Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

30 Unto the end, a psalm for David, in an ecstasy.

² In thee, O Lord, have I hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice.

³ Bow down thy ear to me: make haste to deliver me. Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a house of refuge, to save me.

⁴ For thou art my strength and my refuge; and for thy name's sake thou wilt lead me, and nourish me.

⁵ Thou wilt bring me out of this snare, which they have hidden for me: for thou art my protector.

⁶ Into thy hands I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth.

⁷ Thou hast hated them that regard vanities, to no purpose. But I have hoped in the Lord:

⁸ I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. For thou hast regarded my humility, thou hast saved my soul out of distresses.

⁹ And thou hast not shut me up in the hands of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a spacious place.

¹⁰ Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am afflicted: my eye is troubled with wrath, my soul, and my belly:

¹¹ For my life is wasted with grief: and my years in sighs. My strength is weakened through poverty and my bones are disturbed.

¹² I am become a reproach among all my enemies, and very much to my neighbours; and a fear to my acquaintance. They that saw me without fled from me.

¹³ I am forgotten as one dead from the heart. I am become as a vessel that is destroyed.

¹⁴ For I have heard the blame of many that dwell round about. While they assembled together against me, they consulted to take away my life.

¹⁵ But I have put my trust in thee, O Lord: I said: Thou art my God.

¹⁶ My lots are in thy hands. Deliver me out of the hands of my enemies; and from them that persecute me.

¹⁷ Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; save me in thy mercy.

¹⁸ Let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon thee. Let the wicked be ashamed, and be brought down to hell.

¹⁹ Let deceitful lips be made dumb. Which speak iniquity against the just, with pride and abuse.

²⁰ O how great is the multitude of thy sweetness, O Lord, which thou hast hidden for them that fear thee! Which thou hast wrought for them that hope in thee, in the sight of the sons of men.

²¹ Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy face, from the disturbance of men. Thou shalt protect them in thy tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues.

²² Blessed be the Lord, for he hath shewn his wonderful mercy to me in a fortified city.

²³ But I said in the excess of my mind: I am cast away from before thy eyes. Therefore thou hast heard the voice of my prayer, when I cried to thee.

²⁴ O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord will require truth, and will repay them abundantly that act proudly.

²⁵ Do ye manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all ye that hope in the Lord.

¹² Then the woman said: Let thy handmaid speak one word to my lord the king. And he said: Speak.

¹³ And the woman said: Why hast thou thought such a thing against the people of God, and why hath the king spoken this word, to sin, and not bring home again his own exile?

¹⁴ We all die, and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth: neither will God have a soul to perish, but recalleth, meaning that he that is cast off should not altogether perish.

¹⁵ Now therefore I am come, to speak this word to my lord the king before the people. And thy handmaid said: I will speak to the king, it maybe the king will perform the request of his handmaid.

¹⁶ And the king hath hearkened to me to deliver his handmaid out of the hand of all that would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God.

¹⁷ Then let thy handmaid say, that the word of the Lord the king be made as a sacrifice. For even as an angel of God, so is my lord the king, that he is neither moved with blessing nor cursing: wherefore the Lord thy God is also with thee.

¹⁸ And the king answering, said to the woman: Hide not from me the thing that I ask thee. And the woman said to him: Speak, my lord the king.

¹⁹ And the king said: Is not the hand of Joab with thee in all this? The woman answered, and said: By the health of thy soul, my lord, O king, it is neither on the left hand, nor on the right, in all these things which my lord the king hath spoken: for thy servant Joab, he commanded me, and he put all these words into the mouth of thy handmaid.

²⁰ That I should come about with this form of speech, thy servant Joab, commanded this: but thou, my lord, O king, art wise, according to the wisdom of ail angel of God, to understand all things upon earth.

²¹ And the king said to Joab: Behold I am appeased and have granted thy request: Go therefore and fetch back the boy Absalom.

²² And Joab falling down to the ground upon his face, adored, and blessed the king: and Joab said: This day thy servant hath understood, that I have found grace in thy sight, my lord, O king: for thou hast fulfilled the request of thy servant.

²³ Then Joab arose and went to Gessur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem.

²⁴ But the king said: Let him return into his house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned into his house, and saw not the king's face.

26 Then Agrippa said to Paul: Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretching forth his hand, began to make his answer.

² I think myself happy, O king Agrippa, that I am to answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused by the Jews.

³ Especially as thou knowest all, both customs and questions that are among the Jews: Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

⁴ And my life indeed from my youth, which was from the beginning among my own nation in Jerusalem, all the Jews do know:

⁵ Having known me from the beginning (if they will give testimony) that according to the most sure sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

⁶ And now for the hope of the promise that was made by God to the fathers, do I stand subject to judgment:

⁷ Unto which, our twelve tribes, serving night and day, hope to come. For which hope, O king, I am accused by the Jews.

⁸ Why should it be thought a thing incredible, that God should raise the dead?

⁹ And I indeed did formerly think, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰ Which also I did at Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority of the chief priests: and when they were put to death, I brought the sentence.

¹¹ And oftentimes punishing them, in every synagogue, I compelled them to blaspheme: and being yet more mad against them, I persecuted them even unto foreign cities.