Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of Asaph.

¹ ¶ God stands in the congregation of the mighty; he judges among the gods.

² How long will ye judge unjustly and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.

³ Do right concerning the poor and fatherless; do justice to the poor and destitute.

⁴ Deliver the poor and destitute; deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.

⁵ They do not know, neither do they understand; they walk in darkness; they move all the foundations of the earth.

⁶ ¶ I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the most High.

⁷ But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the tyrants.

⁸ Arise, O God, judge the earth, for thou shalt inherit all the Gentiles.

6 ¶ And the ark of the LORD was in the land of the Philistines seven months.

² Then the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we shall return it to his place.

³ And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but ye shall pay unto him the expiation of guilt; then ye shall be healed, and ye shall know why his hand was not removed from you.

⁴ Then said they, What shall be the expiation of guilt which we shall pay unto him? They answered, Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden rats, according to the number of the cardinals of the Philistines, for the same plague that is on you is also on your cardinals.

⁵ Therefore, ye shall make images of your hemorrhoids and images of your rats that destroy the land, and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel; peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you and from off your gods and from off your land.

⁶ Why then do ye harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When he had dealt thus among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?

⁷ Now, therefore, make a new cart and take two milk cows, on which no yoke has been placed and tie the cows to the cart and bring their calves home from them.

⁸ Then ye shall take the ark of the LORD and lay it upon the cart and put the jewels of gold, which ye pay him for expiation of guilt, in a coffer by the side thereof, and let it go.

⁹ And see if it goes up by the way of his own border to Bethshemesh, then he has done us this great evil, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was an accident that happened to us.

¹⁰ ¶ And the men did so and took two milk cows and tied them to the cart and shut up their calves at home.

¹¹ Then they laid the ark of the LORD upon the cart and the coffer with the rats of gold and the images of their hemorrhoids.

¹² And the cows went straight down the way of Bethshemesh and went along the highway, lowing as they went and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left, and the cardinals of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Bethshemesh.

¹³ And those of Bethshemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it.

¹⁴ And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Bethshemite, and stopped there, for there was a great stone there; and they clave the wood of the cart and offered the cows in a burnt offering unto the LORD.

¹⁵ And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the coffer that was with it, in which were the jewels of gold, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Bethshemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the LORD.

¹⁶ And when the five cardinals of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.

¹⁵ Therefore, when ye see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, which shall stand in the holy place (whosoever reads, let him understand),

¹⁶ then let those who are in Judaea flee into the mountains;

¹⁷ let him who is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house,

¹⁸ neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes.

¹⁹ And woe unto those that are with child and to those that give suck in those days!

²⁰ But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter neither on the sabbath day,

²¹ for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.

²² And if those days were not shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

²³ Then if any man shall say unto you, Behold, here is the Christ, or there, believe it not.

²⁴ For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders in such a manner that they shall deceive, if possible, the very elect.

²⁵ Behold, I have told you before.

²⁶ Therefore if they say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert, go not forth; Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe it not.

²⁷ For as the lightning that comes out of the east and shines even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.