Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

5 To the Overseer, `Concerning the Inheritances.' -- A Psalm of David. My sayings hear, O Jehovah, Consider my meditation.

² Be attentive to the voice of my cry, My king and my God, For unto Thee I pray habitually.

³ Jehovah, [at] morning Thou hearest my voice, [At] morning I set in array for Thee, And I look out.

⁴ For not a God desiring wickedness [art] Thou, Evil inhabiteth Thee not.

⁵ The boastful station not themselves before Thine eyes: Thou hast hated all working iniquity.

⁶ Thou destroyest those speaking lies, A man of blood and deceit Jehovah doth abominate.

⁷ And I, in the abundance of Thy kindness, I enter Thy house, I bow myself toward Thy holy temple in Thy fear.

⁸ O Jehovah, lead me in Thy righteousness, Because of those observing me, Make straight before me Thy way,

⁹ For there is no stability in their mouth. Their heart [is] mischiefs, An open grave [is] their throat, Their tongue they make smooth.

¹⁰ Declare them guilty, O God, Let them fall from their own counsels, In the abundance of their transgressions Drive them away, Because they have rebelled against Thee.

¹¹ And rejoice do all trusting in Thee, To the age they sing, and Thou coverest them over, And those loving Thy name exult in Thee.

¹² For Thou blessest the righteous, O Jehovah, As a buckler with favour dost compass him!

4 And it is grievous unto Jonah -- a great evil -- and he is displeased at it;

² and he prayeth unto Jehovah, and he saith, `I pray Thee, O Jehovah, is not this my word while I was in mine own land -- therefore I was beforehand to flee to Tarshish -- that I have known that Thou [art] a God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in kindness, and repenting of evil?

³ And now, O Jehovah, take, I pray Thee, my soul from me, for better [is] my death than my life.'

⁴ And Jehovah saith, `Is doing good displeasing to thee?'

⁵ And Jonah goeth forth from the city, and sitteth on the east of the city, and maketh to himself there a booth, and sitteth under it in the shade, till that he seeth what is in the city.

⁶ And Jehovah God appointeth a gourd, and causeth it to come up over Jonah, to be a shade over his head, to give deliverance to him from his affliction, and Jonah rejoiceth because of the gourd [with] great joy.

⁷ And God appointeth a worm at the going up of the dawn on the morrow, and it smiteth the gourd, and it drieth up.

⁸ And it cometh to pass, about the rising of the sun, that God appointeth a cutting east wind, and the sun smiteth on the head of Jonah, and he wrappeth himself up, and asketh his soul to die, and saith, `Better [is] my death than my life.'

⁹ And God saith unto Jonah: `Is doing good displeasing to thee, because of the gourd?' and he saith, `To do good is displeasing to me -- unto death.'

¹⁰ And Jehovah saith, `Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for which thou didst not labour, neither didst thou nourish it, which a son of a night was, and a son of a night perished,

¹¹ and I -- have not I pity on Nineveh, the great city, in which there are more than twelve myriads of human beings, who have not known between their right hand and their left -- and much cattle!'

²⁶ And a messenger of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, `Arise, and go on toward the south, on the way that is going down from Jerusalem to Gaza,' -- this is desert.

²⁷ And having arisen, he went on, and lo, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch, a man of rank, of Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who was over all her treasure, who had come to worship to Jerusalem;

²⁸ he was also returning, and is sitting on his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah.

²⁹ And the Spirit said to Philip, `Go near, and be joined to this chariot;'

³⁰ and Philip having run near, heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, `Dost thou then know what thou dost read?'

³¹ and he said, `Why, how am I able, if some one may not guide me?' he called Philip also, having come up, to sit with him.

³² And the contents of the Writing that he was reading was this: `As a sheep unto slaughter he was led, and as a lamb before his shearer dumb, so he doth not open his mouth;

³³ in his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and his generation -- who shall declare? because taken from the earth is his life.'

³⁴ And the eunuch answering Philip said, `I pray thee, about whom doth the prophet say this? about himself, or about some other one?'

³⁵ and Philip having opened his mouth, and having begun from this Writing, proclaimed good news to him -- Jesus.

³⁶ And as they were going on the way, they came upon a certain water, and the eunuch said, `Lo, water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?'

³⁷ [And Philip said, `If thou dost believe out of all the heart, it is lawful;' and he answering said, `I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God;']

³⁸ and he commanded the chariot to stand still, and they both went down to the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him;

³⁹ and when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and the eunuch saw him no more, for he was going on his way rejoicing;

⁴⁰ and Philip was found at Azotus, and passing through, he was proclaiming good news to all the cities, till his coming to Cesarea.