Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

A Psalm of David.

¹ ¶ Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent unto me lest, if thou be silent unto me, I become like those that go down into the grave.

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 Do not catch me away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts.

⁴ Give them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render unto them their desert.

⁵ Because they do not regard the works of the LORD nor the operation of his hands, he shall 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 am helped; therefore my heart greatly rejoices; and with my song I will praise him.

⁸ The LORD is the strength of his people, and he is the saving strength of his anointed.

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

²³ Then the cardinals of the Philistines gathered themselves together to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god and to rejoice, for they said, Our god has delivered Samson our enemy into our hands.

²⁴ And when the people saw him, they praised their god, for they said, Our god has delivered our enemy into our hands, the destroyer of our country, who slew many of us.

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

²⁶ And Samson said unto the lad that held him by the hand, Bring me near and let me 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 cardinals of the Philistines were there, and upon the roof there were about three thousand men and women that beheld while Samson was mocked.

²⁸ Then Samson called unto the LORD and said, O Lord GOD, remember me now and strengthen me now only this once, O God, that I may take vengeance at once of the Philistines for my two eyes.

²⁹ Then Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and on which it was borne up, and leaned upon them, on the one with his right hand and on the other with his left.

³⁰ And Samson said, Let me die with the Philistines. And he pushed with all his might, and the house fell upon the cardinals and upon all the people that were in it. So the dead which he slew at his death were more than those which he slew in his life.

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

² And, behold, they brought him a paralyzed man, lying on a bed; and Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the paralyzed man, Trust, son; thy sins are forgiven thee.

³ And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemes.

⁴ And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Why think ye evil in your hearts?

⁵ For what is easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee, or to say, Arise, and walk?

⁶ But that ye may know that the Son of man has power on earth to forgive sins (then said he to the paralyzed man), Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

⁷ Then he arose and departed to his house.

⁸ And the multitude, seeing it, marvelled and glorified God, who had given such power unto men.