Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm or Song for the sons of Korah.

¹ ¶ His foundation is in mountains of holiness.

² The LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

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

⁴ ¶ I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to those that know me; behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this one was born there.

⁵ And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man were born in her; and the highest himself shall establish her.

⁶ The LORD shall count when he writes up the peoples that this one was born there. Selah.

⁷ And singers and players on instruments in her shall say: all my springs are in thee.

5 ¶ Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high esteem because by him the LORD had given salvation unto Syria; he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

² And the Syrians had gone out by companies 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 unto her mistress, If my lord would ask the prophet that is in Samaria, he would remove his leprosy.

⁴ And Naaman went in 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, Go, depart, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment.

⁶ And he also took the letter to the king of Israel, which said, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman, my slave, to thee, that thou may remove his leprosy.

⁷ And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, Am I God, to kill and to give life, that this man sends unto me to remove the leprosy of this man? Therefore now consider and see how he seeks a quarrel against me.

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

⁹ ¶ So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

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

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD, his God, and strike his hand over the place and remove the leprosy.

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

¹³ Then his slaves came near and spoke unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, would thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean?

¹⁴ Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15 ¶ Then certain men who came down from Judaea taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.

² When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question.

³ And they, being accompanied by some from the congregation, {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.

⁴ And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received by the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} and by the apostles and elders, and they declared all the things that God had done with them.

⁵ But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

⁶ ¶ And the apostles and elders came together to consider of this matter.

⁷ And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God chose that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe.

⁸ And God, who knows the hearts, bore them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us,

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

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

¹¹ For we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

¹² Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what great miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

¹³ And after they had become silent, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me:

¹⁴ Simeon has declared how God first visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.

¹⁵ And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written,

¹⁶ After this I will return and will restore the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will repair its ruins, and I will set it up again,

¹⁷ that the men that are left might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who does all these things.

¹⁸ Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.

¹⁹ Therefore my sentence is that those from among the Gentiles who are converted to God not be troubled,

²⁰ but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollutions of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood.

²¹ For Moses of old time has in every city those that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day.