Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
Psalm 28
A Psalm of David.
1 To You, O Lord, will I cry;
my Rock, do not be silent to me;
lest if You were silent to me,
then I would become like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear the voice of my supplications
when I cry to You,
when I lift up my hands
toward Your most holy place.
3 Do not draw me away with the wicked
and with the workers of iniquity,
who speak peace to their neighbors,
but mischief is in their hearts.
4 Give them according to their deeds,
and according to the wickedness of their endeavors;
give them according to the work of their hands;
return to them what they deserve.
5 Because they do not regard the works of the Lord,
nor the work of His hands,
He will destroy them
and not build them up.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
because He has heard the voice of my supplications.
7 The Lord is my strength and my shield;
my heart trusted in Him, and I was helped;
therefore my heart rejoices,
and with my song I will thank Him.
8 The Lord is the strength of His people,
and He is the saving strength of His anointed.
9 Save Your people,
and bless Your inheritance;
feed them and lift them up forever.
Samson and Delilah
16 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and spent the night with her. 2 The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded him and laid in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “In the morning light we will kill him.”
3 Samson lay until midnight, then at midnight he got up. He grabbed the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts and pulled them out along with the bar. He put them on his shoulder and brought them to the top of the mountain near Hebron.
4 After this Samson loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. 5 The Philistine rulers came up to her and said, “Trick him! Find out about how his strength is so great and how we can overcome him, bind him, and humiliate him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver coins.[a]”
6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me how your strength is so great and how you could be bound in order to be subdued.”
7 Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”
8 So the Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. 9 They lay in wait in her inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” Then he split apart the bowstrings like a single thread is split apart at the touch of fire. So the source of his strength did not become known.
10 Delilah said to Samson, “You have deceived me. You have told me lies. Now, please tell me how you can be bound.”
11 He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have never been used, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”
12 So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” For men were lying in wait, remaining in the room. But he split apart the ropes on his arms like a thread.
13 Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me. You have told me lies. Tell how you can be bound.”
He said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my hair into the fabric on the loom and fasten it with the pin, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.” 14 So Delilah lulled him to sleep and wove seven locks of his hair into the fabric on the loom. She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” He awakened from his sleep and tore away from the loom pin and the fabric.
15 She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me how your strength is so great.” 16 Every day she nagged him with her words and pleaded with him until he was tired to death.
17 So he told her all his secrets and said to her, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I were shaven, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like all other men.”
18 Delilah saw that he had told her all his secrets, so she sent for the Philistine rulers, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his secrets.” So the Philistine rulers came up to her and brought the money in their hands. 19 Delilah lulled Samson to sleep on her knees and called for a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to humiliate him, and his strength left him.
20 She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.”
Then he awakened from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as before and shake myself free of them.” He did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and he ground grain in prison. 22 Yet after it had been shaven, the hair on his head began to grow back.
15 Some indeed are preaching Christ out of envy and strife, and some also from good will. 16 The former preach Christ out of contention, not sincerely, intending to add trouble to my circumstance. 17 But the latter preach out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice.
Indeed, I will rejoice. 19 For I know that through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will result in my deliverance. 20 Accordingly, it is my earnest expectation and my hope that I shall be ashamed in nothing, but that with all boldness as always, so now also, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death. 21 For to me, to continue living is Christ, and to die is gain.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.