Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁵ But they rejoiced against me, and came together: scourges were gathered together upon me, and I knew not.

¹⁶ They were separated, and repented not: they tempted me, they scoffed at me with scorn: they gnashed upon me with their teeth.

¹⁷ Lord, when wilt thou look upon me? rescue thou soul from their malice: my only one from the lions.

¹⁸ I will give thanks to thee in a great church; I will praise thee in a strong people.

¹⁹ Let not them that are my enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: who have hated me without cause, and wink with the eyes.

²⁰ For they spoke indeed peaceably to me; and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.

²¹ And they opened their mouth wide against me; they said: Well done, well done, our eyes have seen it.

²² Thou hast seen, O Lord, be not thou silent: O Lord, depart not from me.

²¹ And the children of Ruben, and of Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses answered the princes of the embassage of Israel:

²² The Lord the most mighty God, the Lord the most mighty God, he knoweth, and Israel also shall understand: If with the design of transgression we have set up this altar, let him not save us, but punish us immediately:

²³ And if we did it with that mind, that we might lay upon it holocausts, and sacrifice, and victims of peace offerings, let him require and judge:

²⁴ And not rather with this thought and design, that we should say: To morrow your children will say to our children: What have you to do with the Lord the God of Israel?

²⁵ The Lord hath put the river Jordan for a border between us and you, O ye children of Ruben, and ye children of Gad: and therefore you have no part in the Lord. And by this occasion you children shall turn away our children from the fear of the Lord. We therefore thought, it best,

²⁶ And said: Let us build us an altar, not for holocausts, nor to offer victims,

²⁷ But for a testimony between us and you, and our posterity and yours, that we may serve the Lord, and that we may have a right to offer both holocausts, and victims and sacrifices of peace offerings: and that your children to morrow may not say to our children: You have no part in the Lord.

²⁸ And if they will say so, they shall answer them: Behold the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for holocausts, nor for sacrifice, but for a testimony between us and you.

²⁹ God keep us from any such wickedness that we should revolt from the Lord, and leave off following his steps, by building an altar to offer holocausts, and sacrifices, and victims, beside the altar of the Lord our God, which is erected before his tabernacle.

³⁰ And when Phinees the priest, and the princes of the embassage, who were with him, had heard this, they were satisfied: and they admitted most willingly the words of the children of Ruben, and Gad, and of the half tribe of Manasses.

³¹ And Phinees the priest the son of Eleazar said to them: Now we know that the Lord is with us, because you are not guilty of this revolt, and you have delivered the children of Israel from the hand of the Lord.

³² And he returned with the princes from the children of Ruben and Gad, out of the land of Galaad, into the land of Chanaan, to the children of Israel, and brought them word again.

³³ And the saying pleased all that heard it. And the children of Israel praised God, and they no longer said that they would go up against them, and fight, and destroy the land of their possession.

³⁴ And the children of Ruben, and the children of Cad called the altar which they had built, Our testimony, that the Lord is God.

⁵ And he said to them: Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and shall say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves,

⁶ Because a friend of mine is come off his journey to me, and I have not what to set before him.

⁷ And he from within should answer, and say: Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

⁸ Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth.

⁹ And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

¹⁰ For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

¹¹ And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

¹² Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion?

¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?