Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

28 By David. Unto Thee, O Jehovah, I call, My rock, be not silent to me! Lest Thou be silent to me, And I have been compared With those going down to the pit.

² Hear the voice of my supplications, In my crying unto Thee, In my lifting up my hands toward thy holy oracle.

³ Draw me not with the wicked, And with workers of iniquity, Speaking peace with their neighbours, And evil in their heart.

⁴ Give to them according to their acting, And according to the evil of their doings. According to the work of their hands give to them. Return their deed to them.

⁵ For they attend not to the doing of Jehovah, And unto the work of His hands. He throweth them down, And doth not build them up.

⁶ Blessed [is] Jehovah, For He hath heard the voice of my supplications.

⁷ Jehovah [is] my strength, and my shield, In Him my heart trusted, and I have been helped. And my heart exulteth, And with my song I thank Him.

⁸ Jehovah [is] strength to him, Yea, the strength of the salvation of His anointed [is] He.

⁹ Save Thy people, and bless Thine inheritance, And feed them, and carry them to the age!

²³ and the princes of the Philistines have been gathered together to sacrifice a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice; and they say, `Our god hath given into our hand Samson our enemy.'

²⁴ And the people see him, and praise their god, for they said, `Our god hath given in our hand our enemy, and he who is laying waste our land, and who multiplied our wounded.'

²⁵ And it cometh to pass, when their heart [is] glad, that they say, `Call for Samson, and he doth play before us;' and they call for Samson out of the prison-house, and he playeth before them, and they cause him to stand between the pillars.

²⁶ And Samson saith unto the young man who is keeping hold on his hand, `Let me alone, and let me feel the pillars on which the house is established, and I lean upon them.'

²⁷ And the house hath been full of men and of women, and thither [are] all the princes of the Philistines, and on the roof [are] about three thousand men and women, who are looking on the playing of Samson.

²⁸ And Samson calleth unto Jehovah, and saith, `Lord Jehovah, remember me, I pray Thee, and strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this time, O God; and I am avenged -- vengeance at once -- because of my two eyes, on the Philistines.'

²⁹ And Samson turneth aside [to] the two middle pillars, on which the house is established, and on which it is supported, [to] the one with his right hand, and one with his left;

³⁰ and Samson saith, `Let me die with the Philistines,' and he inclineth himself powerfully, and the house falleth on the princes, and on all the people who [are] in it, and the dead whom he hath put to death in his death are more than those whom he put to death in his life.

³¹ And his brethren come down, and all the house of his father, and lift him up, and bring him up, and bury him between Zorah and Eshtaol, in the burying-place of Manoah his father; and he hath judged Israel twenty years.

² and lo, they were bringing to him a paralytic, laid upon a couch, and Jesus having seen their faith, said to the paralytic, `Be of good courage, child, thy sins have been forgiven thee.'

³ And lo, certain of the scribes said within themselves, `This one doth speak evil.'

⁴ And Jesus, having known their thoughts, said, `Why think ye evil in your hearts?

⁵ for which is easier? to say, The sins have been forgiven to thee; or to say, Rise, and walk?

⁶ `But, that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power upon the earth to forgive sins -- (then saith he to the paralytic) -- having risen, take up thy couch, and go to thy house.'

⁷ And he, having risen, went to his house,

⁸ and the multitudes having seen, wondered, and glorified God, who did give such power to men.