Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

28 Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me, lest, if Thou be silent, I become like them that go down into the pit.

² Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry unto Thee, when I lift up my hands toward the oracle of Thy sanctuary.

³ Draw me not away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts.

⁴ Give to them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give to them according to the work of their hands; render to them their deserts.

⁵ Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplications!

⁷ The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth, and with my song will I praise Him.

⁸ The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving strength of His anointed.

⁹ Save the people, and bless Thine inheritance; feed them also, and lift them up forever.

²³ Then the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoice, for they said, “Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand!”

²⁴ And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, “Our god hath delivered into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country who slew many of us.”

²⁵ And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may make sport for us.” And they called for Samson out of the prison house, and they made sport of him and they set him between the pillars.

²⁶ And Samson said unto the lad who held him by the hand, “Suffer me that I may feel the pillars whereupon the house standeth, that I may lean upon them.”

²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women, and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women who beheld while they made sport of Samson.

²⁸ And Samson called unto the Lord and said, “O Lord God, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”

²⁹ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

³⁰ And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” And he bowed himself with all his might; and the house fell upon the lords, and upon all the people who were therein. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than those whom he slew in his life.

³¹ Then his brethren and all the house of his father came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the burying place of Manoah his father. And he judged Israel twenty years.

² And behold, they brought to Him a man sick with the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the one sick with the palsy, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.”

³ And behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, “This man blasphemeth.”

⁴ And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why think ye evil in your hearts?

⁵ For which is easier: to say, ‘Thy sins be forgiven thee,’ or to say, ‘Arise and walk’?

⁶ But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins,”— (then said He to the one sick with palsy) “Arise, take up thy bed and go unto thine house.”

⁷ And he arose and departed to his house.

⁸ But when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and glorified God, who had given such power unto men.