Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
A Psalm of Asaph.
82 God standeth in the assembly of God, he judgeth among the gods.
2 How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the person of the wicked? Selah.
3 Judge the poor and the fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and the destitute;
4 Rescue the poor and needy, deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know not, neither do they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are moved.
6 I have said, Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the Most High;
7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for *thou* shalt inherit all the nations.
5 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Eben-ezer to Ashdod.
2 And the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
3 And when they of Ashdod arose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
4 And when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the fish-stump was left to him.
5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any that come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day.
6 And the hand of Jehovah was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he laid them waste, and smote them with hemorrhoids,—Ashdod and its borders.
7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for his hand is severe upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
8 And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they said, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about to Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about [thither].
9 And it came to pass that, after they had carried it about, the hand of Jehovah was against the city with very great panic; and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and hemorrhoids broke out upon them.
10 And they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, when the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to kill us and our people.
11 And they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to its own place, that it kill us not, and our people. For there was deadly alarm throughout the city: the hand of God was very heavy there;
12 and the men that died not were smitten with the hemorrhoids; and the cry of the city went up to heaven.
32 But call to mind the earlier days in which, having been enlightened, ye endured much conflict of sufferings;
33 on the one hand, when ye were made a spectacle both in reproaches and afflictions; and on the other, when ye became partakers with those who were passing through them.
34 For ye both sympathised with prisoners and accepted with joy the plunder of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better substance, and an abiding one.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which has great recompense.
36 For ye have need of endurance in order that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.
37 For yet a very little while he that comes will come, and will not delay.
38 But the just shall live by faith; and, if he draw back, my soul does not take pleasure in him.
39 But *we* are not drawers back to perdition, but of faith to saving [the] soul.
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