Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Psalm. A Song for the Dedication of the Temple. By David.
30 I will extol you, Yahweh, for you have raised me up,
and have not made my foes to rejoice over me.
2 Yahweh my God, I cried to you,
and you have healed me.
3 Yahweh, you have brought up my soul from Sheol.[a]
You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
4 Sing praise to Yahweh, you saints of his.
Give thanks to his holy name.
5 For his anger is but for a moment.
His favor is for a lifetime.
Weeping may stay for the night,
but joy comes in the morning.
6 As for me, I said in my prosperity,
“I shall never be moved.”
7 You, Yahweh, when you favored me, made my mountain stand strong;
but when you hid your face, I was troubled.
8 I cried to you, Yahweh.
I made supplication to the Lord:
9 “What profit is there in my destruction, if I go down to the pit?
Shall the dust praise you?
Shall it declare your truth?
10 Hear, Yahweh, and have mercy on me.
Yahweh, be my helper.”
11 You have turned my mourning into dancing for me.
You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
12 to the end that my heart may sing praise to you, and not be silent.
Yahweh my God, I will give thanks to you forever!
12 Then the woman said, “Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king.”
He said, “Say on.”
13 The woman said, “Why then have you devised such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring home again his banished one. 14 For we must die, and are like water spilled on the ground, which can’t be gathered up again; neither does God take away life, but devises means, that he who is banished not be an outcast from him. 15 Now therefore, seeing that I have come to speak this word to my lord the king, it is because the people have made me afraid. Your servant said, ‘I will now speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant.’ 16 For the king will hear, to deliver his servant out of the hand of the man who would destroy me and my son together out of the inheritance of God. 17 Then your servant said, ‘Please let the word of my lord the king bring rest; for as an angel of God, so is my lord the king to discern good and bad. May Yahweh, your God, be with you.’”
18 Then the king answered the woman, “Please don’t hide anything from me that I ask you.”
The woman said, “Let my lord the king now speak.”
19 The king said, “Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?”
The woman answered, “As your soul lives, my lord the king, no one can turn to the right hand or to the left from anything that my lord the king has spoken; for your servant Joab urged me, and he put all these words in the mouth of your servant. 20 Your servant Joab has done this thing to change the face of the matter. My lord is wise, according to the wisdom of an angel of God, to know all things that are in the earth.”
21 The king said to Joab, “Behold now, I have granted this thing. Go therefore, and bring the young man Absalom back.”
22 Joab fell to the ground on his face, showed respect, and blessed the king. Joab said, “Today your servant knows that I have found favor in your sight, my lord, O king, in that the king has performed the request of his servant.”
23 So Joab arose and went to Geshur, and brought Absalom to Jerusalem. 24 The king said, “Let him return to his own house, but let him not see my face.” So Absalom returned to his own house, and didn’t see the king’s face.
26 Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.”
Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense. 2 “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you today concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews, 3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4 “Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem; 5 having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 6 Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers, 7 which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa! 8 Why is it judged incredible with you if God does raise the dead?
9 “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them. 11 Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
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