Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

[A Psalm] of David.

28 Unto thee, Jehovah, do I call; my rock, be not silent unto me, lest, [if] thou keep silence toward me, 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 holiness.

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

⁴ Give them according to their doing, and according to the wickedness of their deeds; give them after the work of their hands, render to them their desert.

⁵ For they regard not the deeds of Jehovah, nor the work of his hands: he will destroy them, and not build them up.

⁶ Blessed be Jehovah, for he hath heard the voice of my supplications.

⁷ Jehovah is my strength and my shield; my heart confided in him, and I was helped: therefore my heart exulteth, and with my song will I praise him.

⁸ Jehovah is their strength; and he is the stronghold of salvation to his anointed one.

⁹ Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; and feed them, and lift them up for ever.

14 And Samson went down to Timnathah, and saw a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines.

² And he went up, and told his father and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman in Timnathah of the daughters of the Philistines; and now take her for me as wife.

³ And his father and his mother said to him, Is there no woman among the daughters of thy brethren, and among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the Philistines, the uncircumcised? And Samson said to his father, Take her for me, for she pleases me well.

⁴ And his father and his mother did not know that it was of Jehovah, that he was seeking an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel.

⁵ And Samson went down, and his father and his mother, to Timnathah; and they came to the vineyards of Timnathah. And behold, a young lion roared against him;

⁶ and the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he rent it as one rends a kid, and nothing was in his hand. And he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.

⁷ And he went down and talked with the woman; and she pleased Samson well.

⁸ And he returned after a time to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion; and behold, [there was] a swarm of bees in the carcase of the lion, and honey;

⁹ and he took it out in his hands, and went on, and ate as he went. And he came to his father and to his mother, and gave them, and they ate; but he did not tell them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.

¹⁰ And his father went down to the woman, and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do.

¹¹ And it came to pass when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions, and they were with him.

¹² And Samson said to them, Let me now propound a riddle to you; if ye clearly explain it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find [it] out, then I will give you thirty shirts, and thirty changes of garments.

¹³ But if ye cannot explain [it] to me, then shall ye give me thirty shirts, and thirty changes of garments. And they said to him, Propound thy riddle, that we may hear it.

¹⁴ And he said to them, Out of the eater came forth food, And out of the strong came forth sweetness. And they could not in three days explain the riddle.

¹⁵ And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, Persuade thy husband, that he may explain to us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire. Have ye invited us to impoverish us,—is it not [so]?

¹⁶ And Samson's wife wept before him, and said, Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not. Thou hast propounded the riddle to the children of my people, and hast not explained it to me. And he said to her, Behold, I have not explained it to my father nor my mother, and shall I explain it to thee?

¹⁷ And she wept before him the seven days, while they had the feast. And it came to pass on the seventh day, that he explained it to her, for she pressed him. And she explained the riddle to the children of her people.

¹⁸ And the men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, What is sweeter than honey, And what stronger than a lion? And he said to them, If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, Ye had not found out my riddle.

¹⁹ And the Spirit of Jehovah came upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew of them thirty men, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of garments unto them that explained the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house.

²⁰ And Samson's wife was [given] to his companion, whom he had made his friend.

³ I thank my God for my whole remembrance of you,

⁴ constantly in my every supplication, making the supplication for you all with joy,

⁵ because of your fellowship with the gospel, from the first day until now;

⁶ having confidence of this very thing, that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ's day:

⁷ as it is righteous for me to think this as to you all, because ye have *me* in your hearts, and that both in my bonds and in the defence and confirmation of the glad tidings ye are all participators in my grace.

⁸ For God is my witness how I long after you all in [the] bowels of Christ Jesus.

⁹ And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence,

¹⁰ that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent, in order that ye may be pure and without offence for Christ's day,

¹¹ being complete as regards the fruit of righteousness, which [is] by Jesus Christ, to God's glory and praise.

¹² But I would have you know, brethren, that the circumstances in which I am have turned out rather to the furtherance of the glad tidings,

¹³ so that my bonds have become manifest [as being] in Christ in all the praetorium and to all others;

¹⁴ and that the most of the brethren, trusting in [the] Lord through my bonds, dare more abundantly to speak the word of God fearlessly.