Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God Cares for His People
139 O Lord, You have looked through me and have known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I get up. You understand my thoughts from far away. 3 You look over my path and my lying down. You know all my ways very well. 4 Even before I speak a word, O Lord, You know it all. 5 You have closed me in from behind and in front. And You have laid Your hand upon me. 6 All You know is too great for me. It is too much for me to understand.
13 For You made the parts inside me. You put me together inside my mother. 14 I will give thanks to You, for the greatness of the way I was made brings fear. Your works are great and my soul knows it very well. 15 My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw me before I was put together. And all the days of my life were written in Your book before any of them came to be.
17 Your thoughts are of great worth to me, O God. How many there are! 18 If I could number them, there would be more than the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
21 And the Lord visited Hannah. She gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up to serve the Lord.
The Future of Eli’s Sons
22 Now Eli was very old. He heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the door of the meeting tent. 23 And he said to them, “Why do you do such things, the sinful things I hear from all these people? 24 No, my sons, the news is not good which I hear from the Lord’s people. 25 If one man sins against another, God will help make peace for him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who can make peace for him?” Yet they would not listen to what their father said, for it was the Lord’s will to kill them.
The Picture-Story of Ten Young Women
25 “At that time the holy nation of heaven will be like ten women who have never had men. They took their lamps and went out to meet the man soon to be married. 2 Five of them were wise and five were foolish. 3 The foolish women took their lamps but did not take oil with them. 4 The wise women took oil in a jar with their lamps. 5 They all went to sleep because the man to be married did not come for a long time.
6 “At twelve o’clock in the night there was a loud call, ‘See! The man soon to be married is coming! Go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all the women got up and made their lamps brighter. 8 The foolish women said to the wise women, ‘Give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise women said, ‘No! There will not be enough for us and you. Go to the store and buy oil for yourselves.’ 10 While they were gone to buy oil, the man soon to be married came. Those who were ready went in with him to the marriage. The door was shut.
11 “Later the foolish women came. They said, ‘Sir, Sir, open the door for us!’ 12 But he said to them, ‘For sure, I tell you, I do not know you!’ 13 So watch! You do not know what day or what hour the Son of Man is coming.
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