Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

28 To You, O LORD, do I cry. O my strength, do not be deaf toward me; lest if You do not answer me, I be like those who go down into the pit.

² Hear the voice of my petitions when I cry to You, when I hold up my hands toward Your Holy Oracle.

³ Do not draw me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak friendly to their neighbors when malice is in their hearts.

⁴ Reward them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their inventions. Recompense them for the work of their hands. Render them their reward.

⁵ For they do not reward the works of the LORD, nor the operation of His hands. Break them down and do not build them up.

⁶ Praised be the LORD, for He has heard the voice of my petitions.

⁷ The LORD is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in Him, and I was helped. Therefore, my heart shall rejoice; and with my song I will praise Him.

⁸ The LORD is their strength; and He is the strength of the deliverances of His anointed.

⁹ Save Your people and bless Your inheritance. Feed them, also, and exalt them forever. A Psalm of David.

²³ Then, the princes of the Philistines gathered themselves together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon, their god, and to rejoice. For they said, “Our god has delivered Samson, our enemy, into our hands!”

²⁴ Also when the people saw him, they praised their god. For they said, “Our god has delivered our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has killed many of us, into our hands!”

²⁵ And when their hearts were merry, they said, “Call Samson, so that he may perform for us!” So, they called Samson out of the prison house. And he was a laughingstock to them. And they set him between the pillars.

²⁶ Then, Samson said to the servant who led him by the hand, “Lead me, so that I may touch the pillars that the house stands upon, and so that I may lean on them.”

²⁷ Now, the house was full of men and women. And all the princes of the Philistines were there. Also, there were about three thousand men and women on the roof who watched while Samson performed.

²⁸ Then, Samson called to the LORD, and said, “O Lord GOD! Think upon me, I pray! O God, I beg You, strengthen me just this one time, so that I may, at once, be avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes!”

²⁹ And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars upon which the house stood and upon which it was held up, one on his right and the other on his left.

³⁰ Then Samson said, “Let me lose my life with the Philistines!” And he flexed with all his might; and the house fell upon the princes and upon all the people who were inside. So, the dead which he killed at his death, were more than those whom he had killed 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 sepulcher of Manoah, his father. Now, he had judged Israel for twenty years.

² And lo, they brought to Him a paralytic, laid on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, “Son, be of good courage. Your sins are forgiven you.”

³ And behold, certain of the Scribes said among themselves, “This man blasphemes.”

⁴ And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil things in your hearts?

⁵ “For, which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or ‘Arise, and walk’?

⁶ “But, so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on Earth to forgive sins (then He said to the paralytic) Arise! Take up your bed and go to your house!”

⁷ And he arose and departed to his own house.

⁸ So when the multitude saw it, they marveled, and glorified God, Who had given such authority to man.