Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
150 Hallelujah! Yes, praise the Lord!
Praise him in his Temple and in the heavens he made with mighty power.[a] 2 Praise him for his mighty works. Praise his unequaled greatness. 3 Praise him with the trumpet and with lute and harp. 4 Praise him with the drums and dancing. Praise him with stringed instruments and horns. 5 Praise him with the cymbals, yes, loud clanging cymbals.
6 Let everything alive give praises to the Lord! You praise him!
Hallelujah!
17 The Philistines now mustered their army for battle and camped between Socoh in Judah and Azekah in Ephes-dammim. 2 Saul countered with a buildup of forces at Elah Valley. 3 So the Philistines and Israelis faced each other on opposite hills, with the valley between them.
4-7 Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was a giant of a man, measuring over nine feet tall! He wore a bronze helmet, a two-hundred-pound coat of mail, bronze leggings, and carried a bronze javelin several inches thick, tipped with a twenty-five-pound iron spearhead, and his armor bearer walked ahead of him with a huge shield.
8 He stood and shouted across to the Israelis, “Do you need a whole army to settle this? I will represent the Philistines, and you choose someone to represent you, and we will settle this in single combat! 9 If your man is able to kill me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, then you must be our slaves! 10 I defy the armies of Israel! Send me a man who will fight with me!”
11 When Saul[a] and the Israeli army heard this, they were dismayed and frightened. 12 David (the son of aging Jesse, a member of the tribe of Judah who lived in Bethlehem) had seven older brothers. 13 The three oldest—Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah—had already volunteered for Saul’s army to fight the Philistines. 14-15 David was the youngest son and was on Saul’s staff on a part-time basis. He went back and forth to Bethlehem to help his father with the sheep. 16 For forty days, twice a day, morning and evening the Philistine giant strutted before the armies of Israel.
17 One day Jesse said to David, “Take this bushel of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread to your brothers. 18 Give this cheese to their captain and see how the boys are getting along; and bring us back a letter[b] from them!”
19 (Saul and the Israeli army were camped at the valley of Elah.)
20 So David left the sheep with another shepherd and took off early the next morning with the gifts. He arrived at the outskirts of the camp just as the Israeli army was leaving for the battlefield with shouts and battle cries. 21 Soon the Israeli and Philistine forces stood facing each other, army against army. 22 David left his luggage with a baggage officer and hurried out to the ranks to find his brothers. 23 As he was talking with them, he saw Goliath the giant step out from the Philistine troops and shout his challenge to the army of Israel.
12 Meanwhile, the apostles were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Hall, and they did many remarkable miracles among the people. 13 The other believers didn’t dare join them, though, but all had the highest regard for them. 14 And more and more believers were added to the Lord, crowds both of men and women. 15 Sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow would fall across some of them as he went by! 16 And crowds came in from the Jerusalem suburbs, bringing their sick folk and those possessed by demons; and every one of them was healed.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.