Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
16 Preserve me, O God. For in You do I trust.
2 O my soul, you have said to the LORD, “You are my LORD. My goodness is not, but for You.”
3 To the saints who are on the Earth, and to the excellent, all my delight is in them.
4 The sorrows of those who offer to another god shall be multiplied. Their offerings of blood I will not offer; nor make mention of their names with my lips.
5 The LORD is the portion of my inheritance, and of my cup. You shall maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a fair heritage.
7 I will praise the LORD Who has given me counsel. My core also teaches me in the nights.
8 I have set the LORD always before me. For He is at my right hand. Therefore, I shall not slide.
9 Therefore, my heart is glad. And my tongue rejoices. My flesh, also, rests in hope.
10 For You will not leave my soul in the grave. Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
11 You will show me the path of life. In Your presence is the fullness of joy. And at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. The prayer of David.
1 Then, after the death of Ahab, Moab rebelled against Israel.
2 And Ahaziah fell through the lattice window in his upper chamber, which was in Samaria. So he was sick. Then he sent messengers, to whom he said, “Go. Inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, if I shall recover from this, my disease.”
3 Then the Angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise. Go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, “Is it not because there is no God in Israel that you go to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?
4 “Therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up but shall die the death.’” So, Elijah departed.
5 And the messengers returned to him, to whom he said, “Why have you now returned?”
6 And they answered him, “A man came and met us, and said to us, ‘Go. Return to the king who sent you, and say to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Is it not because there is no God in Israel that you send to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the God of Ekron? Therefore, you shall not come down from the bed on which you have gone up but shall die the death.’”’”
7 And he said to them, “What kind of man was he who came and met you and told you these words?”
8 And they said to him, “He was a hairy man, and girded with a girdle of leather around his loins.” Then he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”
9 Therefore, the king sent to him a captain over fifty, with his fifty, who went up to him. Behold, he sat on the top of a mountain, and he said to him, “O man of God, the king has commanded that you come down.”
10 But Elijah answered, and said to the captain over the fifty, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from the sky and devour you and your fifty.” So, fire came down from the sky and devoured him and his fifty.
11 Again also, he sent to him another captain over fifty, with his fifty, who spoke, and said to him, “O man of God! The king commands thus, “Come down quickly!”
12 But Elijah answered, and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from the sky and devour you and your fifty.” So, fire came down from the sky and devoured him and his fifty.
13 Yet again, he sent a third captain over fifty, with his fifty. And the third captain over fifty went up and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him, “O man of God! Please let my life and the lives of these, your fifty servants, be precious in your sight!
14 “Behold, fire came down from the sky and devoured the two previous captains over fifty, with their fifties. Therefore, let my life now be precious in your sight!”
15 And the Angel of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him, do not be afraid of his presence.” So, he arose and went down with him to the king.
16 And he said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron (was it not because there was no God in Israel to inquire of His Word?), therefore you shall not come down off the bed on which you have gone up but shall die the death.’”
8 But even then, when you did not know God, you were enslaved by those who, by nature, are not gods.
9 But now, seeing you know God - indeed, rather, are known by God - how can you turn again to weak and poor principals; so that, as before, you will be in bondage again?
10 You observe days and months and times and years.
11 I am in fear for you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
12 Be as me, brothers, I beg you (for I am also like you). You have not hurt me at all.
13 And you know how through weakness of the flesh I preached the Gospel to you at first.
14 And your trial from me (which was in my flesh) you neither despised nor abhorred. But you received me as an angel of God; indeed, as Christ Jesus.
15 Where then is your felicity? For I bear witness that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me.
16 Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
17 They are wrongly jealous for you. Yea, they would separate you from us, so that you would be jealous for them.
18 But it is a good thing to always love earnestly in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you,
19 my little children with whom I travail in birth again, until Christ is formed in you.
20 And I would that I were with you now, so I might change my voice. For I am in doubt of you.
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