a scorching ^(I)east wind, and the ^(J)sun struck down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint and asked with all his soul to die and said, “^(K)Death is better to me than life.”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Do you have good reason to be angry about the plant?” And he said, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” ¹⁰ Then Yahweh said, “You had pity on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which ^[f]came to be overnight and perished ^[g]overnight. ¹¹ So should I not ^(L)have pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not ^(M)know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many ^[h](N)animals?”

²⁶ But ^(A)an angel of the ^[a]Lord spoke to ^(B)Philip saying, “Rise up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to ^(C)Gaza.” (^[b]This is a desert road.) ²⁷ So he rose up and went; and behold, ^(D)there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he ^(E)had come to Jerusalem to worship, ²⁸ and he was returning and sitting in his ^[c]chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ Then ^(F)the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this ^[d]chariot.” ³⁰ And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch answered Philip and said, “I ask you earnestly, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?” ³⁵ Then Philip ^(I)opened his mouth, and ^(J)beginning from this Scripture he ^(K)proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him. ³⁶ And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch *said, “Look! Water! ^(L)What prevents me from being baptized?” ^37 [g][And Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And he answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”] ³⁸ And he ordered the ^[h]chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ When they came up out of the water, ^(M)the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, ^[i]but went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip ^[j]found himself at ^[k](N)Azotus, and as he passed through he ^(O)kept proclaiming the gospel to all the cities until he came to ^(P)Caesarea.