Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

Of the sons of Korah. A Psalm. A Song.

87 His foundation is in the mountains of holiness.

² Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob.

³ Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.

⁴ I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon among them that know me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia: this [man] was born there.

⁵ And of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her; and the Most High himself shall establish her.

⁶ Jehovah will count, when he inscribeth the peoples, This [man] was born there. Selah.

⁷ As well the singers as the dancers [shall say], All my springs are in thee.

5 And Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man before his master, and honourable, for by him Jehovah had given deliverance to Syria; and he was a mighty man of valour, [but] a leper.

² And the Syrians had gone out in bands, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman's wife.

³ And she said to her mistress, Oh, would that my lord were before the prophet that is in Samaria! then he would cure him of his leprosy.

⁴ And he went and told his lord saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

⁵ And the king of Syria said, Well! go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand [shekels] of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

⁶ And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, And now, when this letter comes to thee, behold, I have sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest cure him of his leprosy.

⁷ And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his garments, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeks an occasion against me.

⁸ And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his garments, that he sent to the king, saying, Why hast thou rent thy garments? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.

⁹ And Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha.

¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

¹¹ And Naaman was wroth, and went away and said, Behold, I thought, He will certainly come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of Jehovah his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper.

¹² Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and went away in a rage.

¹³ And his servants drew near, and spoke to him and said, My father, [if] the prophet had bidden thee [do some] great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he says to thee, Wash and be clean?

¹⁴ Then he went down, and plunged himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15 And certain persons, having come down from Judaea, taught the brethren, If ye shall not have been circumcised according to the custom of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

² A commotion therefore having taken place, and no small discussion on the part of Paul and Barnabas against them, they arranged that Paul and Barnabas, and certain others from amongst them, should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.

³ They therefore, having been set on their way by the assembly, passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, relating the conversion of [those of] the nations. And they caused great joy to all the brethren.

⁴ And being arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly, and the apostles, and the elders, and related all that God had wrought with them.

⁵ And some of those who were of the sect of the Pharisees, who believed, rose up from among [them], saying that they ought to circumcise them and enjoin them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶ And the apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.

⁷ And much discussion having taken place, Peter, standing up, said to them, Brethren, *ye* know that from the earliest days God amongst you chose that the nations by my mouth should hear the word of the glad tidings and believe.

⁸ And the heart-knowing God bore them witness, giving [them] the Holy Spirit as to us also,

⁹ and put no difference between us and them, having purified their hearts by faith.

¹⁰ Now therefore why tempt ye God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?

¹¹ But we believe that we shall be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same manner as they also.

¹² And all the multitude kept silence and listened to Barnabas and Paul relating all the signs and wonders which God had wrought among the nations by them.

¹³ And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Brethren, listen to me:

¹⁴ Simon has related how God first visited to take out of [the] nations a people for his name.

¹⁵ And with this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written:

¹⁶ After these things I will return, and will rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen, and will rebuild its ruins, and will set it up,

¹⁷ so that the residue of men may seek out the Lord, and all the nations on whom my name is invoked, saith [the] Lord, who does these things

¹⁸ known from eternity.

¹⁹ Wherefore *I* judge, not to trouble those who from the nations turn to God;

²⁰ but to write to them to abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from what is strangled, and from blood.

²¹ For Moses, from generations of old, has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath.