Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

⁵ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night. And God said, ^[a]Ask what I shall give you.

⁶ Solomon said, You have shown to Your servant David my father great mercy and loving-kindness, according as he walked before You in faithfulness, righteousness, and uprightness of heart with You; and You have kept for him this great kindness and steadfast love, that You have given him a son to sit on his throne this day.

⁷ Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king instead of David my father, and I am ^[b]but a lad [in wisdom and experience]; I know not how to go out (begin) or come in (finish).

⁸ Your servant is in the midst of Your people whom You have chosen, a great people who cannot be counted for multitude.

⁹ So give Your servant an understanding mind and a hearing heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and bad. For who is able to judge and rule this Your great people?^(A)

¹⁰ It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.

¹¹ God said to him, Because you have asked this and have not asked for long life or for riches, nor for the lives of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to recognize what is just and right,

¹² Behold, I have done as you asked. I have given you a wise, discerning mind, so that no one before you was your equal, nor shall any arise after you equal to you.

¹²⁹ Your testimonies are wonderful [far exceeding anything conceived by man]; therefore my [penitent] self keeps them [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].

¹³⁰ The entrance and unfolding of Your words give light; their unfolding gives understanding (discernment and comprehension) to the simple.

¹³¹ I opened my mouth and panted [with eager desire], for I longed for Your commandments.

¹³² Look upon me, be merciful unto me, and show me favor, as is Your way to those who love Your name.

¹³³ Establish my steps and direct them by [means of] Your word; let not any iniquity have dominion over me.

¹³⁴ Deliver me from the oppression of man; so will I keep Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].^(A)

¹³⁵ Make Your face shine [with pleasure] upon Your servant, and teach me Your statutes.^(B)

¹³⁶ Streams of water run down my eyes, because men do not keep Your law [they hear it not, nor receive it, love it, or obey it].

²⁶ So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance.

²⁷ And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will.^(A)

²⁸ We are assured and know that [^[a]God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.

²⁹ For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was ^[b]aware and ^[c]loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.

³⁰ And those whom He thus foreordained, He also called; and those whom He called, He also justified (acquitted, made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). And those whom He justified, He also glorified [raising them to a heavenly dignity and condition or state of being].

³¹ What then shall we say to [all] this? If God is for us, who [can be] against us? [Who can be our foe, if God is on our side?]^(B)

³² He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?

³³ Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect [when it is] God Who justifies [that is, Who puts us in right relation to Himself? Who shall come forward and accuse or impeach those whom God has chosen? Will God, Who acquits us?]

³⁴ Who is there to condemn [us]? Will Christ Jesus (the Messiah), Who died, or rather Who was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God actually pleading as He intercedes for us?

³⁵ Who shall ever separate us from Christ’s love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?

³⁶ Even as it is written, For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we are regarded and counted as sheep for the slaughter.^(C)

³⁷ Yet amid all these things we are more than conquerors ^[d]and gain a surpassing victory through Him Who loved us.

³⁸ For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things ^[e]impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers,

³⁹ Nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

³¹ Another story by way of comparison He set forth before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field.

³² Of all the seeds it is the smallest, but when it has grown it is the largest of the garden herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and find shelter in its branches.

³³ He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like leaven (^[a]sour dough) which a woman took and covered over in three measures of meal or flour till all of it was leavened.^(A)

⁴⁴ The kingdom of heaven is like ^[a]something precious buried in a field, which a man found and hid again; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵ Again the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a dealer in search of fine and ^[b]precious pearls,

⁴⁶ Who, on finding a single pearl of great price, went and sold all he had and bought it.

⁴⁷ Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a ^[c]dragnet which was cast into the sea and gathered in fish of every sort.

⁴⁸ When it was full, men dragged it up on the beach, and sat down and sorted out the good fish into baskets, but the worthless ones they threw away.

⁴⁹ So it will be at the close and consummation of the age. The angels will go forth and separate the wicked from the righteous (those who are upright and in right standing with God)

⁵⁰ And cast them [the wicked] into the furnace of fire; there will be weeping and wailing and grinding of teeth.

⁵¹ Have you understood ^[d]all these things [parables] taken together? They said to Him, Yes, Lord.

⁵² He said to them, Therefore every ^[e]teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings who has been instructed about and trained for the kingdom of heaven and has ^[f]become a disciple is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and [treasure that is] old [the fresh as well as the familiar].