Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Trust in God for Deliverance from Enemies

To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.

Jonah’s Anger

4 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “I pray thee, Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repentest of evil. ³ Therefore now, O Lord, take my life from me, I beseech thee, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?” ⁵ Then Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city.

Jonah Is Reproved

⁶ And the Lord God appointed a plant,^[a] and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant.^{[b] 7} But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm which attacked the plant,^[c] so that it withered. ⁸ When the sun rose, God appointed a sultry east wind, and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah so that he was faint; and he asked that he might die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” ⁹ But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?”^[d] And he said, “I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You pity the plant,^[e] for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night, and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should not I pity Nin′eveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch

²⁶ But an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south^[a] to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert road. ²⁷ And he rose and went. And behold, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a minister of the Can′dace, queen of the Ethiopians, in charge of all her treasure, had come to Jerusalem to worship ²⁸ and was returning; seated in his chariot, he was reading the prophet Isaiah. ²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go up and join this chariot.” ³⁰ So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” ³¹ And he said, “How can I, unless some one guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. ³² Now the passage of the scripture which he was reading was this:

³⁴ And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, pray, does the prophet say this, about himself or about some one else?” ³⁵ Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture he told him the good news of Jesus. ³⁶ And as they went along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What is to prevent my being baptized?”^{[b] 38} And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. ³⁹ And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught up Philip; and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. ⁴⁰ But Philip was found at Azo′tus, and passing on he preached the gospel to all the towns till he came to Caesare′a.