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.

²³ Then the lords of the Philistines gathered together to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; for they said, Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.

²⁴ And when the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, Our god has given into our hands our enemy, and the destroyer of our country, even him who multiplied our slain.

²⁵ And it came to pass when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make us sport. And they called for Samson out of the prison-house, and he played before them; and they set him between the pillars.

²⁶ And Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand, Let loose of me, and suffer me to feel the pillars upon which the house stands, that I may lean upon them.

²⁷ Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and upon the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson made sport.

²⁸ And Samson called to Jehovah, and said, Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may take one vengeance upon the Philistines for my two eyes.

²⁹ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood (and he supported himself upon them), the one with his right hand and the other with his left.

³⁰ And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines! And he bowed himself with might; and the house fell on the lords, and on all the people that were therein. So the dead that he slew at his death were more than those whom he had slain in his life.

³¹ And his brethren came down, and all the house of his father, and took him, and brought him up, and buried him between Zoreah and Eshtaol in the sepulchre of Manoah his father. And he had judged Israel twenty years.

² And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, laid upon a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, Be of good courage, child; thy sins are forgiven.

³ And behold, certain of the scribes said to themselves, This [man] blasphemes.

⁴ And Jesus, seeing their thoughts, said, Why do *ye* think evil things in your hearts?

⁵ For which is easier: to say, Thy sins are forgiven; or to say, Rise up and walk?

⁶ But that ye may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, (then he says to the paralytic,) Rise up, take up thy bed and go to thy house.

⁷ And he rose up and went to his house.

⁸ But the crowds seeing [it], were in fear, and glorified God who gave such power to men.